Roosters - to keep or not to keep - that is the question!

[nzpouter]

we always keep a few roosters with the flock.... we get higher fertility, more eyes to watch over the chicks... + they are the prettier sex in the chook world...

 

[Mahonri]

I've got about 13, 10 week old roos that I'm going to have to rehome. more than 2/3rds of my last hatch ended up being roos.

I also have a year old Golden Cuckoo Maran that I want to say goodbye to... as beautiful as he is.

I'm keeping my adult Blue Wheaten Ameraucana roo and I'm going to keep the best looking of three juvie BWA roos. Two lucky people will get to buy the other two come May or June.

 

[stphen]

well nice and informative post. thanks for this interesting replies keep updating these.

 

[Sjisty]

Quote:
This would make a good count the chickens contest - Beautiful flock!

 

[A.T. Hagan]

My philosophy is to keep only those roosters that are needed for breeding and no more unless you are in a true free-range situation where you can keep a few more, but only a few.

If your hens are going to be yarded, kept in tractors, or any other sort of situation where they are confined to a restricted area during the day then it's better to segregate the boys from the girls. Your hens will thank you for it.

I keep all of my cock birds in their own bachelor pad where they can pester and annoy each other all day long (and they do) but not the hens who have work to do. When I need fertile eggs one of the boys gets lucky for a while.

.....Alan.

 

[ilovechickens]

I love my Roo's, I have 2 right now, and because I have four separate pens, with different breeds I will be having 4. I also have the dual purpose birds, so the extra roos that hatch will grow and than we will butcher. I just love being woken up at 4:10 in the morning. That is the name of the Roo, and they are beautiful birds. I go into all of the pens and have never been attacked by my roos, now the ladies, yes, I have been attacked.