**Soo sad!! (having to get rid of roos)**

[Chick1043]

Sorry about that! My first roo a dog got too.

And my other two roos I also had to get rid of. I know how you feel!

 

[HighNDryFarm]

In my experience, it's always the friendliest that end up a Roo. I've learned to enjoy them, cause they are SO fun, but with the knowledge to give the new owners.

 

[Lil'ChickFarm]

I raise parrots. Over the years, there has been losses. It is part of the whole hobby of doing this. Babies are fragile and things have happened. I use to get so emotional and finally I learned to handle the pain and let it go. It is just not something that I can always grieve alot over or I would just not be doing this.
Well it is the same for chickens. It is part of being involved with them that chickens will have to move on, be butchered or some might be taken by predators or other issues.
It is just a good thing that there is always more baby chicks out there to fill the gap and mend the hearts.

 

[DebbieDee]

I had to get rid of my cockerels too. It was hard.But I went right down to the hatchery and got pullets to keep me from being sad. The man I gave the boys too ave me a current picture of them (3) They are beautiful. He loves them and now he is getting them hens from a friend of mine that is no longer interested in her backyard flock. Those boys will be in heaven...

 

[LAseramas KP]

I really like them they are so sweet and cute ...

 

[kbunny]

So, I guess I was wrong about roosters being illegal where I am! At least according to an article in the paper a few days ago... But we are still trying to rehome Loreen, due to noise and space concerns. I do enjoy him though.

 

[haika]

At my old place I had enough space so that the roosters rarely fought....I had 7 roosters at one time. Bit by bit I placed these extra roosters with other folks or lost them to predators. At this new place the orientation of the poultry space is such that multiple roosters won't work. In addition, I have one neighbor who is not very accepting of rooster crowing although the local ordinances have zero restrictions in terms of farm animals. When I moved in 2007, I brought all the hens I had at my old place with me (I was rooster-less after a raccoon break-in to my old coop). I rescued a dumped light Brahma rooster (one of my favorite rooster breeds) the next summer. Last July a hen hatched out 11 chicks and 4 were roosters (lucky sex ratio)...and the hen herself was roughly 8-9 years old so that was a surprise! At roughly 5 months of age, they started crowing and assaulting the hens. It got so rough that the hens refused to come out of the coop....not a good situation. The disruption of the social structure was traumatic enough to help me do what I had to do....gather the guys up in a dog crate from the roost in the evening, drive them to a co-worker who had agreed, and next day I got an empty crate back (sigh). And life in the poultry pasture was MUCH calmer. All of the roosters I initially dealt with were purchased as sexed pullets (NOT straight run!). Seems to happen frequently with light Brahmas and barred rocks. After the initial rooster influx, I dealt with the results of home hatchings.

I've got 8 new chicks this year....so the cycle continues. Can't tell yet what sex they are....hatched in the first 2 weeks of June from 2 hens...a week apart.