How to decide what roosters to keep

[hunter1hall]

I seem to be getting more roosters than I know what to do with. My problem is Im not sure what all of them are yet. I ordered the "left over special" from McMurry and out of the 26 Id say at least 20 of the little buggers are roos. I am supposed to have at least one 'rare' bird. I havent been able to identify all of them, but I will try to get some pics of them up. I want my children to have a couple for 4-h to show and a couple to keep on hand. I guess my questions are:

How many should I keep?

Can I keep them together, in separate run from the hens?

How long can I keep them until I need to start thinning them out?

What are the best roos for showing and or keeping around?

 

[Southern Chickens]

Post pictures and let us vote! I did it once and the BYC'ers really helped me decide who to keep.

 

[hunter1hall]

Will do, like I said, the majority of them are 4 weeks old. In the meantime any suggestions would be great!

 

[Becky_H]

The best suggestion I can give you is to figure out their breeds and research from there. You've probably got a couple of months before fighting becomes a problem -- if it is going to become a problem. You can also do the rooster-bachelor pad thing and keep them out of sight of the hens and have minimal fighting problems that way too.

 

[TreeHugger]

If only 6 of them turn out to be hens then you only need 1 roo. However, if you can match them based on breed (I'm assuming you got a bunch of different breeds) that would be good if you want to show or raise them. If you go that route I would keep the roos & hens seperate. I keep all of my roos in a seperate pen from my hens. My chicken house is peaceful & my roos don't fight (at least not to bad). If you don't get rid of the extra roos when they are young, you will have to start thinning them out when the roos start to fight or mate with the hens (this will probably happen about the same time). There is nothing sorrier then a hen whose missing all of her back & head feathers because it is in with to many roos

I have no idea which roos would be the best to keep - the only roos I have are bantam breeds & they have a lot of bark but no bite

 

[hunter1hall]

I have got some pics up in the what gender and what breed forum.

 

[logansmommy7]

HOw do you know if a 5 week old is a roo???

 

[hunter1hall]

Some of them have combs that are very roo-ish.

 

[island.girlie]

Go with the strong gorgeous one, pure bred.