Should I harvest or cage bullying roosters?

[goats-n-oats]

How many hens do.you have vs pullets/young ones?

Hi, I have 26 laying hens, and maybe half of the 60+ young chicks (2-4 months old) are hens. Up until now, there was one rooster, a Swedish Flower chicken from Meyer, who did a nice job of watching them (he attacks me but treats the hens very well). They have a garage with coop to themselves, 20x12', and an attached outdoor run, 50x12', and a two-acre yard (although I prefer they don't all forage because they sometimes roam onto my neighbor's property).
Is it abnormal to have so many chickens? Right now I have 32 adults (6 roosters and 26 laying hens), and 63 chicks ages 1-3 months.

 

[goats-n-oats]

There are other solutions and if you intend to keep the above amount of chickens then the other solutions, assuming you have the room, will in the long term save you a lot of problems.
Split the group up. Build coops for each group at some distance apart.
Put the hen that is having problems in with the nicest of the cockerels. Wait for the cockerels to grow up and breed your future chickens from these groups.
If you can, put like with like. Not specifically for breeding reasons but for group cohesion.

If you can't do the above then kill the cockerels rather than inprison them. It's not their fault. This is often what a gang of cockerels are like.
I can't help wondering why you started off with so many chickens. 3 or 4 make a good learning flock.

OK, in the meantime I have found a way to put them outside first thing in the morning (like, out in the yard, while the hens are in the enclosed run), and I'll open the fence for them come back inside on their own in the evening. But the plan is now to harvest them, as soon as I get paid I will get a pot and tools to butcher them. Thanks everyone for your comments.

 

[goats-n-oats]

Here's a photo of what they've done to one little hen (on the right):

 

[NatJ]

as soon as I get paid I will get a pot and tools to butcher them.

I don't know what you already have, but I've never bought special tools for butchering chickens-- I just take a knife from the kitchen, and an ax/hatchet/machete from the garage to behead the chicken. I've scalded chickens in a big pot from the ktichen if I want to pluck, but I often prefer to just skin them (no pot required.) A clean bowl or pan from the kitchen is fine for holding the butchered chickens.

 

[NatJ]

Here's a photo of what they've done to one little hen (on the right): View attachment 3282491

Ouch! Yes, she definitely needs a break!

 

[goats-n-oats]

This is my holding pen for cull cockerels: https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/camp-cockerel.77789/

One of the problems with having a group of males is that they compete for mates. Even if they aren't fighting they will mate a hen that one of the others has just mated as part of their competition for dominance.

Oh, OK! I see. Thanks!

 

[3KillerBs]

I don't know what you already have, but I've never bought special tools for butchering chickens-- I just take a knife from the kitchen, and an ax/hatchet/machete from the garage to behead the chicken. I've scalded chickens in a big pot from the ktichen if I want to pluck, but I often prefer to just skin them (no pot required.) A clean bowl or pan from the kitchen is fine for holding the butchered chickens.

I'm sitting there waiting for the water to heat for scalding 3 cockerels who are waiting for me in pet carriers.

I have a broomstick and a set of kitchen shears.

The scalding container is a clean plastic kitchen trash can.

 

[goats-n-oats]

I'm sitting there waiting for the water to heat for scalding 3 cockerels who are waiting for me in pet carriers.

I have a broomstick and a set of kitchen shears.

The scalding container is a clean plastic kitchen trash can.

@NatJ @3KillerBs how do you kill them? I'm so embarrassed, I tried breaking one rooster's neck this morning like in the movie and it just flexed.

 

[3KillerBs]

@NatJ @3KillerBs how do you kill them? I'm so embarrassed, I tried breaking one rooster's neck this morning like in the movie and it just flexed.

I use the broomstick method and I was taught how in person by someone who was knowledgeable and could teach me correctly.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I have 4 young roosters from Cackle, they are about 5-6 months old,

Nope, you don't have young roosters, you have immature cockerels that are pretty much doing what immature cockerels do. I generally don't see gang rape even when I have over a dozen cockerels that age but it does happen. I generally don't see bare backed hens like that but when I do I eat them so they can't reproduce. We all have different ways of handling things.

I wanted to be able to breed these breeds if there is any supply chain issues, food shortages, etc. (Yes I'm a nervous prepper.)

If you are showing them or maybe breeding to sell you need to build coops and pens so you can keep the breeds separated for breeding. If you are hatching them for meat or eggs there is nothing wrong with a barnyard mix. You can sell a barnyard mix but might get more for pure breed chicks.

Should I harvest these roosters, cage them, or what?

A lot depends on your goals. You have an older rooster that obviously was able to keep enough of the hens fertile to hatch out a bunch of chicks. I don't know how many hens you plan to keep. That Swedish Flower rooster attacks you and if I remember right isn't all that big, not compared to the cockerels you have. If you are going to eat chickens (I like that solution) I'd suggest you eat that Swedish Flower rooster and keep one of the cockerels. I assume you are done hatching this year. By next spring that cockerel will be flock master, should give you larger cockerels to eat, and hopefully won't be attacking you. It's a little harder for one cockerel to gang rape hens than it is for four.

I don't have a recommendation as to which cockerel to keep. Any one of them are just as likely as any other to turn out to be a good rooster when they actually mature into being a rooster instead of a hormone driven cockerel.

how do you kill them?

There is a lot of information in the meat bird section of this forum on different techniques. Look at the top in the stickies section.

Some common techniques involve using a killing cone. You can slice the jugular to let them bleed to death or take off the whole head maybe using pruning loppers, knives, or something else. I use the ax and stump method. It doesn't have to be an ax, I use a hatchet, some use a machete or meat cleaver. The stump is important. The broomstick method is popular with some people. Wringing the neck works but a lot of people don't like that. Some people use cervical dislocation, sounds like what you tried. Any of these methods can work but there are details to make them work right. Before you try any of them get with somebody to talk about those details, either on this thread or start a new thread in the meat bird section.