I need a roo (or two) - what should I do?

[PearlGrey]

I plan to free-range my flock during the day once they're old enough. Thinking I would be getting someone else's cockerels, I bought 12 pullets (4 BSL; 4 Barred Rock; 4 RIRs). The girls are about a week old right now. But now it looks like I will need to supply my own rooster(s).

So should I just wait and see if some of my "pullets" turn out to be roosters after all? They came from my local feed store, if that makes a difference to your answer - but before that, I don't know their point of origin.

But - what if they really are all girls? Will it be safe to turn them out during the day to free-range without a rooster? Can I add a rooster later?

Should I just go ahead and order a rooster now to be sure? But then, what if one or more of my present dozen is a rooster? How many roosters can one have with a flock?

And - last question, I promise! - do I need more than one rooster to free-range with the flock during the day? I live in a remote area, so have all the usual predators: fox, coyote, raccoon, hawks, snakes, wood rats, feral cats and the occasional free-range dog (although my neighbors are pretty good about keeping theirs fenced in).

Thanks in advance - this is my first year raising chickens!

 

[Ridgerunner]

On that accuracy thing with vent sexing. They don’t even try bantams it’s so difficult. It is a learned “Art” and some people are better at it than others. Most hatcheries will give a 10% guarantee on vent sexing, but they actually do better than that. How much better depends on the skill of the person doing it. If it was actually 10%, they’d wind up fixing a lot of orders, so they give themselves a decent margin of error to work with.

I have not ordered a lot of sexed pullets from hatcheries, I normally go with straight run since I will eat the roosters and it works out better cost-wise to order straight run instead of some pullets and some roosters. You have to have a large enough sample size for percentages and averages to mean much and I just haven’t ordered that many. But of the 19 vent-sexed “pullets” I’ve ordered, I got one male. That’s about 5%. All sex-liked chicks I’ve ordered, male and female, have been correct.

Your black sex links are almost certainly not going to give you a rooster, so you have eight chicks in play. It’s possible one or more will be a rooster. You won’t know for a while, but that should not matter.

I agree with waiting until you are sure before you do anything. Then, if you want a rooster, you can get one off of Craigslist, from someone on here near you in your state thread, or maybe just asking at the feed store. Later in the summer roosters will be easy to get.

It’s not hard to introduce a mature rooster to a flock of hens. Turn him loose. You did it. A mature rooster will move in, mate a few hens to show he is the dominant flock master, and it is done. If you get an immature rooster that cannot dominate the hens it can get a bit rough, but a mature rooster is extremely easy to integrate to a flock of pure hens.

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

You can free range w/out a roo, but if you want one there is no reason *not* to have one. I would wait it out and see if you do in fact have a roo (or two or three) before going out to add to the flock. If you do get lucky and avoid the +/- 10% error rate on vent sexed pullets you will likely have no trouble finding a few roos that other's have ended up due to that same error rate and need to re-home. *I* would not keep more than one roo with the flock size you have.

 

[PearlGrey]

Wow - 10% error rate? In that case, I believe I will see if any of the "girls" - aren't. So it's OK to introduce a roo later on?

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

It depends on the hatchery - some claim 5%, others 10% -- when you understand the complexity of the process, though, it is amazing that it is so low.

 

[davemonkey]

If you end up with all girls and still feel like you need a roo, you can often find them for very cheap, or even free. For example, if you are anywhere near Liberty, TX, I will give you a cockerel (got 3 right now at 4-5 wks old) for free. And I am not unique in that.

 

[PearlGrey]

dave - thanks for the offer.

I bet I can find some closer, though - I'm on the SC coast. Now that I think about it, though, I believe I have had people try to give me roosters in the past. I never paid any attention since I had nowhere for them to roost. So I'll just wait and see what happens. Thanks, everybody!

 

[newmarch2014]

To give you an idea of success rate of sexing I bought 6 'pullets' and am almost sure that one of those is a roo so there is a good chance that at least one of your is a roo.

 

[PearlGrey]

Thanks, newmarch. I hope so!

 

[cafarmgirl]

I plan to free-range my flock during the day once they're old enough. Thinking I would be getting someone else's cockerels, I bought 12 pullets (4 BSL; 4 Barred Rock; 4 RIRs). The girls are about a week old right now. But now it looks like I will need to supply my own rooster(s).

So should I just wait and see if some of my "pullets" turn out to be roosters after all? They came from my local feed store, if that makes a difference to your answer - but before that, I don't know their point of origin.

But - what if they really are all girls? Will it be safe to turn them out during the day to free-range without a rooster? Can I add a rooster later?

Should I just go ahead and order a rooster now to be sure? But then, what if one or more of my present dozen is a rooster? How many roosters can one have with a flock?

And - last question, I promise! - do I need more than one rooster to free-range with the flock during the day? I live in a remote area, so have all the usual predators: fox, coyote, raccoon, hawks, snakes, wood rats, feral cats and the occasional free-range dog (although my neighbors are pretty good about keeping theirs fenced in).

Thanks in advance - this is my first year raising chickens!

If you free range in an area with all of the predators you mentioned as well as occasional roaming dogs, it won't matter how many roosters you have. A good rooster will give warning and may give hens time to hide but he cannot stop a hungry predator. Once the flock is discovered it may be picked off pretty fast. A roaming dog can leave behind a massacre. If you have perimeter fencing and/or good ranch dogs who are livestock safe and interested in keeping strays and predators away you will be in much better shape and not having to replace birds as often.