How to choose which rooster to keep?

[Mrs. K]

If you want to keep the ducks, keep them separate from the chickens.

 

[LaFleche]

Green is gentle mounting a hen and seems accepted,

This is important as the females are not stressed by him.

He generally doesn’t seem to pay attention to me. He was the easiest to put a leg band on.

Very good behaviour.

He also tries to mate with the empty bowl I use to carry treats in if i put them down while I’m doing something else.

Colourless seems excessive in his mating behaviour, not something I would want for my flock.

but somehow i never saw him mount the hens. He is a bit of a bully.

Blue is a bully that has not been seen mounting.

He calls the hens for treats but will also chase the lowest ranking hen off the food

Nasty thing to do. If he does not like her, he should just ignore her.

he will firmly grab the edge of the tray and pull it towards him

This can quickly turn into more aggressive behaviour against you.


So, all in all, I would keep Green and separate the others immediately out of sight until deciding what to do: butchering or finding them new homes.

And I think that the addition of at least three healthy pullets to your existing flock would help spread the love so your females would not get overmated and stressed come spring.

And please, separate the ducks immediately as well as
drakes can kill your chickens trying to mate them (drakes have a long penis formed like a corkscrewer which will rip the insides of the chicken apart and tear it out). They even sometimes kill their own females when hormones start raging.

https://external-content.duckduckgo...xpfA78/9059334235_98bb93b4a6_b.jpg&f=1&nofb=1

 

[PrettyCoolChicks]

Thank for your detailed input LaFleche, good points about Blue I'll keep that in mind.

Yellow is gone as of today, and I have a much better idea of how to decide between the remaining ones so there will be chicken soup in the next few weeks.
Thanks for all the helpful advice and comments on my Cockerels' behaviour.

 

[Rose Quartz]

Hi folks,
I read a lot of articles about roosters and similar questions on the forums but there was a lot of observe them and you’ll know. So I’ve been observing a lot, but I still don’t know… is it better to cull from top or bottom of the pecking order? Does it even matter?

I have 4 cockerells, 3 pullets, all related from white leghorn moms x barnyard mix dad. They’re 6 month old. In the end, I need to keep one roo for protection from a drake and during free ranging. The idea is to eventually trade my keeper roo for an unrelated one, to fertilize hatching eggs in a year or two.

Here are the 4 boys, which one would you keep? Which one would you cull? And more importantly so I can learn how you think about this, why?

Blue is the largest, top of pecking order, but somehow i never saw him mount the hens. He is a bit of a bully. He calls the hens for treats but will also chase the lowest ranking hen off the food. He’s always first out of the coop when I call so I give him all treats first. He seems the most alert in terms of sounding the alarm. When I hold a tray with treats, and the hens start eating of it, he will firmly grab the edge of the tray and pull it towards him a bit, then release. I think its his way of telling the hens I’m carrying it for him.

Colorless is second in command, mates most often and is a bit rough sometimes ( or with some hens?) but does best at calling them for treats. He’s colorless because I couldn’t catch him to put a legband on. He also tries to mate with the empty bowl I use to carry treats in if i put them down while I’m doing something else.

Green is gentle mounting a hen and seems accepted, but otherwise unremarkable, possibly to not draw the other roos attention. He generally doesn’t seem to pay attention to me. He was the easiest to put a leg band on.

Yellow is the smallest and lowest on the pecking order. He doesn’t get any and is sometimes chased off by the three other roos. He has peck marks on his comb, more so than green. He perched on my back or shoulders a couple times, always from behind - unsure if he’s trying to find safety on me or thinks i’m the 4th hen, or if it is actually aggression. He unfortunately also was the only witness to me taking the first egg and took it out on my shoelaces for a couple of days. I carried him around, held him down, had him walk laps in the run and tried to rebuild trust by preening him a bit once he calms down. He’s been better since.

It’s all a bit in flux though, who mates who very much depends on the day, except for yellow who is always the underdog.

Colorless is a no for me, same for yellow.

I've only had one chicken who was trying to mate with things it shouldn't and I deemed him too brain-dead to want offspring from him. Chickens offspring's intelligence is related to how smart their parents were.

And Yellow, sounds like he thinks you're another chicken which doesn't usually turn out very well. My most human aggressive roosters were the ones who thought I was a chicken. I can't have a rooster going after my kid because they came out to talk to me and the roo didn't like it.

Blue and Green seem really smart. Between those 2 pick one you like for it's physical traits. If Blue were to go away, then green would likely have a similar personality to what Blue had once he feels secure in his role.

 

[Double Yolked]

LaFleche summed it up really well.
I can only add one observation. You keep roosters in your flock for 3 reasons. Safety, fertile eggs and to keep a socially, physically and emotionally healthy flock. If a roo doesn't supply one of those three then you have to decide just how important that reason is. Green, at the moment, appears to supply eggs and proper behavior in your flock. But your ability to work with the roo and the hens is included under safety. Roos change over time but the reasons you keep them stay pretty much the same. Pick a bird you can work with.

 

[Lavender Wraps]

Hi folks,
I read a lot of articles about roosters and similar questions on the forums but there was a lot of observe them and you’ll know. So I’ve been observing a lot, but I still don’t know… is it better to cull from top or bottom of the pecking order? Does it even matter?

I have 4 cockerells, 3 pullets, all related from white leghorn moms x barnyard mix dad. They’re 6 month old. In the end, I need to keep one roo for protection from a drake and during free ranging. The idea is to eventually trade my keeper roo for an unrelated one, to fertilize hatching eggs in a year or two.

Here are the 4 boys, which one would you keep? Which one would you cull? And more importantly so I can learn how you think about this, why?

Blue is the largest, top of pecking order, but somehow i never saw him mount the hens. He is a bit of a bully. He calls the hens for treats but will also chase the lowest ranking hen off the food. He’s always first out of the coop when I call so I give him all treats first. He seems the most alert in terms of sounding the alarm. When I hold a tray with treats, and the hens start eating of it, he will firmly grab the edge of the tray and pull it towards him a bit, then release. I think its his way of telling the hens I’m carrying it for him.

Colorless is second in command, mates most often and is a bit rough sometimes ( or with some hens?) but does best at calling them for treats. He’s colorless because I couldn’t catch him to put a legband on. He also tries to mate with the empty bowl I use to carry treats in if i put them down while I’m doing something else.

Green is gentle mounting a hen and seems accepted, but otherwise unremarkable, possibly to not draw the other roos attention. He generally doesn’t seem to pay attention to me. He was the easiest to put a leg band on.

Yellow is the smallest and lowest on the pecking order. He doesn’t get any and is sometimes chased off by the three other roos. He has peck marks on his comb, more so than green. He perched on my back or shoulders a couple times, always from behind - unsure if he’s trying to find safety on me or thinks i’m the 4th hen, or if it is actually aggression. He unfortunately also was the only witness to me taking the first egg and took it out on my shoelaces for a couple of days. I carried him around, held him down, had him walk laps in the run and tried to rebuild trust by preening him a bit once he calms down. He’s been better since.

It’s all a bit in flux though, who mates who very much depends on the day, except for yellow who is always the underdog.

I would just keep the one that you like the best.

 

[Emmaloveschickens9156]

If green is gentle with the hens, keep him. That’s a good roo.