How to pick a rooster to keep.

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Castlemaid

Castlemaid

Songster
Mar 26, 2019
59
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Northern BC
I had a pure bred Icelandic that I got for free when he was 8 weeks old. At the age of 10 Months, I butchered him, my very first butcher, because he was aggressive. I have three 4.5 month old roos coming up sired by the dispatched jerk, either icelandic/bovan or icelandic/baryard mix, depending which egg they hatched from. What should I look for in keeping one for my flock? They all are crowing. Still deferring to the older hens, being respectful of my space and presence. They free range, and one of them is hanging out with the adult hens, and for the first time, I saw him mounting one of them. I also have 2 pullets from the same hatch as the roos, but I have not seen any of the roos try to mount the pullets yet.
Any tips on how to choose? Trying to make sure I get a good protective one, but not an aggressive one. Thanks!
 
Castlemaid said:
I had a pure bred Icelandic that I got for free when he was 8 weeks old. At the age of 10 Months, I butchered him, my very first butcher, because he was aggressive. I have three 4.5 month old roos coming up sired by the dispatched jerk, either icelandic/bovan or icelandic/baryard mix, depending which egg they hatched from. What should I look for in keeping one for my flock? They all are crowing. Still deferring to the older hens, being respectful of my space and presence. They free range, and one of them is hanging out with the adult hens, and for the first time, I saw him mounting one of them. I also have 2 pullets from the same hatch as the roos, but I have not seen any of the roos try to mount the pullets yet.
Any tips on how to choose? Trying to make sure I get a good protective one, but not an aggressive one. Thanks!
Click to expand...
I used to pick roos based off the hens. If they liked him, and he wasn't going after me when I came out he pretty much won the gold ribbon. I had a massive red rooster named Big Red who was the best rooster I ever owned. So sweet. Even when he got up there in age. Good with all the girls, ate out of my hands and chased off any predator that stepped in the gate. I hope you get to pick your 'big red'!
 
Anyone you don't like for any reason, cull and wait. Roosters change as the competition changes.

Really examine their feet, and beaks, there should be good alignment and symmetry. If they are crooked, those traits tend to be passed on, and get worse. Pick them up and feel them, feathers cover a lot of sins.

But I do also like the above advice, watch them with your girls. Maybe remove the other roosters for a day, and watch, try a different rooster - see how it goes. Observation is a good tool.

Mrs K
 
My Roos started crowing then became rather "affectionate" with hens anywhere from 4 to 5 mos of age. My Roos are EE, Buff Orp, RIR & Wyandotte. They're all about 10 mos old now & I can pet, pick up & hug each one easily. They are all still sweet. The RIR is more jumpy & high energy, so he won't nestle down & sit on my lap like the others, but he's nice to hens & me.

I have only encountered 1 mean Roo, an EE that was already older & not friendly when I got him, that I traded back to the guy I got him from, and 1 ornery, grumpy Barred Rock Roo, I still have that stinker but I know how to manage him & he so nice to hens. Once I pick him up & put him on my lap he likes being pet & fussed over, go figure. Rocky can go from doing his sweet purr sounds as I pet him, sitting on my lap, to getting mad I got between him & his main hen, jumping at me like a spurring ninja (he misses me, as he's kinda old now, lol).

If a Roo was ever too rough & mean to the hens, as well as attacking me, he would go bye-bye. You can't really say it only happens to certain breeds, you never know who will turn mean, it's an individual personality thing. I thought if they stayed nice when hitting puberty, they'd remain nice. Most times that's true, but I had that one EE Roo over a year with no issues, then he suddenly became dangerous, attacking me while cleaning a waterer.

If you have several nice Roos now, count your blessings. If you can, try to keep them, but you may need to separate them if they fight eachother. Right now, I have 3 Roos together, no hens, it's temporary til I can build another coop this spring. They grew up together so they actually like eachother. Or, try to find good homes for the ones you can't keep. That's easier said than done, I should know, I have 11 Roos now! Too darn many!! But at this point I love my boys so much, they're staying.

Sometimes it's good to have a backup Roo just in case one doesn't survive a fox or hawk attack.
 
Last edited:
Uggghhh!!! After reading your very sage and wise advice, I spent a couple of days observing the flock and the roos. I had decided which one to keep, it was showing all the nice traits I was reading on here.
Tonight, I was a couple of hours late going out to close up the coop. To my horror there was a great horned owl sitting on the keeper roo, eating his head! I'm kicking myself for being late! Three of the other chickens were missing from the coop, probably ran out when the owl came in. I found two of them, but I'm still missing one of the pullets. I was missing a young duck too, but she came home when she saw me about the coop.

What a terrible ending!
 
Sorry for your loss 😓

We are accessing our current rooster (6mth old polish). He isn’t very nice and wasn’t the one I chose to keep (my 10 year old loved him). He is aggressive and runs at us.....we potentially have other roosters in our 6week old barnevelder, so may choose to keep one of them instead.
 
Cambridge_Corner said:
Sorry for your loss 😓

We are accessing our current rooster (6mth old polish). He isn’t very nice and wasn’t the one I chose to keep (my 10 year old loved him). He is aggressive and runs at us.....we potentially have other roosters in our 6week old barnevelder, so may choose to keep one of them instead.
Click to expand...

The bird I recently butchered was the type that ran at me. One time I bent over to pick something up, and he jumped on my back! That was it, no more chances! Pure bred rare-breed or not, I'm not okay with having to keep looking over my shoulders everytime I'm out in the coop area, fearing an attack. He was gorgeous, and good with the girls, but he ran out of chances to redeem himself.

So far the hens have not taken to the other roosters. Might need a bit of time for those relationships to get established. The one remaining pullet is now hanging out with the grownups, having lost her girlfriend. Still sad over the whole thing. :(
 

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