At 14 week of age just about all of my cockerels, which I hatched myself, are starting to get sexually active and beginning to act all cockerel like. I've planned for this and have multiple Batchelor coops for them. They will have a good life with lots of room and most of my family's scraps.
I'm not living in a world where I think I can easily rehome these boys and myself and my family are all wusses who don't want to process the extra cockerels.
Any family members who would do it, kills them in such a way that just seems wrong. No cone or knives, just throwing them around by their necks. It wasn't a good experience watching that.
But that's not what this thread is about, or what I'm doing with extra cockerels. This is about cockerel choosing. I have two groups, ten Bantam pullets(a year in spring), mostly OEGBs and 9 recently relieved of their cockerel 'siblings', standard sized mixed breed 14 week old pullets.
The younger ones where introduced to the Bantams young enough to have meshed quite well and the bantams are still the boss for the most part. I don't like the standard cockerels attitude right now, but that's expected, they where starting to try to mount the Bantam pullets and I was worried about injuries, so the move got fast tracked.
I would like a male with my girls, but I want one that will be a good fit with both size groups and one I can get along with. I think I have a solution for my problem and I want to see if this would be a good option.
I have one frizzled Bantam Cochin cockerel who's about a month older than the standard pullets, who had to be housed with similarly aged ducklings for companionship.
He is not yet interested in any pullets and is quite friendly to people. I'm also not interested in fertile eggs so breeding isn't a priority. I think he could be a good choice for flock cockerel. Has anyone done this? Use a 'medium' (in between both sizes) sized cockerel for a flock with both Bantams and standard birds?
Here he is a few weeks ago. He's quite a handsome fella isn't he?
I'm not living in a world where I think I can easily rehome these boys and myself and my family are all wusses who don't want to process the extra cockerels.
Any family members who would do it, kills them in such a way that just seems wrong. No cone or knives, just throwing them around by their necks. It wasn't a good experience watching that.
But that's not what this thread is about, or what I'm doing with extra cockerels. This is about cockerel choosing. I have two groups, ten Bantam pullets(a year in spring), mostly OEGBs and 9 recently relieved of their cockerel 'siblings', standard sized mixed breed 14 week old pullets.
The younger ones where introduced to the Bantams young enough to have meshed quite well and the bantams are still the boss for the most part. I don't like the standard cockerels attitude right now, but that's expected, they where starting to try to mount the Bantam pullets and I was worried about injuries, so the move got fast tracked.
I would like a male with my girls, but I want one that will be a good fit with both size groups and one I can get along with. I think I have a solution for my problem and I want to see if this would be a good option.
I have one frizzled Bantam Cochin cockerel who's about a month older than the standard pullets, who had to be housed with similarly aged ducklings for companionship.
He is not yet interested in any pullets and is quite friendly to people. I'm also not interested in fertile eggs so breeding isn't a priority. I think he could be a good choice for flock cockerel. Has anyone done this? Use a 'medium' (in between both sizes) sized cockerel for a flock with both Bantams and standard birds?
Here he is a few weeks ago. He's quite a handsome fella isn't he?
