Is it best to just rehome him?

[rhoda_bruce]

waterpossum......I have to agree. Killing and cleaning a rooster is not something that feels right at first. In fact when I was a young wife and just starting out with all this stuff, I didn't kill them at all. Either my husband would or my father would. I even felt funny about cleaning them. I would have to freeze them a few days, because I couldn't bring myself to eat them right after. And I wasn't very fast about it either. It takes practice and skill. I say skill, because you have to learn exactly where to cut if you don't want to make a nice mess.
But I think if you do it enough, you toughen yourself up and get better at it. Its a good way to be really. It only makes good sense. I mean why would anyone keep an extra rooster? They will fight with each other.....get aggressive with the hens. They won't ever lay you an egg. They are noisy. You might as well keep your feed costs down and make some chicken dumplings.
I only just got back into chickens this spring after losing all my flock a few years ago to a few nasty hurricanes. And I am proud to say that my old days of killing fears are over. I can catch them, hang them upside-down, tie their feet and slit their throats myself; right before I start removing the feathers.
I don't consider myself cruel. I mean when we buy chicken in the meat dept, we cook it and enjoy it. But somebody DID kill it. In my case, and probably a lot of other member's cases, its just that we are the ones that killed it.

 

[darbella]

Is that for sure a roo?? Compared to the other in the picture, it looks like a hen. Could it be a dominant hen? Or has it crowed so you know it is a roo. I am allways so bad at this sexing thing! i thought for sure i had a bantam cochin roo, and then it laid an egg. But it did have a rather large red comb and wattles!

 

[jhm47]

The one on the left, the brown one, is a hen. The other one is a rooster.

 

[rhoda_bruce]

I was confused about the color brown......I looked at the pic and saw what I believed to be one RIR hen and a strange rooster that I would be unfamiliar with.....probably a cross-breed. I wouldn't have exactly called either of them brown. I would possibly have said a white roo with brownish markings. If that hen is the culprit........hmmm. That would be sad. I don't care to kill hens. But I would if she were dangerous. My guess is we are talking about the rooster though.
Please advise......what is the breed of the bad boy? Is it the sex-link you have listed on your signature?

 

[beckyschicks]

Vegetarian myself I won't eat or kill one of my roos but I won't keep a mean roo either. Killing them isn't for everyone and it really is a hard thing to do let alone watch. These are things that you cared for and worried over for months and then only to find out that they are a rooster. I have a hard time with the mentality of those who look at the males of the animal kindom as nothing more then a meal. Don't get me wrong everyone is entitled to their own opinion and I respect each one, this is just mine. I don't think rehoming him is the answer either. So what you do is put up an ad for a free rooster. Let anyone know if they are going to keep it as a pet the issues and forget about it. If they eat him so be it. You gave them a nice meal.

 

[Mahonri]

Eat or dispatch.

 

[kuntrychick]

To me the one on the left looks like a hen. I'm not sure what kind with the brownish/reddish/copperish looking color and looks like a pea comb but it looks like a hen to me. Of course, I'm pretty new to chickens and could be totally wrong.

 

[PoultryPedia]

There is a technique that may work to make this roo more socially amicable--Hobbling.
I used it with awesome success to cure a champion roo of mine that I wanted to keep. Here is info I posted about the technique on another thread:
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If the "mean-ness" is a rooster problem toward roosters, you can use tape or something to hobble his lower legs together (MAKE SURE that the hobble is sturdy, though--Otherwise the roo will manage to wriggle free and your efforts will do no good at all in curing the problem) with just enough length that he can walk but not jump up & spur or run really fast. When you put him down, the other chickens sense he is handicapped and generally dive at him (**You MUST stay there to supervise and make sure things don't get TOO rough on him**). Less than a minute of this may get a rooster humbled enough that he never bullies again.
I'm not sure how this would work with correcting aggression toward hens. I imagine you'd be likely to need more than 1 min of hobbling because they'd probably not be as driven to attack him??? I would DEFINITELY separate the other roo while putting the hobbled roo with the hens--otherwise the other roo would take the opportunity to attack him & the hens wouldn't even be part of the interaction.
It can take rooster that was hobbled 2-3 weeks to feel confident enough to hang out comfortably with the others again.
BE CAREFUL WITH THIS TECHNIQUE! Even a little too much time at other chickens' mercy can be very detrimental to thrashee's self-confidence (and possibly result in too much physical damage, too). I think it would be better to do too short of a hobbling session, if in doubt, and then do a second session if needed a couple weeks later.

 

[6chickens in St. Charles]

Want to try the Hobbling idea with me?

Our babyRoo is so pretty, and a very good pet, but insanely focused on killing our SilkieRoo. We've been through some strange days learning about our chickens. I'm willing to try it. Besides, our chickens are all tiny little Bantams, it would be easy. Are yours standards or bantams?

 

[jprice2ndlt]

I had posted the pics before and everyone thought that the brown one was a roo. I know the white one is for sure. He seems to be the HRIC Head rooster in charge. I hatched both of them my self. He is gentle around me and the other hens because they beat him up it is when i move him or it to the same pen as the ones his age he goes crazy. I would really hate to kill him because he is fine with older hens. Do you think it could be becuase he in not top roo in his pen is making him act that way?