time to let roosters go -- who to choose?

[ebdakota]

i am just starting my adventures in poultry after waiting a long time! my little flock is 10 chicks from eggs hatched by the local 3rd graders as a school project. now that they are 3 months old, it's pretty easy to tell who are girls and who are boys...best guess at this point is that they are exactly half/half. at first i thought i wouldn't keep any roosters, bc i thought they would be living in town. good fortune has granted me a field close to my house ( i live in a VERY small town, so the "country" start at the end of my block...) so they now get to be free range AND i can keep a rooster. BUT, that means i have to choose! based on what i've read so far, with only 5 hens, i probably shouldn't have more than one rooster. here are my choices: (I should also mention i have all different shapes and sizes and personalities, and two of my hens are bantam...)

*skunk: born leader! from the second he came out of his egg the kids said he was a bully -- always bossing the others around. he used to seem mean, now he just seems efficient. he is nice enough to me, and he keeps everyone pretty well in line. i've not really bonded with him, but i do respect him he seems like a good rooster. he is medium sized.

*silver: big and beautiful and friendly and a bit goofy. NOT a born leader, but sweet. he is the biggest of all and my favorite.

*cochin #1: beautiful!! the picture perfect rooster...everyone who visits likes him best cuz he's so pretty. he crowed first, and he carries himself very seriously. he seems to be running a little subset away from skunk...i often see him and the bantam hens running around separate from the others. there is something a little frazzled about him though. he crows ALL the time and often seems a little overwhelmed...he is not a bantam, but pretty tiny.

*cochin #2: not as pretty, must be low in flock rank because he displays no leadership at all. he was my favorite chick, but now he just seems kinda picked on and isn't very friendly anymore

*chubby: i sort of love this guy. he must have been born with some kind of internal deformity, bc his body is kinda misshapen (making him look really fat...) he is sweet and probably the lowest bird on the totem pole. i thought he wouldn't make it past chickhood, but somehow he has! obviously, he is not the rooster to keep, though i kind of admire him for hanging in there, and i sort of wish i could keep him for that reason.

whoa -- that's a long post..i think you can guess my real dilemma here: i am attached to all of them now, and it is hard to let anyone go. my main objective is a rooster who can keep the girls safe, treats them well, and won't hurt the banties when it comes to mating and all that. skunk seems the obvious choice, but his size worries me...so my beautiful cochin might be a better option...but then silver, he is just nice to have around ah!!

 

[Cochaura]

We are going to be facing this dilemma soon also. Keep in mind also that you will be interacting with the rooster also and will need one that treats you well, or at least respects you enough not to attack. We had a buff cochin roo that was mellow, but aloof, up until about 8 or 9 months, then he started jumping at shins and such when outside. He couldn't jump too high, didn't have spurs yet, and didn't cause much harm other than being a big bird jumping with some good force behind him! He was still loved by everyone, but you couldn't go outside without a broom in hand! He did a good job of protecting his 12 ladies, and died an honorable death fighting for them.

Size Consideration - He was significantly bigger than our ladies, and you could tell by their feathers which ones managed to evade his mating attempts and which he mated with most. Some also developed a limp from the weight of him. At first I thought it was bumblefoot! I thought we would have to separate him and most definitely remove spurs once he got them or something to prevent him from cutting the hens under his weight.

Now we have to wait and figure out how many of his 15 offspring and 4 of another breed are roosters and which we will keep. They are only at a month old now and we won't keep more than 1 or 2.

This is our thought process in how we will choose which to keep:
1) If any of the 4 different breeds are roosters we will keep as they aren't related to our existing hens and inbreeding wouldn't be an issue.
2) Any that are already really aggressive will go or we will butcher (not looking forward to that, but wouldn't want to pawn him off on someone else if he is mean)
3) Keep whoever seems like they are sweetest and least aggressive, although its hard to tell until they reach puberty.

I hope this is somewhat helpful - it sounds like you have some wonderful roos and not an easy decision!!

