New to this...what do I do with potential roosters?

[Cspano0109]

I just bought 6 Buff chicks form the feed store on Saturday. So far they seem to be happy healthy little things (a little diarrhea yesterday but I put some apple cider vinegar in their water and today it seems to be clearing up!) and they are a ton of fun to have around. The only problem is I'm not sure how many hens and how many roosters I have. What do I do if there is more than one rooster? I would love to keep all of them, I hear it's hard to find a home for a rooster, and I plan on letting them free range in the yard for most of the day but what about keeping them in a coop? Should there only be one rooster per coop? Should I have a different coop for just the roosters? I am ok with fertilized eggs and would love to let a hen or two hatch a brood if they seem so inclined, I just want to make sure any boys I have will be happy and won't fight each other! Hopefully I will get lucky and only have one rooster in the batch!

Thanks!

 

[keesmom]

Do you know if the feed store ordered sexed pullets or straight run (unsexed chicks)?

If they are sexed pullets then most likely they're all hens though the hatchery makes a mistake once in a while. If they're straight run I'd guess you have more roosters than hens (and possibly all boys) in that bunch.

 

[Cspano0109]

I just bought them from a guy in town who has a ton of chickens, not a hatchery. This kid was there and he claimed that he could tell which was which so I supposedly have 5 hens and 1 rooster but I'm not 100% sure he knows what he's doing!

 

[1 lucky dad]

Well first of all congrats on the new chicks. Now if you wind up with multiple roos you may want to seperate them from the hens because they will constantly be breeding them and fighting for dominance. Depending on the breed this may not be an issue at all. Not sure what breed you meen by saying buffs. Also and more importantly your hens will thank you. A good roo to hen ratio is 10:1. If you need to get rid of roosters just list them for sale for only a couple of bucks or free unless you want to register them for freezer camp.

 

[keesmom]

I just bought them from a guy in town who has a ton of chickens, not a hatchery. This kid was there and he claimed that he could tell which was which so I supposedly have 5 hens and 1 rooster but I'm not 100% sure he knows what he's doing!

How did he tell the difference? Some breeds can be feather sexed, but not all.

Either way, for a small number of hens you will only want 1 rooster. Two (or more) would be way too many. If you have more than one you can build a bachelor pad for them if you can't part with them, or just sell any extras.

 

[Capvin]

Any extra roosters usually go well roasted with some sage and rosemary rub. Very tasty. And seriously, this is what quite a few of the participants in this site do. It is called sending them to freezer camp. When I first heard this I almost wet myself.

 

[Cspano0109]

He looked at their feathers and said that the coloring around their neck showed him the gender.

 

[mstricer]

I can tell fairly early, usually within the first week, with Marans. I hope he was right. Extra roosters that you didn't know you had are a pain. Good luck
Michele

 

[sachsr]

I posted mine on Craigslist and it was gone in a few hours.

 

[mstricer]

Did you sell them or give them away?