Official BYC Poll: Do You Keep a Rooster?

[WVBirdsAndBees]

We have 2 roosters purchased intentionally, plus however many of our 12 baby straight run silkies turn out to be boys.

Our lavender orpington and cream legbar are breeders and flock protectors. The silkies are for raising chicks and being cute. As long as there aren't too many and they get along, the silkie cockerels can stay. But we'll see how they behave with the girls and chicks.

 

[RebelEgger]

What breed is he? He's gorgeous!!

Thank you! He’s an EE. His brother who we rehomed is gorgeous as well but looks nothing like him.

 

[AngelaY]

Cold dead hands...amen!
I had to ask, is Mr. Tilney an Austen fan, by any chance?

Yes he is indeed, a Jane Austen fan. His best friend Darcy (who is a hen) is too! All of my chickens are named after characters from classical literature (Pippin, Moby, Darcy, Mr. Tilney, and little Dorrit who is still a baby) and my ducks are all from king Arthur and the knights of the round table (Guinevere, King Arthur, Merlin, and Pendragon, we call her Penny for short).

 

[Manhen]

Our cockrels/roosters number 10 free ranging. One sleeps in the hayloft rafters. 35 cockerels are 3 months oldish with the laying flock of 75 layers and 100 pullets in a pen (about a half acre). The hen coop is about 500 sq. ft. This is a challenge and another coop is being built in my barn to accomodate them.

 

[Egg Snatcher]

7-8 crossed bantam roosters
1 silver duckwing OEGB
1 brown red jap
2 silkie roos
1 molten Mille fleur
1 sultan bantam roo
1 black cochin
2 polish roos
1 buff brahma bantam roo
1 NN rooster
And maybe 2 Cornish xx roos
I breed bantams lays why I got so many.

 

[Mimi13]

I started my chicken keeping with four, day-old pullets, but I wanted a rooster really badly. I purchased two intentionally, but wound up with five, as my luck would have it! Over the course of 15 months, all five of them went to the freezer, but not before Welsummer gave me 8 more. And only one of them made the cut. He is my beautiful and sweet Rusty, a Wellie over a BR. He’s also a perfect example of a friendly and loving rooster.

Out of this year’s hatch I was the proud recipient of 13 more cockerels! Yep, that’s my luck. Four have already been put in the freezer or eaten, with 3 more to follow tomorrow and five more in about 6-7 weeks. My plan is to keep one beauty out of this year’s bunch to give me a total of two, that is if I can manage the growing pains of an up and coming rooster. It’s funny you forget just what a PITA they are in the beginning. They are always on the prowl and the older hens hate them. And how they get their sights on one particular girl and will run completely across the yard just to, well, you know. Somewhat like teenage boys!

Here is Dooley. He is the offspring of Rusty and Duchess (a Welsummer). Being 3/4 Welsummer gives him much more red/gold in his feathers. I just can’t wait for the hormones to settle down.

You definitely cannot get the gorgeous birds from an all hen flock!

 

[Mimi13]

I'm so happy we can finally have some roos. We have two young cockerels in our flock of allsorts, and we are currently growing up some British Tailed Araucana we hatched, and I'll be keeping quite a few pretty boys from them.

I would love to see a pic of your British Tailed Araucanas.

 

[Trisseh]

My intention when I started my flock was to not have a rooster. Then I wound up with 3/4 in the original group; rehomed all but one sebright cockerel because he was so sweet, and then it just spiraled from there. Haha. Ive since lost that boy, but quickly replaced him with others (unintentionally). Now I’ve got 3, an icelandic and 2 Norwegian Jærhøns. The Jærhøns are babies so I’m not sure if I’ll be keeping one or both or none, but the Icelandic is here to stay. He’s lovely with the young ladies and seems to like the baby chicks my broody has, so if he continues in this way he’s definitely a keeper.

 

[Homesteadermomma6382]

We have 2 rir roos and one bantam golden sebring. The 2 rir were supposed to be hens. We have found they keep smaller predators away from the hens. We had decided to take them out of the gen pop to give our girls a break for a while. The first night they were gone something got in and took 2 birds. We put the boys back in and we havent had an issue since. Like with anything there are pros and cons either way.

 

[kcan2]

Yes he is indeed, a Jane Austen fan. His best friend Darcy (who is a hen) is too! All of my chickens are named after characters from classical literature (Pippin, Moby, Darcy, Mr. Tilney, and little Dorrit who is still a baby) and my ducks are all from king Arthur and the knights of the round table (Guinevere, King Arthur, Merlin, and Pendragon, we call her Penny for short).

What great literary tastes they have!