Official BYC Poll: What do you do with your roosters?

[cmom]

Yes. I have particular lines and I do not mix lines they are pure (heritage) breeds. For show quality I get $35. for females grown out and $20. for the males. I sell the show quality at shows but others I take to our local TSC swap and sell the females for $20. and the males $12. They are all fine birds but the best I save for the shows. I have had people buy some of my birds and show them and do well at the shows. Years ago I raised Buff Orpingtons. I sold a cockerel to a girl and she got 1st place with him. Another girl bought a Single Comb RIR cockerel and he was a champion in the youths.

This was the cockerel that won the youths.

This is one of my RIR hens who was a champion at a show.

 

[LikeTurkeys]

Yes. I have particular lines and I do not mix lines they are pure (heritage) breeds. For show quality I get $35. for females grown out and $20. for the males. I sell the show quality at shows but others I take to our local TSC swap and sell the females for $20. and the males $12. They are all fine birds but the best I save for the shows. I have had people buy some of my birds and show them and do well at the shows. Years ago I raised Buff Orpingtons. I sold a cockerel to a girl and she got 1st place with him. Another girl bought a Single Comb RIR cockerel and he was a champion in the youths.
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This was the cockerel that won the youths.
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This is one of my RIR hens who was a champion at a show.
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Beautiful birds. I would love to get into selling and showing sometime, right now I am too young. Maybe I should get involved in 4H. I also worry about the expense of raising extra cockerels, after all, does the money you get from selling them actually pay for the feed? For me, space is also an issue. I currently have one 8x10 coop which I'm hoping on expanding soon. But for many of you on here, it seems like you have at least 3 or 4, or maybe a big barn...

 

[cmom]

I have been doing this for a long time. I'm an old lady. 4H and FFA are great. Years ago I sold chicks to some 4H kids to raise and show. I sell eggs. During the spring I sell hatching eggs to people who want pure lines. I also sell eggs for eating. I have a regular customer base.

 

[LikeTurkeys]

I have been doing this for a long time. I'm an old lady. 4H and FFA are great. Years ago I sold chicks to some 4H kids to raise and show. I sell eggs. During the spring I sell hatching eggs to people who want pure lines. I also sell eggs for eating. I have a regular customer base.View attachment 2268503View attachment 2268505

That is a beautiful setup. Maybe someday I will be able to do something like that too. For now, I will keep myself satisfied with hatching barnyard mix eggs under broody hens.

 

[Kris5902]

I planned to keep at least one from my last order. But instead of 2/15 males, I got 7/15 males. So I’m now trying to choose between the top three, and the lead is an olive egger because he’s the sweetest to the hens and really good with warning about predators. Three others went to a friend’s farm, and we had one for dinner on Friday. He is a wheaten Ameraucana/Marans cross.

Unfortunately, all the boys are mature and chasing the immature pullets around the run already, so I moved them into another coop tonight. I’d love to just keep one - the cuckoo marans I ordered, but it would take a pretty aggressive change in personality for the olive egger to lose the top spot. What’s the point of an olive egger rooster??

My olive egger Rooster, is my “big daddy” chicken. He is an a**hole. He was the only OE I hatched. He is gorgeous, aggressive, and his Daughters are wonderful, so he stays. He is wonderful with his hens, alarms appropriately, but is very defensive towards people. His offspring are 60/40 olive eggers/brown layers over production red Hyline hens. They are prolific layers and good foragers. His cockerels have decent meat qualities, not broilers by any stretch, but solid sausage birds with decent temperaments. So it depends on your goals, Hens, and the OE Rooster.

In his youth, before he went psycho hen protective, crazy and he thought I was his GF

 

[feather13]

My olive egger Rooster, is my “big daddy” chicken. He is an a**hole. He was the only OE I hatched. He is gorgeous, aggressive, and his Daughters are wonderful, so he stays.
In his youth, before he went psycho hen protective, crazy and he thought I was his GF

Beautiful bird and incredible set up you have! Wow!

 

[Rachmaginger]

I love that... “cock box”!!! Please say more about it and include photos, if you don’t mind. Was it withIn the coop? Did he go in there on his own at night to roost? Were the hens with him? This might be a way for us to keep a rooster, too.

My partner built and designed this. Originally he would put himself to bed. But then he decided he mostly wanted to sleep with the girls, so we would have to put him in it. It is technically separate to the coop, they are free range so the whole paddock is the run.

 

[chickenenthusiasts5698]

I have 2 friends who take my roosters. Both free range them in bachelor flocks. I used to sell on craigslist but don’t really trust the people on there.

 

[feather13]

My partner built and designed this. Originally he would put himself to bed. But then he decided he mostly wanted to sleep with the girls, so we would have to put him in it. It is technically separate to the coop, they are free range so the whole paddock is the run.

Thanks for the photo! What a great idea.

Btw I see you're from NZ. My daughter and I were on the North Island for two weeks last summer. Such a beautiful place and friendly people.

 

[Ebony Rose]

My 'other' portion of my vote stems from the following:
Obtaining sufficient and suitable feed has been an issue here in Panama. The last half-dozen eggs that I incubated had three quitters/infertile eggs, and of the three that hatched two were cockerels and the pullet had a nasty infection in the skin on her neck that was apparently antibiotic resistant as medicating her provided no relief. At the ten week mark, and having treated the pullet for eight of those weeks with no improvement, I put her out of her misery. I thought long and hard for an additional two weeks on how I wanted to deal with the cockerels; my original plan was to keep one to breed with the pullet for more eggs suitable for incubation, and eat the other.
With only two cockerels left, and no hen to breed them with, I ultimately decided to process them for the freezer, as starting another batch of chicks would find the cocks too old, and randy, by the time the pullets would reach a suitable age. At three months of age, they were skinny, but had sufficient meat on their bones to make a fine soup.