How To Chose What Cockerel To Keep

[Broken_echo13]

What qualities do you look for in cockerel to know what one to keep or cull. (Mainly in regards to temperament). And at what ages do you start to choose and cull.

 

[Tonyroo]

Determining a profile for a young rooster starts around a year old. Then culling can begin if required.

 

[Mrs. K]

keep his girls together, keep peace in the flock.

A great rooster is a pleasure, and the rest are jerks.

Mrs K

 

[NatJ]

What qualities do you look for in cockerel to know what one to keep or cull. (Mainly in regards to temperament). And at what ages do you start to choose and cull.

You can start culling as soon as you can identify traits you don't want.

So for example, I would cull any cockerel with a crossbeak, without waiting to assess temperament.

And if a cockerel chick bites me when it's a week old, and is still doing that at one month and two months, I won't waste time & space raising him longer.

I would consider culling to be an ongoing thing, starting any time after they hatch, and continuing until the correct number remain (and then re-evaluating those ones if anything changes, or whenever there is a new younger batch to compare with.)

It's a balancing act, deciding how many to keep at what age because they all need space, feed, and tending. Too many cockerels can be really hard on the hens, but keeping them in a separate pen means you cannot see how they act around hens.

There are too many stories of cockerels that were fine until the springtime when they were getting close to 1 year old, so I would wait at least that long to be sure of the "right" one.

 

[Folly's place]

@Mrs. K and @NatJ are right on!
Deciding takes time, it's a process. I no longer try to 'reform' nasty cockerels, life is just too short, and it's usually a failure anyway. So, any that are jerks go, no question. Any with physical faults don't stay either. Then, take time to choose one or two who do the best, realizing that things can change in the spring, sometime for the worse.
And hatching eggs or buying straight run will give lots of choices!
Mary