Getting rid of roosters- should I keep the dominant one?

[RuffledFeathers]

How do I decide which rooster to keep? It is so hard! I have 4 Easter Egger roos raised by a broody. They are 21 weeks old. I know which one is the Alpha. He is the only one that crows (so far). They were raised together and there is no fighting of significance. I have 9 hens in the pen with them. The hens still have some dominance over all of them as they are still acting like teenage boys, somewhat, but that is changing rapidly. Should I keep the Alpha? He has started calling to the girls when he finds food like a gentleman, but that is the only good trait so far.
None of the 4 can be picked up (they are terrified of me and my family), so I can't flag any for aggression yet. The bottom rung rooster is silent right now and keeps to himself, but I have read that it changes when there is no competition.
I want to post them for free on craigslist soon as I cant "do the deed" and perhaps they can help feed someone's family, but deciding who to get rid of is getting harder and not easier.
Has anyone else figured out how to make this decision? If I give it more time, will they make the decision for me?

 

[jvls1942]

just pick out the one you like the best.. after the rest are gone he will be the dominant one..

I would not keep the least dominant one.. that leaves 3 to choose from. if any of them are interested in the girls, pick one of them..

if you are going to make the decision right away, pick the one who crows. he is probably more mature than the rest.. and that leads you right back to the dominant one.

 

[wanda047]

I had the same issue lately and after some thought and discussion with the family, we used process of elimination and chose the ones to eliminate. I had orinigally bought 16 Buff Orpingtons. Of the 16... 8 were roos! I wanted to keep only two, but deciding which two was really difficult. A couple of them had really nasty personalities, so they were at the top of my list. Another had a bum leg... it leaned inward. Because I feared this could be genetic, he was culled. I wanted to keep those which would be best for breeding. I then started looking at other attributes, such as size and coloring. It wasn't really as difficult as I thought it would be after we started culling the undesirable ones.

 

[gritsar]

Just keep the one you like the best and let him stay a bit afraid of you. If he avoids you it's because he senses you are dominant and there's nothing wrong with that in my book.

 

[Autumn Mama]

We recently culled 4 roos (man was *that* hard!), and I decided to keep the one that: I could breed (he is a BLRW), hadn't pecked me or the kids, didn't bully everyone away from food (he's not exactly offering any hens treats yet, hopefully that comes

), and who I like to look at and hear crow. All of ours were crowing and terrorizing the pullets and each other. There were some hilarious chases around our farm as one particular roo didn't like anyone else near the hens. Man those guys can run fast! The hormones kicked in soooo fast. All were raised together (different breeds though) and overnight they turned into rooligans, lol!

HTH!!! Oh, and things are soooo much calmer in the coop and one of my EE girls has laid her first three eggs in the last 4 days! I think they're happier, too, lol!

 

[amarook]

I had 6 Roos!!!!

When they were young one in particular picked me. He flew to me a couple times, and once I took him inside, and he fell asleep in the crook of my arm. I decided that day I was keeping him, so I put a zip tie on his ankle.

Who wouldn't melt at this?

Seriously?

He's very dominant now.

So yea, keep the one you are most attached to.

btw, he looks like this now.

I love him.

 

[Judy]

We had about 50 in the new bunch, intending to eat extras, and about 30 were roos. Now down to 3 roos (one placed with the old flock) and about 24 pullets and hens. Plan to breed for both eggs and meat. Just kept the biggest ones who were also NICE. No mean chickens allowed here. Culled a pullet who was meaner than some of the roos.

I tried 3 of the new roos with the old flock before deciding. First one mated violently with everyone. Second one took one look at the older hens and turned tail and ran back to the old coop. Third one acted like a good flock master, offered the girls treats, herded them, left the month olds alone. He got to stay. Thought the SS roo was prettier, but he (NHR) behaved better.

The most dominant of all was a BA we call Broke Toe. He got to stay, too, because of his size, and he is not mean. He just crows, A LOT. He is still the dominant one in the new flock, but crows a bit less with most of the competition gone.

No, you should not keep the most dominant one. You should keep the BEST one. It's fine if this means the one you like the best!

 

[Mahonri]

Me, I'd keep the best looking, kindest, quietest protector!