Somethings wrong with my rooster?

[Bell Street]

Hello and welcome to BYC, You found an Awesome poultry Forum to be a part of with many great knowledgeable members who are more then willing to jump in and help you with any questions you may have.

Sorry to hear about your rooster and unfortunate experience with too many roosters to hen ratio.

I agree with the other members and and you need to cull all but one rooster from your flock. I would pick out the Rooster with the best temperament and send the rest to freezer camp and invite them to dinner at a later date.

IMO, I wouldn't take the risk of eating any animal big or small that has been acting sickly for any amount of time and if injured, process immediately to assure the meat is still good and infection hasn't had time to set in. A chicken is not work getting sick over when you have four other healthy candidates to choose from.

Best of luck.

Thank you for your advice, I appreciate the input.

 

[Bell Street]

I would have rehomed the other roosters and KEPT the one that was being beaten up, but, that's just me. The remaining roosters will probably decide on another roo to beat up and so it goes. Way too many roosters and the best fighter is not necessarily going to be the best one to keep for your flock. He may end up brutalizing the hens too.

Thank you for your advice.

 

[Bell Street]

Welcome to BYC! I'm sorry about your rooster.

It most likely happened because there shouldn't be 6 roosters together with only 8 hens. Either get rid of 5 roosters, or put all roosters together with no hens.

Keeping a bird in isolation for 24 hours does nothing. The only thing accomplished there was knocking him further down in the pecking order and making him a bigger target.

Either heal him or put him down. I would get rid of 5 roosters.

Thank you for your advice, I agree that isolation wasn't the thing to do but at the time it was very confusing and I needed time to make the discussion. I had not harvested before this.

 

[Josh L.]

I'm sorry for your loss and for the stress you had to go through. Its a shame people were a little hard on you here, I know when you're first learning to sex and care for chickens, it can be very difficult to figure out who's a roo and who's a hen who looks like a roo. Don't take the harsher comments to heart. In the future, I'd say you could post pics of your flock and we could help you sex them as a group, to figure out who's definitely a rooster and who to keep an eye on, just so you can remove some of the roos before they become an issue.

 

[ValerieJ]

Hi there! Welcome to BYC!

You've received a lot of good advice here. I just wanted to say I understand how difficult this is. Which one do you keep? That decision is hard, but I agree with the folks who said to keep the one with the best temperament. Don't necessarily keep the most dominant one. You want the one that is respectful of you and good to the girls. That takes a little time to figure out, but you don't want to wait for injuries.

I'm juggling 5 cockerels and roosters too, but I have three of them separated from the girls and each other. I have the space and coops to do that, but I'm not totally happy with it. I just can't decide who to cull and who to keep atm. I have one really great rooster, and just want one back up. I have 14 girls, so I can feasibly keep two. Right now I do have the two roosters with them and they have it all worked out, so you would think I should be settled about it. The reason I'm not is because the one in second place is not nice to people. I have to take a squirt bottle into the run with me to make him behave. It works. He thinks I spit. So, that's just the way I do it, and you may have another approach. We are all doing the best we can for these little jabberwockies.

Is there a cockerel in the group that you are particularly fond of?

A good rooster will help you with the girls. Pippi, my top guy, herds them into the coop at night, and I have no doubt that he would fight to the death if any predator ever got into my predator proof run. So don't be discouraged. One of your boys will be the perfect one for your flock.

Good luck! Happy you are here!!!

 

[Bell Street]

I'm sorry for your loss and for the stress you had to go through. Its a shame people were a little hard on you here, I know when you're first learning to sex and care for chickens, it can be very difficult to figure out who's a roo and who's a hen who looks like a roo. Don't take the harsher comments to heart. In the future, I'd say you could post pics of your flock and we could help you sex them as a group, to figure out who's definitely a rooster and who to keep an eye on, just so you can remove some of the roos before they become an issue.

Thank you for the words of encouragement. I examined these roos for so long trying to determine which were roos. It didn't help that none of the hens layed a egg until mid-November, (got them as chicks mid-May). I feel I now know the signs to look for, but if I'm unsure I will ask with pictures.
Thank you for your kind words. I didn't take there comments personally, but I certainly felt a unanimously thoughts, which is what I was looking for.

 

[Bell Street]

Hi there! Welcome to BYC!

You've received a lot of good advice here. I just wanted to say I understand how difficult this is. Which one do you keep? That decision is hard, but I agree with the folks who said to keep the one with the best temperament. Don't necessarily keep the most dominant one. You want the one that is respectful of you and good to the girls. That takes a little time to figure out, but you don't want to wait for injuries.

I'm juggling 5 cockerels and roosters too, but I have three of them separated from the girls and each other. I have the space and coops to do that, but I'm not totally happy with it. I just can't decide who to cull and who to keep atm. I have one really great rooster, and just want one back up. I have 14 girls, so I can feasibly keep two. Right now I do have the two roosters with them and they have it all worked out, so you would think I should be settled about it. The reason I'm not is because the one in second place is not nice to people. I have to take a squirt bottle into the run with me to make him behave. It works. He thinks I spit. So, that's just the way I do it, and you may have another approach. We are all doing the best we can for these little jabberwockies.

Is there a cockerel in the group that you are particularly fond of?

A good rooster will help you with the girls. Pippi, my top guy, herds them into the coop at night, and I have no doubt that he would fight to the death if any predator ever got into my predator proof run. So don't be discouraged. One of your boys will be the perfect one for your flock.

Good luck! Happy you are here!!!

Thank you for your letter of encouragement. It has been difficult discussion, especially that this is a hobby with my 9 year old grandson who has a very big heart and loves all animals. I guess we needed to learn this lesson the hard way. We read all the comments together and it helped to accept the realities. Another good lesson. Rest assured, it won't happen again and I thank everyone for there input. This is the first forum I've ever joined and I'm glad I did.