Rooster Rejection Experiences?

[ClareScifi]

I would like to hear from anyone who has tried to find a home for an extra rooster and been unsuccessful. I would like to hear the details of your experiences with such, and how you dealt with the situation. Did you build a bachelor pen for your extra roo, and if so, how did he do in it?

Or did you keep trying and eventually find another home for him? How long did it take to place your rooster successfully?

If your rooster was rejected after placement and had to come back home to you, what were the reasons the adopter gave you?

Anyone give away a rooster only to learn that the adopter wasn't zoned for roosters and it eventually came back home to you?

If a rooster did come back to you, did it introduce disease to your flock, having been around other chickens for a time, and, if so, how long had it been around the other chickens?

All scenarios will be appreciated.

Thanks,

Clare

 

[Oregon Blues]

My unwanted birds go into my freezer. ( Drakes, not rooster; I don't have chickens.) That way, I know what has happened to them and I am sure they are not going to be neglected or abused.

There are many more roosters than there are homes for them. The pet homes for chickens are pretty much already filled. You either have to keep him, or resign yourself that someone is going to eat him.

If you are in an area where there are chicken laws, you simply must ask if it is legal to keep a rooster before you let them go. Don't send a rooster to any home where it is not legal to keep him.

I would not take a bird back because of bio-security issues. There is way too much risk involved. If you are going to take him back, put him into strict quarantine.

Whether or not you must build a bachelor pen depends upon how the roosters get along and upon whether or not the extra rooster is going to mess up your breeding program. Although, I do have to say, that if you can not place extra roosters, you really have no business at all hatching chicks.

 

[runsw/scissors]

As harsh as it sounds I have to second OR Blues' statement.

I have one roo that my son adores that will have a home for life with us. Otherwise I eat them.

My experience is that Roos that I rehome usually end up getting eaten anyway, so I finally decided to cut out the middle man and just eat them myself. I know this way that they did not suffer and had a great home right up 'till the end. It sounds horrible when I write it out like that, but sadly, when it comes to Roosters the reality is harsh.

 

[ClareScifi]

I have decided to build a bachelor pad. We are pretty much vegetarian and don't even eat eggs. These chickens were a well meant but ill conceived present to us, and because of our dietary situation, they are pets. The only reason we hatched the eggs was to reduce the risk of introducing disease by bringing in grown chickens from outside.

We'd had only 2 hens initially, raised from 2 days old, and one had died, and the survivor was lonely and needed flock mates for the cold winter and companionship, so it seemed the best solution. The eggs were from a friend's farm, fertilized. The surviving hen went broody and set on them as a StepMama and had a successful hatch-- 50 % roosters.

We love the girls and boys equally. I'm kind of glad that woman didn't like white feathers. Her loss is our gain.

What do you think the chance is that my boy could have introduced disease to her flock? It would go both ways; right? He was at her house for about an hour.

We are not planning to breed more chicks, and the two rooster brothers get along fine.

I'm pretty sure that woman wasn't allowed to have a rooster. She said she was, but I couldn't locate her city's laws, and I was told by some others in another chicken group that roosters are not allowed in her city, unless grandfathered in, and I'm pretty sure her property isn't grandfathered in. So this is probably a blessing in disguise for my boys?

 

[keesmom]

I've only taken one roo "back", because of escalating aggression (last straw was going for the face). BUT I did not bring him home to my flock. I took him directly to the family I sell all my extra roos to, as I don't bother trying to find homes for the cull males. I want them completely removed from the gene pool.

Next time you're in the same situation with a single hen either rehome her and start over, or put wooden eggs under her and see if she'll go broody and order sexed pullets to put under her. You can always find homes for surplus hens. Homes for extra roos are almost nonexistent.

 

[keesmom]

I've only taken one roo "back", because of escalating aggression (last straw was going for the face). BUT I did not bring him home to my flock. I took him directly to the family I sell all my extra roos to, as I don't bother trying to find homes for the surplus males.

Next time you're in the same situation with a single hen either rehome her and start over, or put wooden eggs under her and see if she'll go broody and order sexed pullets to put under her. You can always find homes for surplus hens. Homes for extra roos are almost nonexistent.

 

[ClareScifi]

It was late in the fall, and I didn't have time to order eggs. That would be a good idea another time of year, though. I really worried it would get too cold for these chicks to hatch when they did and make it through the winter, but so far they are doing fine.

No way I could have given my sole hen away. I love her dearly. Rehoming her was not an option. I would have worried about the other chickens beating up on her or giving her a disease.

The reason my hen went broody so easily, I think, sitting on eggs not her own, was because her sister had died, and she was brooding the death. Interestingly, the sister who died had been the broody girl, but because we had no rooster, she never got to sit on fertilized eggs. How she would have loved to have done so, looking back, but I thought it would be a hassle for her at the time, and I didn't desire more chickens then. The survivor, who went broody upon her sister's death, had never been broody at all before her sister died. But she grieved and mourned the loss of her sweet sister, so the timing was right.

However, I wasn't sure she'd sit the whole time, having never set before, but she sure did-- 30 days. My neighbor had started her sitting on eggs before we got home from vacation. We didn't know the sister had died until we got home-- she had died the day I left on vacation and the neighbor didn't want to spoil our vacation so hadn't let us know, but had put her own eggs under her to get her used to sitting on them, and she took to it so well. He then got fertilized eggs for her to sit on from his son's farm, and that worked great.

It is nice to know you can order sexed pullets, though.

However, I wouldn't have missed out on raising roosters for the world. They have been a joy and delight. We do have a back-up farm for the roos, the farm where the eggs came from, so if worst comes to worst, we can take them there, so that's comforting.

 

[ClareScifi]

Correction-- I meant to say it would have been too late to order sexed pullets, not eggs. The stores around here that sell chicks/pullets no longer had any of them in stock, since it was late in the year for hatching/raising chicks, and I didn't have time to fool with ordering, and I am on a limited income, anyway. The StepMama hen had never been a mother, so I didn't know how she would take to chicks. As it was, she nearly pecked two of them to death when they hatched, but they both survived. One I have had to raise by hand, because she can't stand him, still. I don't know how she would have done with the sexed pullets-- probably better-- because both of the chicks she pecked so hard were roos, though I didn't know it at the time. I think their high testosterone got to her, being new to motherhood, and they were full of energy and chaos. :>)

 

[ClareScifi]

A friend told me a sad story today. He has a farm and saw some people dump two black roosters at an abandoned farmhouse near his today. He didn't realize what they were doing until they had left.

Isn't that awful? I'm sure the coyotes will get them, and it's so cold, and what will they eat? I doubt that they left food for them. Maybe they thought they could go into the farmhouse for shelter.

I think it might have been kinder to eat them.

 

[rbloomer]

I hatched some eggs and turns out that I have 5 roosters to find homes for. They are silkies that we have raised as pets and it kills me to give them up. I live in an urban estate zone which says nothing about keeping roosters but my neighbors are complaining so I am trying to be a good neighbor but really with 3 acres you think they would mind their own business.