Toms? Or not??

[R2elk]

They'd better get their act together by November 18th, that is decision day...

It could be a delicious decision.

 

[Sara L]

It could be a delicious decision.

Yeah, well if they are both girls, they are both going because I'd rather keep the blue slates and the red bourbon. If one bronze is a boy he will be spared. If both bronzes are boys I will have to choose which one stays.

 

[Sara L]

How do I choose??!?

 

[Sara L]

@R2elk @memphis any suggestions for choosing the guest of honor for this week? We were going to butcher yesterday but ran out of time since we were already butchering quail and cockerels. Probably going to butcher tonight.

 

[sarcasm]

From those last photos, both of those bronzes look like young boys to me (but I've never had bronzes, so I could easily be wrong).
My general way to choose: keep the bird with the better attitude. If they're equivalent or you can't tell, and you're going to breed him, keep the one that weighs more.

 

[Sara L]

From those last photos, both of those bronzes look like young boys to me (but I've never had bronzes, so I could easily be wrong).
My general way to choose: keep the bird with the better attitude. If they're equivalent or you can't tell, and you're going to breed him, keep the one that weighs more.

I wasn't certain if it would be better to keep the bigger one, because it got bigger faster, but might be too big for the girls to deal with. Or the smaller one, which might be easier for the girls, but grew slower overall.

 

[Sara L]

They both don't like to be touched, but are friendly. I have no clue what they weigh, but one looks larger than the other.

 

[sarcasm]

Since they look roughly the same size, I doubt the difference in weight one way or another will make much difference for the hens. You might want to give both of them a heft and see if the difference is substantial though if you're concerned.
I had a female duck convince a fully-grown bourbon red tom to give it a go once, and they both seemed frustrated by the encounter but the much smaller duck was completely uninjured.

 

[R2elk]

@R2elk @memphis any suggestions for choosing the guest of honor for this week? We were going to butcher yesterday but ran out of time since we were already butchering quail and cockerels. Probably going to butcher tonight.

Choose your keeper by his disposition. If one of them does not seem to be as intelligent as the other, that is the one that I would invite to be the guest of honor. Personally I never keep a late developing tom for breeding.

 

[Sara L]

Choose your keeper by his disposition. If one of them does not seem to be as intelligent as the other, that is the one that I would invite to be the guest of honor. Personally I never keep a late developing tom for breeding.

I don't have any other toms to choose, unless I buy one off Craigslist or FB. Then I have no clue if the new tom was late developing, diseased, etc.