Rooster Overload (but I love them!)

[aart]

You won't know if you'll have a problem until they mature.....and the problems can escalate fast.
Be ready to segregate out of sight of the hens and have a plan to remove them permanently if necessary.

 

[keesmom]

Thank you so much for your replies. That is what I thought. :-( I am very attached to them and don't know how to go about doing this. I will be able to have a "bachelor pad" in about a month. This is distressing to me. Lori

The sooner you have a bachelor pad ready the better off your pullets will be. If you have a difficult time with parting with excess males I would recommend you prevent your silkie hens from hatching any chicks. That will be a significant chore. Really. My silkies see an egg and they all go broody at once. The last hatch I let them do resulted in 7 out of 7 cockerels. They have since been fired.

Also while most silkie males are docile, the meanest cockerel I ever had was a gorgeous splash silkie. Found his way to a pot after repeated attempts to rehabilitate the little snot failed.

 

[goodhappens]

I am also a "newbie" to raising chicken and ran into the same issue. As they all started growing and I was thinking eggs should be coming more of them started looking like roosters. And sure enough I ended up with 5 Roosters and 6 pullets, 3 of the pullets were the same age as the roosters and laying eggs, and 3 were a month and a half younger not laying yet.
We also loved them all and got a kick out of watching the personalities develop and i built a small "bachelor pad to the side of main "run".I could see they were stressing the hens and the younger "sisters seems scared to death of them always running and hiding until I was out for their "protection"
I let them all free range but closed them up at night so not to have predator problems. One of the roosters was the Dominate and he treated the girls real good, but was not good with people especially men, he wanted to show his dominance toward any male that came around...my husband, my son...yeah not real good.
I could go on with the personalities of each, but the point is....that is way too many roosters for the amount of hens involved. I told my husband that we needed to do something they would end up stressing the hens out and with only 3 laying and the other 3 not quite of age yet this wouldn't be good. Bless his male heart but his reaction was, oh there is no such thing as too much "sex", he thought it was kinda funny.
Well sorry for not thinking of another way to put this, but after they pretty much "gang banged" one of the younger "sisters" as we called them...to death, we are now down to 1 rooster.
Life is definitely much better for all the girls and myself at this point.
One of the younger "sisters" is still having problems laying and I attribute this to the treatment she received from the roosters and the older hens still push them away when they are trying to eat.
Our only rooster sleeps on top of the girls coop and I let the older girls out first thing in the morning, keep the sisters in the coop-run area and give them their feed in there and when their done, I open the door back up for them to also free range, this seems to be helping so far at least.
Good luck on your choice and your flock.

 

[wilsonloria]

I so appreciate the suggestions and direction from everyone. I spoke to my feed store where I got the chicks and they said that they would take any roosters I am not going to keep. Elvis is the "king" and the one that is most mature looking. He sprouted very early. Elton is very friendly to me and likes to be cuddled, but he is a bit of a bully. Bernie just hangs around, and Spring is a beautiful black rooster (the other 3 are white). I think I may end up with just Elvis and Spring.

On a fun note, I have my first 3 eggs today!!!!

 

[wilsonloria]

This reply really has helped me rationalize a lot better. I want my chickens to have a good life more than I want to keep all of them. THANK YOU!!! Lori

 

[Kelsie2290]

Congratulations on those first eggs!
Very nice that your feed stores will take extra roosters.

 

[nayeli]

I think its awesome that your feed store will take your extra roos. Most don't take in any (for bio hazard/ disease reasons).

 

[wilsonloria]

I live in a smallish town and they know me really well. I have horses too.