Roosters? What's wrong with them?

[BrittnyChicks]

My first ever chicken was a rooster, and I fell absolutely in love with him. He was the sweetest thing in the world and loved cuddles, interaction with other pets, and he was convinced he was a lovable puppy (He acted like it too).

I heard LOADS of people say they don't want to hatch because of the chance of Roosters, or roosters being shunted away and abandoned, whats up with that?

I know roosters can be mean to other hens and males, but they can't all be bad surely?

Might be my lack of chicken knowledge

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Your question is, what's wrong with roosters? The answer is, for the most part, nothing. You just don't need very many. In fact, unless you wish to hatch eggs, you really don't need a rooster at all. If you DO want fertile eggs, one rooster can service ten or more hens: you certainly don't need a rooster for each hen, just as you wouldn't want a bull for every cow in a herd. Too many roosters would cause problems not only for each other (fighting) but also for the hens (injuries caused by overbreeding). So it's a matter of management. You're going to get about 50% males out of every hatch, so what are you going to do with all those cockerels? Well ... what's good about them is, they taste like chicken.

 

[Sussex19]

To put a bit more perspective on it, over the 15 months I have processed something like 20 cockerels for us to eat.
Whereas I have not processed any females. If I was not willing to kill them, I would be feeding 20 hungry, none productive chickens. If I was somewhere which has restrictions on how many chickens I have, that would be a really big problem.

 

[McChooky]

Stallions,bulls and billy goats are a lot more trouble to keep than mares, cows and does. The male is naturally a more aggressive animal than a female. People usually keep males for breeding purposes (not pets) That goes for chickens too.

 

[Sussex19]

I love roosters too!
I think in many cases, it is because they live in towns and cities, where they are not allowed to have one.
Also, if you hatch say 20 chicks, you could easily keep the ten hens all together (going with an average of 50/50 male and female) where as if you keep all those roosters together with the hens, they will fight and over breed the poor hens in many cases.
One could keep them in a bachelor coop, but some people don't have the space.
And....going by the amount of aggressive rooster posts one gets on here, some people do have a lot of problems with them. (I never have really, though)
I think if you aren't willing to cull when needed, to maintain peace in the flock, then the decision to not hatch chicks is a good one.

 

[Tookie]

When hatching, you'll probably get about half females and half males. That male to female ratio isn't good, way too many males for that amount of females.
The males will eventually start mating the females, and the poor females will be over mated. Also the males will probably start to fight due to not enough females.
So, many people may not like to kill their males, and therefore dump them, or try to give them away and have no luck. Or maybe they can't have any males where they live.
I myself don't like hatching, due to having to deal with a bunch of males.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

We have only hatched once. Out of six live chicks, four were cockerels. Not a problem for us, as soon as they started fighting with each other and chasing the pullets, into the freezer they went. Everything has a purpose around here. Hens lay eggs. Roosters, or cockerels, go into the pot. They make good soup.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Wow, I could never have the guts to do that!

Just a questions- do you put the cockerels alive in the freezer?

Oh mercy, no. And guts got nothing to do with it. We have a neighbor, lovely Mennonite lady, who butchers them for us. I take them to her live in the morning and pick them up in the afternoon, looking just like the ones you buy at the grocery store. Clean and plucked and in a ziplock bag. I put them in my fridge for three or four days to let the meat rest and relax, then they go in the freezer. I'm a city girl, never learned how to butcher and clean when I was young, and she does this all the time and only charges $2 each so it's just easier to let her do it. I know my birds had a good life, they're happy and healthy, and that's the kind of meat I want to feed my family.

 

[sdm111]

There's a lot of misinformation in this thread about game fowl. Pretty much everything that was said except big Tom's posts. He's right please don't spread the wrong information because you don't know what you're talking about and are very wrong.

 

[BrittnyChicks]

When hatching, you'll probably get about half females and half males. That male to female ratio isn't good, way too many males for that amount of females.
The males will eventually start mating the females, and the poor females will be over mated. Also the males will probably start to fight due to not enough females.
So, many people may not like to kill their males, and therefore dump them, or try to give them away and have no luck. Or maybe they can't have any males where they live.
I myself don't like hatching, due to having to deal with a bunch of males.

Oh, that makes a lot more sense now. My first rooster was a single chicken and lived with 8 quails.
Don't worry, they did not fight as they grew up together since they were born.

We originally had 5 chicken eggs, 2 were infertile, and 1 quit around Day 19 and 1 internally pipped but was too weak to proceed to the external pip.
My Rooster, Eggnog is a warrior, he got through a power-out, and humidity spike, when most eggs quit around that time.