Options for replacing an old rooster

[Bigfish502]

Hey everyone, I have a bit of a dilemma. I have a rooster that is 4 years old that I would like to replace with some younger blood and I'm not quite sure what route I should take. I have 4 roosters that are his offspring that are 6 months old that could potentially fill the position. For context the rooster was the offspring of some birds I bought from Privett Hatchery. He was the only rooster in the batch that didn't have curled toes so naturally he was the defacto winner when it came time to replace his father who went blind in one eye due to an infection (none of the hens had curled toes). I ordered some new hens from Bresse farms and those became the mothers of the 4 roosters I have now. Strangely enough one of the roosters that was slipped into that shipment (Bresse farms sent me free cockerels along with my order of pullets) ended up developing curled toes and one of the hens had a blonde crest that wasn't like any other cream legbar I've seen. So with context out of the way I have a few options. First is that I keep the old rooster and hope he can continue to produce viable offspring. Second is a choose one of the young roosters to replace the old rooster and breed him back to the original stock from Privett Hatchery (which admittedly are reaching 4-5 years of age). Third is like the second except I order new quality hens to breed him with. Fourth is I eat all the 4 roosters and go out of my way to order a new quality rooster from a different farm to continue the blood line. Thus far I've been trying to select for a large body size in my birds so they can make for better dual purpose properties (the original father who lost an eye from Privett Hatchery was massive compared to his siblings). As far as temperament goes there have been a few incidents of aggression with this current rooster but they usually happen in the peak breeding season and are usually pretty predictable and manageable (his father would attack if someone approached too quickly on his blind side). Other than that he has been an excellent protector chasing off hawks that try to attack his hens. If I need to order new birds where would be the best place to receive high quality cream legbar brood stock? Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[Cinnamon Roll]

What are your flock goals? Changing roosters is a fast way to bring in new genetics but you're also adding more question marks to your project.

In my experience, McMurray has pretty nice looking Legbars if you decide to go with a big hatchery. The Legbar roos in the pictures on Bresse Farms have a lot of red color and my cockerels from Meyer hatchery have a little red too. Last summer I ordered 7 Meyer Legbar cockerels and some pullets for my broodies, McMurray didnt have any Legbar pullets available at that time. The cockerel's size has mostly been uniform but not huge of course, 3.6lbs at 13 weeks, and they are behaving as expected. (I never have human-aggression from hen-raised cockerels.) There is one cockerel that doesn't have a crest and the pullets are not very uniform in color but they were all sexable as chicks. So far I'm happy with them.

Since there's still availability, I recommend that you order some pullet chicks and then you can safely hem and haw about your decision. It's always easy to add cockerels or cancel the whole order if you decide to.

 

[Mrs. K]

If you have 4 cockerels I am assuming that there is at least one and maybe two or three that are a no. Cull them and get them out of the equation. Clear some trees so you can see the Forrest.

However, the curled toes bother me, if you are going to be breeding, you have to be heartless. I would not hatch the either the male or female line.

I have done it both ways, I BOUGHT a $15 dollar rooster from a lady that bought expensive eggs and hatched 8 roosters. It really quickly improved my flock, and was residual for several generations.

However, a couple of years ago, I bought straight run leghorns, different colors with the idea that I would again freshen my genetics, but in the meantime I raised up an homely mutt of a rooster who became a flock master to the point I put all the well bred roosters in jars for soup.

Good luck,

Mrs K

 

[Bigfish502]

If you have 4 cockerels I am assuming that there is at least one and maybe two or three that are a no. Cull them and get them out of the equation. Clear some trees so you can see the Forrest.

However, the curled toes bother me, if you are going to be breeding, you have to be heartless. I would not hatch the either the male or female line.

I have done it both ways, I BOUGHT a $15 dollar rooster from a lady that bought expensive eggs and hatched 8 roosters. It really quickly improved my flock, and was residual for several generations.

However, a couple of years ago, I bought straight run leghorns, different colors with the idea that I would again freshen my genetics, but in the meantime I raised up an homely mutt of a rooster who became a flock master to the point I put all the well bred roosters in jars for soup.

Good luck,

Mrs K

Thus far I haven't kept any roosters with curled toes for breeders, just stating that the issue was with a few of their male siblings. The cross between my current old rooster and the hens from Bresse farms didn't result in any curled toes. I haven't quite decided which of the 4 I would keep if I used one as a breeder, though I'd probably rule out the smallest one right away. I'm not looking to breed to poultry show perfection, but I do want to keep them pure bred cream legbars with good egg laying, carcass size, foraging skills, resistance to disease, etc.

 

[Bigfish502]

What are your flock goals? Changing roosters is a fast way to bring in new genetics but you're also adding more question marks to your project.

In my experience, McMurray has pretty nice looking Legbars if you decide to go with a big hatchery. The Legbar roos in the pictures on Bresse Farms have a lot of red color and my cockerels from Meyer hatchery have a little red too. Last summer I ordered 7 Meyer Legbar cockerels and some pullets for my broodies, McMurray didnt have any Legbar pullets available at that time. The cockerel's size has mostly been uniform but not huge of course, 3.6lbs at 13 weeks, and they are behaving as expected. (I never have human-aggression from hen-raised cockerels.) There is one cockerel that doesn't have a crest and the pullets are not very uniform in color but they were all sexable as chicks. So far I'm happy with them.

Since there's still availability, I recommend that you order some pullet chicks and then you can safely hem and haw about your decision. It's always easy to add cockerels or cancel the whole order if you decide to.

My immediate goal is to replace this old rooster and breed a new generation of hens since a large portion of my flock needs to be retired as they are 4-5 years old. I'm not looking to breed to poultry show perfection but I do want my cream legbars to be good layers and have good carcass size, disease resistance, foraging skills, etc.

 

[Mrs. K]

Third is like the second except I order new quality hens to breed him with. Fourth is I eat all the 4 roosters and go out of my way to order a new quality rooster from a different farm to continue the blood line.

I think you will be happiest with this idea. But you don't have to do this all at once. Cull three of the cockerels, keeping the old man, and your best home raised, getting in the straight run of chicks next spring. Maybe begin to thin some of your older hens if space is a problem, but you can cheat in the summer.

Come the fall, cull the old man rooster, a few more older girls to get your numbers right, look hard at your new cockerels, and the one you kept. Cull the young roosters, that don't make the cut.

There might be an advantage of keeping either the old man or the home raised rooster through the winter - it just depends on the flock dynamics. Might be ok to let them go too.

Thing is, it might be that with a year growth you do like the home raised boy. If not, you have others to choose from.

The pullets also bring in new blood. But that is not saying come next spring, you could not hatch some eggs from your new birds last year.

I think this will give you good genetics, good diversity and do your flock a lot of good.

Mrs K