How do I decide which rooster to keep?

[SusanH]

Hello,

I have a dozen 10 week old chicks..8 pullets and 4 cockerels. I only want to keep 1 (maybe 2 but doubt it) rooster.

I love all my roosters! 3 are very friendly. Of those, 2 love to jump in my lap every time I'm outside for a petting, and the 3rd one will do it fairly regularly. The 4th one is not one to jump up on my leg, but if I pick him up and set him on my lap, he settles in and loves to be petted.

Now, friendly roos are good, but I want a protector too. So, what factors go into choosing your one rooster?

Thanks,
Susan

 

[Lollipop]

I would keep them all for a while. Sooner or later, one will emerge as the best of the lot. That`s when to make your decision........Pop

 

[ROC4K]

I'd go with the one you can't catch! True enough number one will surface though.

 

[Debbienmousey]

I wait until mine are a couple months old and mating. Normally we go for looks and size. Over all we want nice large birds, so unless a really small rooster looks really nice or just has a personality which we love, we get rid of all the small ones. We have 9 roosters in the flock currently, but 3 are "to go". We're really trying to lower our number of roosters because our poor hens are so beat up.

 

[SusanH]

Whoah! Do they start mating at 2 months old? I haven't seen any indication of mating yet! There was a picture of a RIR hen on here I showed my husband and I said that looks like our roosters!

If they are supposed to be mating already, maybe I just have some faster maturing hens? (These are my first ever chickens)

 

[WalkingOnSunshine]

If you plan to breed from the rooster, I'd pick the one that best represents the breed standard. Also think about which one developed fastest, feathered first, etc.

 

[yellowchick]

of my two roos...I had one that got a big comb first, got bigger first and was friendly when I went to the coop. The second one was always shy and wasn't as big and comb shorter. Now the one with the shorter comb is bigger and a lot meaner, he will try to flog me and will run across the yard to challenge me. I wish the biggest one had the tallest comb.
I may seperate them and raise hens from the big one and roos from the smaller one until I get more of what I want in one.

 

[chickenwhisperer123]

Quote:
I have 2 month olds and they are not mating. Im pretty sure this was just a typo!

I would say if you need to make the decision RIGHT now, keep the frendliest... but thats just me.