Rooster Soap Opera

[Chickassan]

Right now the boys are still semi cute so I get that you might think about keeping a couple or worry about rocking the chicken boat, but don't lol! I like cockrels, but when iv'e hatched some I get started trying to give them away up to the point of harassing strangers. They aren't "bad" but they are nerve wracking! They will pester your hens to no end and probably you too. Even though I like them, I kind of dread the day I have to raise one again to replace my rooster.

 

[BackAcre]

Thank you all for this valuable advice. I am glad to have a community behind me as I navigate chicken ownership! My original plan was NO ROOSTERS. Zero interest in having roosters, I don't want hens missing feathers and to deal with any attitude. I didn't mind getting rid of the first rooster at all and the flock barely skipped a beat. I am on a holding pattern for the other rooster currently because if he is the single rooster in the group, I will allow him to stay. If one of the 2 youngest that I am waiting to sex ends up being a rooster also, I will send both dudes away. (Incidentally, I posted pics because I am so determined to figure out what these babies are asap and am open to any input! 13 week Americana or EE's) My only reason for keeping the single rooster if he has no competition, is that he is last original flock member of my little cross beak hen and she doesn't go near any other chickens besides him, so I want to give her the extra protection of having a companion instead of being alone all the time. Is that a good enough reason to keep a single rooster, or am I still being too sentimental?!

 

[Chickassan]

Actually if he's a good fella that is a perfectly healthy reason to keep him. It isn't like I didn't keep one but he's it untill something happens to him. Oh and your babies are Ameraucana.

Thank you all for this valuable advice. I am glad to have a community behind me as I navigate chicken ownership! My original plan was NO ROOSTERS. Zero interest in having roosters, I don't want hens missing feathers and to deal with any attitude. I didn't mind getting rid of the first rooster at all and the flock barely skipped a beat. I am on a holding pattern for the other rooster currently because if he is the single rooster in the group, I will allow him to stay. If one of the 2 youngest that I am waiting to sex ends up being a rooster also, I will send both dudes away. (Incidentally, I posted pics because I am so determined to figure out what these babies are asap and am open to any input! 13 week Americana or EE's) My only reason for keeping the single rooster if he has no competition, is that he is last original flock member of my little cross beak hen and she doesn't go near any other chickens besides him, so I want to give her the extra protection of having a companion instead of being alone all the time. Is that a good enough reason to keep a single rooster, or am I still being too sentimental?!

 

[aart]

(Incidentally, I posted pics because I am so determined to figure out what these babies are asap and am open to any input! 13 week Americana or EE's)

Combs look like singles...maybe close pic would help the old eyes.

 

[BackAcre]

I like what you are seeing aart! I will snap another closer pic tomorrow. Alas, I can't claim these guys as Ameraucanas - the guy who I got them from said the mother was 3/4 ameraucana and the rooster was full. One of them has pale grey/green on the bottom of the feet, while the other has more yellowish cast. Pretty sure that rules them out, but I will still label them 'americana' for my own satisfaction

 

[Chickassan]

Close enough eh?

I like what you are seeing aart! I will snap another closer pic tomorrow. Alas, I can't claim these guys as Ameraucanas - the guy who I got them from said the mother was 3/4 ameraucana and the rooster was full. One of them has pale grey/green on the bottom of the feet, while the other has more yellowish cast. Pretty sure that rules them out, but I will still label them 'americana' for my own satisfaction

 

[aart]

but I will still label them 'americana' for my own satisfaction

AmerauKinda...is what I call them.

 

[BackAcre]

Comb pics of the two unknowns. They look 100% different than my previous ameraucana rooster did at this stage of the game - by now he had a scarlet full grown peacomb and had been crowing for weeks! But one of these little chicks came to me with long gown in tail feathers and the other had none til a month later, which makes me wonder if they are both the same gender. Fingers crossed they are so I can finally name them after 7 weeks of waiting, haha.

 

[aart]

Doesn't really look like a pea comb, or a single/straight comb...
.....but that red at 7 weeks says male to me.
Unless you are somewhere really hot...was another thread about chicks in TX that were red at that age and most turned out to be females:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/do-i-seriously-have-8-cockerels.1266161/

 

[BackAcre]

@aart - these guys are 13 or 14 weeks, pic is from today at that age.