How to pick the right roo?

[sherrydeanne]

Hi all,
I have 4 roos currently in my all young flock. Two of them are contenders for main roo, can you tell me what I should be looking for?

Roo 1 is an EE, oldest in the flock at 12 weeks. He's slightly afraid of me and very nice to the hens and younger chicks. However, he acts nothing like a rooster *(yet)*. He steals food from them, leaves them alone while they're wandering the yard, etc. He does make some noise when I come down to the yard, but that's the only roosterish thing he does. Not real friendly, but runs as opposed to fighting.

Roo 2 is a 7 week welsummer. He is SPUNKY! He leads his little flock around the yard, points out food to them, patrols while they're out, etc. He's always active, walking around the yard and just acting very roosteresque. He's the first of the younger bunch out of the coop. Not friendly but not mean, either. He will actually go and eat right with the 12 weeker, he shows no fear.

So, how early can I choose? If I should go with teh younger roo, I want to get rid of the older soon so the older hens can get used to him. Neither of them are friendly, so I hope that doesn't mean they'll necessarily be agressive? I have young children, so a mean roo isn't an option.

Is it just too young to tell? Do I need to wait till the older roo hits maturity and see if he's mean, then move on?

 

[ThePamperedPullet]

We usually allow our young roo's to roam the yard until the start to crow and trying to mate. Our girls will let us know which ones are good. We have had to swap out a few because the girls just didn't like them. If our girls aren't happy then we are not happy. Then we watch for aggresive behavior towards the girls and also towards us. If we cannot break them of the aggressive behavior then they go away. I will not have a roo that I have to worry about if my wife goes to the pens alone or if we have young children in the pens. They always say "The meaner the rooster, the better it tastes" and we have had some mighty tasty chicken around here. We have 15 roo's right now, 10 are in their own pens with their own girls and 5 wander around together without any problems. Of the 5 together, the oldest is about a year and a half and the youngest is about 16 weeks.

 

[Mahlzeit]

Roosters can get mean at anytime. So there is no real time frame to wait and see. Just because they are not friendly towards you doesn't mean they will be aggressive. It's really a hard thing to tell though you can't know until it happens really. Atleast in my opinion.

 

[rancher hicks]

I didn't know aggression should be a concern. I have 2 friz roos and they're ok with me but at times nail a hen to the ground grabbing her comb. They're bantams and most of the girls are standard only 2 are bantams.