To those of you who do not believe in culling extra roos, may I ask what exactly you would see happening to those roos in your ideal world? What would complete surplus-roo 'rehoming' consist of?
The reason I ask is that chickens produce a roughly 50/50 sex ratio of chicks, but if you have anything even VAGUELY approaching a 50/50 ratio of adult chickens, their lives are going to be really unpleasant -- overmated harassed injured hens, and roos constantly ripping each other apart.
In nature (like, feral chickens) the "extra" roosters come to various unpleasant ends, not necessarily swift ones, as they are beat up and kept away and fall victim to wounds, diseases and predators.
The 'rehoming' thing is especially tough when you figure it is MOSTLY roosters that people want to get rid of, so somebody taking in all unwanted backyard chickens would soon find themselves with probably something like 80% roosters 20% hens - at *best*. Are they supposed to live in a big mob and slowly disassemble each other until only the toughest couple of roosters are left? Or are they supposed to live in individual isolation for the rest of their lives? Or what? I can't honestly think of a really humane sounding option besides some version of the axe (and, preferably, stewpot, at least until the entire human population ALL converts to vegetarianism).
I seriously hate to see animals killed just because they can't be kept, but with the behavioral idiosyncrasies of chickens it seems to me that not all roosters hatched CAN be kept (not humanely, anyhow), and I honestly do not see what else COULD be done other than a swift end for the 'extras'.
It's just entirely different than other domestic animals (cats, dogs, horses, etc) where you can easily keep just as many males as females without especially ruining any of their lives.
Complete sympathies and good wishes to the original poster, who seems to me to be acting extremely responsibly here,
Pat
The reason I ask is that chickens produce a roughly 50/50 sex ratio of chicks, but if you have anything even VAGUELY approaching a 50/50 ratio of adult chickens, their lives are going to be really unpleasant -- overmated harassed injured hens, and roos constantly ripping each other apart.
In nature (like, feral chickens) the "extra" roosters come to various unpleasant ends, not necessarily swift ones, as they are beat up and kept away and fall victim to wounds, diseases and predators.
The 'rehoming' thing is especially tough when you figure it is MOSTLY roosters that people want to get rid of, so somebody taking in all unwanted backyard chickens would soon find themselves with probably something like 80% roosters 20% hens - at *best*. Are they supposed to live in a big mob and slowly disassemble each other until only the toughest couple of roosters are left? Or are they supposed to live in individual isolation for the rest of their lives? Or what? I can't honestly think of a really humane sounding option besides some version of the axe (and, preferably, stewpot, at least until the entire human population ALL converts to vegetarianism).
I seriously hate to see animals killed just because they can't be kept, but with the behavioral idiosyncrasies of chickens it seems to me that not all roosters hatched CAN be kept (not humanely, anyhow), and I honestly do not see what else COULD be done other than a swift end for the 'extras'.
It's just entirely different than other domestic animals (cats, dogs, horses, etc) where you can easily keep just as many males as females without especially ruining any of their lives.
Complete sympathies and good wishes to the original poster, who seems to me to be acting extremely responsibly here,
Pat
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