three young cockerels free to good homes; will drive to you

[gsidhu1030]

Wow! They are beautiful!!!, I could taken them, too bad i'm CA

 

[NewFlockOnTheBlock]

We would consider driving down to California for the right home for our little guys! Can you tell me more about your plans for them, your current setup, and your experience with chickens? You can PM me if you'd like.

 

[gsidhu1030]

We would consider driving down to California for the right home for our little guys! Can you tell me more about your plans for them, your current setup, and your experience with chickens? You can PM me if you'd like.

No it will be too far for you. thank you, plus we are new parents for these chickens. also we live in the Bay area (City) we can only have few. thank you

 

[Wolfiehowl229]

Oh I would love to have the rock rooster but sadly our area (county bay Area) doesn't allow roos. We have 8 hens and we have 3 two year old rock hens. I know my one rock fooli would be a great "mother" To them. Good luck in finding homes! Also my parents don't want roosters xD. Take care.

 

[bobbi-j]

Unfortunately, I think you’re gong to have a hard time finding a home for them. It’s hard enough to rehome cockerels/roosters without stipulations, let alone the ones you have. Many people are worried about bio security and don’t want other chicken owners wandering around their setups. (Who knows what your flock may be carrying that you could drag in on your shoes?) Others who may have expensive show quality birds may be uncomfortable with strangers “checking them out”. (You could be scouting, looking for birds to steal.) Last thing - once you sell or give something away, you no longer have any say as to what is done with it.

It’s a good idea to have a plan for unwanted cockerels BEFORE ever starting to incubate eggs.

 

[kwhites634]

Three sweet, friendly and funny young cockerels, hatched 3/28/18, need good, pet-only homes. We are located in North-Central Washington State and are willing to drive them to their new families. Ideally looking for homes within 1-2 days of driving but will consider going father for the right home.

One of the little guys is a Buff Orpington/Silver Cuckoo Marans mix and the other two are Buff Orpington/Partridge Rock mixes. One of the Partridge Rock hybrids is a bit shy and we'd love to place him with the other Partridge Rock so he can have a buddy, but he should do well separately if you're willing to give him love and attention.

All three little guys were hatched by our broody and raised by her in our home, with some help from my husband and me They are bonded to us and to each other and love free ranging in the back yard, treats, and cuddles as they settle down to sleep.

(Apologies for cross-posting; this is also posted in the Animals in Need of Free Rehoming forum. I hope that's all right. Just trying to maximize the chances of finding good, loving homes for these little guys!)

View attachment 1424995 View attachment 1424996 View attachment 1424997

You up for a road trip? Like 3,000 miles worth? One way?

 

[NewFlockOnTheBlock]

Unfortunately, I think you’re gong to have a hard time finding a home for them. It’s hard enough to rehome cockerels/roosters without stipulations, let alone the ones you have. Many people are worried about bio security and don’t want other chicken owners wandering around their setups. (Who knows what your flock may be carrying that you could drag in on your shoes?) Others who may have expensive show quality birds may be uncomfortable with strangers “checking them out”. (You could be scouting, looking for birds to steal.) Last thing - once you sell or give something away, you no longer have any say as to what is done with it.

It’s a good idea to have a plan for unwanted cockerels BEFORE ever starting to incubate eggs.

I appreciate your perspective, and I agree that it will be not be easy to find a home for our little guys. You are right, there are a lot of "unwanted" roosters out there. However, we did successfully find good, pet-only homes for two "accidental" roosters last winter, and are taking one cockerel from this current batch to his new, loving home tomorrow (I'd originally posted about four and someone on this forum came through for one).

To address one of your points, people who own expensive, show quality birds would not be interested in our "barnyard mix" cockerels anyway, so they are unlikely to reach out to me in the first place. Same with bio security: if people are worried that we might infect their flock through something that may be on our shoes, then they wouldn't want our birds, since the birds themselves may carry a disease.

In our experience with placing our "extra" roosters to date, the people who take them in are people like us: those who enjoy having chickens as pets and want a rooster for their egg-laying flock for protection or breeding. These types of people understand that vetting potential new owners is essential if you care about the well-being of the animal you are re-homing, and have willingly shown us their setups. They have also remained in touch over the past few months, sharing photos and stories upon request. You are right, I can't control what people do with our cockerels once they assume ownership, but I can take steps to ensure that their plans and values align with mine before the birds are tranferred.

(Side note: I was kind of shocked when several years ago we adopted our dog from the Seattle Humane Society and the staff did not check us out AT ALL. They had us hold her for a few minutes, and then just let us pay the adoption fee and walk out with her. I mean, we could have been crazy freaks who were going to torture that dog, and they did not ask us a single question about our experience with dogs, what our home was like, whether our landlord allowed pets, whether we had a vet picked out - nothing. We got one follow-up call a month later and that was that. In my mind, this is totally irresponsible, regardless of whether you are dealing with a dog or a chicken.)

I absolutely agree that it is a good idea to have a plan for extra roosters before starting to incubate. We did have a plan, but sometimes the best-laid plans go awry. What happened was our friends shared that they had been planning to incubate this year but because of a busy spring, had decided not to, even though they wanted more chickens. So, when one of our hens went broody a few weeks later, we offered to have her hatch some chicks for them, and our friends said yes, as that would save them the trouble of monitoring the incubation and hatching process. Then we didn't communicate with our friends for a few weeks and they must have forgotten about this plan. They ended up incubating after all, and when those chicks did not hatch, they bought chicks from a feed store.

When we told our friends that we'd hatched chicks for them, they said they would still take them, even though they had gotten some already. They even built a growing-out pen for them, but by then A) our broody was raising them and we didn't want to interrupt the process, and B) we'd gotten attached and decided that we didn't want them to be slaughtered. (When we saw the growing-out pen that our friends would have placed the chicks into, which was safe but dark and cramped and provided no entertainment or stimulation to the chicks, we realized that we would not be OK with a bird going into that setup, even if that bird was eventually destined for slaughter.)

We are not planning on letting our broodies hatch any more chicks in the foreseeable future. In fact, another one of our hens went broody a couple weeks ago and we've been removing eggs daily and taking her out of the nest frequently to prevent incubation. So, I feel like we are being pretty responsible chicken owners, and I am confident that with time and continued effort, we can find good homes for our three little guys.

 

[NewFlockOnTheBlock]

You up for a road trip? Like 3,000 miles worth? One way?

We might be! We'll see if we can find homes a little closer, but if we can't before the crowing gets out of hand, we might just look you up My husband and I enjoy road trips and have driven from Seattle to the Bay Area a couple of times, and to Los Angeles once. We have yet to drive cross-country though, and have been wanting to do that for years. It's just a matter of figuring out the timing and making arrangements so I can work while on the road (I telecommute).

 

[Flamens Farm]

They are beautiful roosters and I wish you the best of luck in finding homes for them.

 

[kwhites634]

We might be! We'll see if we can find homes a little closer, but if we can't before the crowing gets out of hand, we might just look you up My husband and I enjoy road trips and have driven from Seattle to the Bay Area a couple of times, and to Los Angeles once. We have yet to drive cross-country though, and have been wanting to do that for years. It's just a matter of figuring out the timing and making arrangements so I can work while on the road (I telecommute).

You wouldn't want to do that. Not only would it not be practical from a monetary standpoint, but I have a breeding BCM rooster, with a 4-month old Buff Orpington cockerel coming along, and no separate facilities for your three. I'm sure you'll find homes for such good-looking guys.