Managing Roosters

[MelissaZeno]

I am planning on getting rid of two of my 5 roosters this spring. Two of the roosters are bantams and belong to my kids, so we are keeping them. My year old Lav. Orp. rooster has tthree male offspring. I am trying to decide which roo to keep. Two out of the three have gotten frost bite and the other one for some reason does not. They are all well behaved gentlemen,
(the 3rd hatched boy went to my sisters flock and is gentle and sweet and he loves having all her girls to himself).
My feeling is because the one who does not have frostbite on his comb may be the best choice genes wise and personality too.
Can anyone share their ideas about this with me?

 

[Den in Penn]

I would think that reason he didn't get frost bite was because of where he slept in the coop or how he held his head. So unless is a mutant that has antifreeze in his blood I doubt it is his genes. Still if he has what you want in a rooster his luck shouldn't put him out of the running.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I’ve read that roosters that have suffered severe frostbite can lose fertility. I’d probably favor the one that did not have frostbite for that reason, not because of anything genetic. That does not mean that the other two will certainly lose fertility, just that it is possible.

Then I’d try to determine what it was that allowed them to get frostbite. I’m assuming they are all single combed, Orpingtons are but I don’t know their mamas. The normal cause of frostbite is lack of ventilation. The moisture from their breathing, their poop, and maybe a heated waterer can’t escape and builds up. That can contribute to frostbite. Another possibility is that they were in a direct breeze strong enough to cause wind chill. In cold weather they need a coop with really good ventilation yet it keeps direct breezes off of them. There are different ways to do that but a standard way is to have openings up high over their head when they are roosting. Many people on this forum report stopping frostbite by providing more ventilation. And there are people a lot further south of you that have frostbite problems because their coops are so tight the moisture can’t escape, even when the temperatures aren’t that far below freezing. This link might help with that. The lady that wrote it was living in Ontario so she understood cold weather.

Pat’s Big Ol' Ventilation Page
https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=1642-VENTILATION

If it is just on the wattles it I unlikely but possible they got their wattles wet when getting a drink and immediately went somewhere a cold wind hit them. This is one that hardly ever happens. It seems really unlikely that you would have two of them but it’s possible if it is wattles only.

 

[MelissaZeno]

I didn't think of that, I will have to improve the ventilation in the coop. The 3 large roosters are lavender orpingtons with single combs.
Thank you.