 

[Ridgerunner]

Which rooster do you want any future chicks to look like and act like? Choose that one.

 

[RileyB]

I'm in a similar situation. Of my 8, 10 week old chicks, two are definitely roosters. Also, we have three older birds (14 weeks) of which one is a rooster. To top it all off, we have two ducks, one of which is a drake. I have been very close to getting rid of two of the roosters a few times. I post the ad on craigslist, but always take it off. I love those little guys! The one time I left the ad on long enough for someone to call me all I had to hear was the word "eat", and I immediately said they were no longer available (I raised them from babies and really want to keep them). So...I think what I'm going to do when they get a bit older (right now they all live in the same coop/run and free range during the day...the three older ones separate themselves from the younger ones, but all the birds get along fine) is establish a rooster coop...or a "bachelor pad". From what I've heard roosters get along fine if there are no hens, so I'll probably move the boys to a separate coop when they reach puberty...that way I can keep all of the ones I'm attached to!

 

[Cochaura]

I'm in a similar situation. Of my 8, 10 week old chicks, two are definitely roosters. Also, we have three older birds (14 weeks) of which one is a rooster. To top it all off, we have two ducks, one of which is a drake. I have been very close to getting rid of two of the roosters a few times. I post the ad on craigslist, but always take it off. I love those little guys! The one time I left the ad on long enough for someone to call me all I had to hear was the word "eat", and I immediately said they were no longer available (I raised them from babies and really want to keep them). So...I think what I'm going to do when they get a bit older (right now they all live in the same coop/run and free range during the day...the three older ones separate themselves from the younger ones, but all the birds get along fine) is establish a rooster coop...or a "bachelor pad". From what I've heard roosters get along fine if there are no hens, so I'll probably move the boys to a separate coop when they reach puberty...that way I can keep all of the ones I'm attached to!

That's not a bad idea - we will have two coops, so assuming all the hens take to each other, we could do that too We have two that square off all the time and have been since 2 weeks old, so one of them would probably have to hang with the hens.

 

[spikennipper]

Silver sounds the best to me, I would go with the one YOU like best and it sounds like he is the man

it is good to have a tough roo as it means he will do his job but then this roo may turn aggressive towards you too, I def wouldn't keep the one that keeps crowing and cochins do like to crow!

 

[Cochaura]

Silver sounds the best to me, I would go with the one YOU like best and it sounds like he is the man

it is good to have a tough roo as it means he will do his job but then this roo may turn aggressive towards you too, I def wouldn't keep the one that keeps crowing and cochins do like to crow!

Yes they do!! Our neighbors called us once to see what was going on because our cochin and a crow were hollering back and forth for a LONG time. That crow had landed in the tree above him and he did not like that - the crow seemed to really enjoy messing with him It was rare our cochin wasn't crowing about something.

 

[ebdakota]

just let them out of the coop and watched silver pluck a huge tuft of feathers out of one of the hens. sigh. i don't think i am fully prepared for my sweet little chicks to become adult rooster. i love the idea of a bachelor pad though...the plucking incident aside, i think silver is just too big for the two little gals. i mean, he is easily 3x their size. if i left 2 of the roos with the girls now, and put the other 3 somewhere else, could i remove another one later? or try one, and then swap him out if it's not working? or is that too stressful for their heirarchy...

 

[galanie]

Personally, if you are going on how good they are as a rooster, I like Skunk. He sounds like a perfect flock roo. You don't need a pet, you need one that will treat the girls right and not attack humans.

 

[ebdakota]

so it seems like size shouldn't be too big a consideration? skunk IS doing a good job. btw, the kids named him skunk because they thought he was such a stinker but now that he has established dominance he is a lot nicer...and i guess i don't mind if the rooster is not a pet. one of the banties is SO sweet, she's kind of my baby. my main concern is keeping her and the other little hen happy and healthy. the other three hens are HUGE so i'm not as worried about them.