Getting rid of roos - UPDATE #16

[Mommysongbird]

How????

I have been doing Craigs List for weeks now, and all I keep getting is people asking 'how do I get in touch with you?" Um, well gee, You just did!!!"

Or I just got an e-mail from a lady wanting one of my white roos, but she wants a hen too! I never said I was selling or giving away hens and I won't be doing that. I only have 4 maybe 5 hens and the rest 5 or 6 are roos. I have even offered them for 'price negotiable'.

Our roos are 11 weeks old now and I don't have a place to seperate them to. There aren't any swaps or anything like that around where I live. I was going to take them to Farmers Market, but they aren't allowed (rather there is NOT enough room for me to be away from the other 'farmers' with their products). They are also NOT allowed at the stockyard.

What else can I do?? Short of culling them too soon.

 

[SentryFE]

I just walk out with a pistol loaded with .22 shorts and shoot them. Then I fire up the grill and invite people over for BBQ chicken.

 

[ginbart]

I put an ad in the paper for free. It doesn't cost anything for a free ad. I really don't think you can sell them, everyone that has chickens are trying to sell them. But if they are free you have people coming out of the woodwork. lol

 

[Nostalchic]

Are you putting them on Craig's List for free? Because it's pretty hard to find someone who will pay for a rooster, but I've had luck if I'm giving them away. HOWEVER: consider, if you care about your little guys, what their outlook is if you send them off with whoever will take them. I've been able to send some off with kids looking for 4H projects, but I think it's actually more humane in most cases to dispatch them humanely and have them for dinner. I know this isn't a choice that everyone can or would make, but consider it... most likely that's what's going to happen to them anyway, but AFTER they have been removed from their mother/flock/home and frightened and stressed and kept in who-knows-what kind of conditions. Just something to think about if you are trying to do the most humane thing, and a significant thing when keeping chickens...

 

[Mommysongbird]

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Well, that is an easy and effective way I guess, but if we did that where we live, we would be paying fines out the wahzoo! So that won't do, but thanks for the giggle!

 

[Mommysongbird]

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I have offered for sale, for free, take all for a certain price and NOTHING! Except the freaks. I would rather keep them and put them on our dinner table at some point, but we don't have the space. I don't want them to go to just anyone, I would rather they go to a home that actually NEEDS a rooster for their ladies or like you said, a kid for 4-H or something. My son could actually keep one for that, but I have been told that they HAVE to be purebred. Of course on Craigs List you never know who your getting.

All of our chicks have been hatched and raised by myself and my son, they aren't mean to us but they are mean to each other (the roos) because there are so many of them in one pen. I have a friend that has some 'crates', not sure what they look like but she said they are for chickens. So I may get those and set up a small run and put each to the roos in those. Will have to find something to put over it though. Not sure how this will work.

 

[teach1rusl]

I've been lucky with the three roos I've needed to 'get rid of' over the past two years. There was only one that I wondered if he ended up on the dinner table...but there are certainly worse endings than feeding a family. I'd advertise again "Free cockerels for eating, hen flocks, or pets." Personally, I think a quick, humane death is better than ending up in the wrong place.

 

[Oregon Blues]

The chances of finding a home where someone needs a rooster for their flock are pretty slim. Everyone seems to get at least one rooster with their order when they buy chicks, so they don't need yours.

Unless you have some serious top quality purebreds, then maybe someone will take the rooster to add new blood to their breeding flock.

If you don't want to butcher them, put them on Craigslist for free and don't ask what is going to happen to them. Because anyone who takes them is either going to eat them or use them to train pit-bulls to kill.

Oh, there is a thought. If you are capable of killing them and dressing them and storage space is the only issue, put up ads at the pet stores that you have whole chickens available for raw diet for dogs. Those guys won't buy them live, but they will buy them cleaned and ready to feed. There aren't the legal issues with selling home processed meat for pet consumption.

 

[Mommysongbird]

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Never thought about that! Selling them for pet food consumption, but I would rather eat them myself if need be. Just wish I had a place to put them while they fatten up.

I put another ad up and I had a lady to e-mail me wanting possibly 2 to go with her hens, or so she says. If they need for for their family that is fine. I just know that if we could keep them, they would end up in our freezer eventually.

 

[California Gurl]

I noticed that postings of free/ cheaper rooster(s) on my local Craigslist get snatched up quicker than the ones that are charging like $10+ or mention wanting to go to a good home and not the stew pot. Maybe the people in my area like fresh chicken more and like to pay little to nothing?