Rooster Blessed

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roosterblessed

roosterblessed

In the Brooder
5 Years
Jun 25, 2014
26
0
24
My son had Cinnamon Queen chickens a few years back with his 4H. We moved and gave our chickens to a relative. I have missed them everyday. This year we bought 13 chickens. When we went to Tractor Supply to pick them out, the lady helping us kept picking up ones and saying this one has beautiful coloring and putting them in our box. It never dawned on me at the time that they would be roosters.... until the crowing started and now I find quite a bit of humor in remembering her words.

They are ten weeks of age right now, and we have three confirmed roosters. Possibly a fourth. The worst part of it is that I'm in love with all of them. What on earth do you do with that many roosters? My husband keeps showing me the stew pot, but I can't bring myself to even thinking about that right now. We have plenty of land, space is not an issue. Will they fight? Will three of them tear up my hens? Is there anyone who would love a pet rooster?

Help!
Tracey... Rooster Blessed
 
Hi and welcome.
While it would not be advisable to keep that many roosters with just the number of hens you have in a one flock situation, you *can* easily maintain a 'bachelor' flock of just the roos, housed separate from your hens. This would allow you to keep all of your birds without doing so at the expense of the well-being of your hens. As to whether your males will end up fighting - that is something that only time will tell. Plenty of folks keep bachelor flocks that never have an issue, other folks run into problems - just depends on the birds and how you keep them (ie overcrowded conditions increases the likleyhood of issues)
 
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Welcome to BYC!

Sounds like you have a flurry of roosters! The proper ratio of rooster to hens is 1 roo to 10 to 12 hens. So you may need to add your flock.

Most roosters do fight. You might get away with keeping 2 total, but that is probably it.

You can rehome them. You can start by chatting with your chicken neighbors in your state thread to see if anyone nearby will take one or more. Scroll thru this link to find your state thread....

https://www.backyardchickens.com/f/26/where-am-i-where-are-you

And after you have 20 posts, you can place an ad in our Buy Sell and Trade section. Maybe you can find them a good home there...

https://www.backyardchickens.com/f/67/buy-sell-trade

Enjoy this new adventure you are on! Good luck if you do keep them all or if you re home them. :)
 
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Welcome to BYC!
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Please make yourself at home and we are here to help.

Yes, the ratio is around one roo for every 1-10 hens you keep. This ensures no conflicts and less hen attention. You should check out the link Two Crows has given you. They'll help.
 
Welcome to BYC
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Glad you joined us! I've successfully kept 4-5 roosters at a time with around 50 hens, but they free ranged over a large area and managed to stay out of each other's feathers most of the time. We did have the odd problem with a youngster challenging my top rooster, but apart from that they co-existed mostly peacefully.
 
Welcome to BYC! Sorry about your rooster issues. What kind of chickens did you get? That's the beauty of Cinnamon Queens. They are Red Sex Link chickens that can be sexed by color at hatching (males are whitish, females are reddish). In addition, they are egg laying machines. The other members have given you some good advice regarding your roosters. Good luck with your flock.
 
There is a glut of roosters looking for homes - mainly because many communities won't allow people to have them. Sometimes asking a low price for them keeps them out of the soup pot, or worse circumstances - what prevail when you offer freebies.

I think you are the only one who has ever penned the words - "Rooster Blessed." I don't want to jinx you but, maybe you are meant to have a rescue home for Roosters.
 
I want to thank all of you for your input. I sure need all the info I can put my hands on. We picked the chickens out of the "straight run" selection... not sure if that wording is correct. Anyway, we definitely have a variety. I have two Aussies, one is a rooster. Two bantam roosters, a cochin, pretty sure we have two cinnamon queens, three white ones that I couldn't tell you what they are, two other dark brown beautiful hens that are also unidentified at this point and a white cochin.

We have about four acres and the birds roam free all day, but we put them up at night to keep them safe. The aussie rooster is quite aggressive compared to the rest of the batch. I'm sure he will be the top rooster.

I am hoping my husband will build separate quarters for the roos and that everything will have a happy ending.

Thanks again!
 
You have a nice variety of chickens. Black Australorps are my favorite standard breed. They are very hardy, calm and gentle, and excellent layers of large, brown eggs. I'm surprised that your Australorp rooster is so aggressive. None of mine ever were, but then there are always exceptions with any breed of chicken. It sounds like you have a great set up for your chickens. Good luck.
 

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