Should I cull cockerels now?

[DavidReaves]

I just hatched 15 chicks. At 4 weeks there are 6 obvious cockerels. They are mixed, Rhode Island Red and Cream Legbar. One of them is really beautiful and developing quickly. Since they are mixed, it is very unlikely that anyone would want to use them for breeding, though. I can't tell about personalities yet, but it's not likely that they would be great pets. If I offer them on Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace it is probable that they'd end up as training fodder for someone's fighting cock-- even though it's illegal in Texas.

I have a small coop, with room for about 5 hens. I don't know that it is practical to try to raise the cockerels for meat, since I would have to build a separate enclosure for them. I know it's not cost effective, since beyond the cost of building a grow-out coop, there's the cost of feeding them for another 3 months or so. I can offer them here on Backyard Chickens, which "should" be safe at least from cockfighters. I don't know why anyone would want them, though. What I'm asking really is it ethical to cull them simply because they are inconvenient?

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

Someone else might want them to eat them.

 

[springvalley123]

Yes, it's ethical. They are livestock, even though some people treat them as pets. I give mine sunflower seeds as a treat, yet I humanely butcher the cockerels. People want eggs, but the farms kill a lot of males to get the right number of laying pullets/hens. As for cost effectiveness, true that raising laying breeds gives you a very expensive, small meat carcass, but dual purpose are a little better. I processed 5 cockerels about 8-10 weeks recently. They are small, but very easy to manage at that size (about 2-3 lbs birds live, 2 lb or less dressed out). I'd process them about 10 weeks, once you're certain they're cockerels. Of course the legbars are auto sexing, maybe the RIRs seem blatant due to combs/wattles.

As for how to rehome them if use for fighting cock training is a problem, the most fool proof way (other than hopefully a BYCer) is to go to the buyer's home, do a home inspection not unlike a dog rescue would do, maybe not as intense.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

You can always contact zoos or falconers and see if they would be interested in young males for feeding to the larger birds. Especially if you're getting early showing males, it sounds like if someone is interested, it would be a win for both of you