selection

[yogifink]

When making selection on who to cull and who to save what traits are desired in the cockerells you plan to breed?

I am confident I could make a good roo selection later in life but am not certain on what to look for at 3 months. Should I wait longer for certain traits to present themselves?

Right now, Ive got wellies and Plymouth rocks and plan to also breed bcm's and ccl's.

 

[Acre4Me]

From reading on here, roosters can change a lot in personality once they hit puberty, with some becoming human aggressive or hen aggressive. So, many will never breed from a human aggressive rooster. You would have to wait out puberty to witness their adult temperament. I seen many posters refer to bachelor pads of multiple roosters that are housed away from the hens. Maybe someone will chime in.

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

What are your breeding goals? Are you aiming to breed for SOP or for nice backyard birds? At three months the starting point would be obvious departures from the breed standard such as incorrect comb type, obvious color issues, etc. There is so much maturation that they have yet to go through you really can't judge much beyond any early obvious faults. Even plumage *faults* seen at three months *may* resolve through the juvenile molts. If at all possible, growing out to 6 months to start making cuts is going to give you a better place to work from.
With the dark and colored laying breeds you mention, it can be much later as you needto do some test batch and grow out cycles to see what sort of shell color his female chicks produce.

 

[yogifink]

thanks for the insight. I was hoping use half the clutch to stock our freezer, but that can come later.
I like the idea if culling later, but I'm looking at a 50:50 cockerell to pullet, will that be a problem having too many roos and aggression toward eachother?