Too many roosters, what to do?

[Chihuahua Mama]

I recently bought 4 chicks from TSC. Then 2 weeks later I bought 4 more. I am suspicious that 3 of the 8 are Roos. I am so attached to them, I don't Know what I am going to do if they 3 turn out to be Roos.
Can someone advise me?

 

[noregerts]

Personally, I just wait. Eventually all will either lay an egg or crow. It will be a while so you can be watching the personalities to determine who will have to be rehomed eventually. I've had super laid back roosters and I've had fiesty territorial roosters. If these 8 are your only birds, you'll probably have to go down to one rooster at some point. On the up side, roosters are so much fun to watch when they are learning how to crow and how to be "roostery". There's no big rush to do anything. I've never had to cull a roo, I've always been able to find new homes for them Good luck and have fun!

 

[aart]

By 6 weeks you should be able to tell gender on most breeds.
Post pics here to find out:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forums/what-breed-or-gender-is-this.15/

As to what to do with them...I eat mine, or sell them, but I keep chickens for food not pets. You might be able to sell/give them away by putting an ad in whatever venue you have available. Pretty hard to get rid of extra males. Have a separate enclosure ready for when they start making trouble with the girls.

 

[Fairview01]

Yum, extra roosters.

 

[cluckmecoop7]

If you can't re-home them, you should cull.

 

[sourland]

Have a plan 'B' in mind for when they become troublesome.

 

[Ra_]

I had two youngsters begin crowing just this morning.
I have rehomed a lot of roosters but I am trying to harden myself to harvest some soon.
I also treat my birds like pets, or even family, so it's very hard to think about killing them.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Hi, welcome to the forum. Glad you joined.

First, what are your goals with chickens? Why would you want a rooster? The only reason you need a rooster is if you want fertile eggs, anything else is personal choice. Nothing wrong with personal choice, that can be a strong motivator. I recommend that you keep as few roosters ans you can and still meet your goals. That's not because you are guaranteed problems with more roosters, just that problems are more likely the more roosters you have.

So, what are your options? I agree to wait until you are sure about sex before you do anything. Many chicks are fairly easy to sex at about 5 to 6 weeks of age but some can be a challenge as late as 3 to 4 months. Breed can play into that, some are just harder than others. Don't do anything dramatic until you are sure of sex.

If you decide you don't want any males, you can raise them to butcher size and eat them yourself. Since you mentioned Tractor Supply I'll assume you are in the USA. If you stick around this forum, and I hope you do, it can be very helpful to modify your profile to show your general location, that helps on all kinds of questions. Anyway, you can try to sell or give them away. Craigslist can be very useful for that. Or locate your state thread in the "Where am I? Where are you!" section of this forum and chat with your neighbors. Perhaps your feed store has a bulletin board they will let you hang a notice. The more conditions you put on them the harder it is to get someone to take them. Once others take them you have lost control. Some people have trouble accepting that.

If you decide to keep all of them you can leave them together and see how it goes. Sometimes it actually works out, especially of you have a lot of room. I'm not talking about the 4 square feet per bird in the coop and 10 square feet in the run you often see on here, I'm talking about enough room the males can get out of sight of each other. Some people will tell you that you have to have 10 females per male or you are guaranteed a disaster. Based on my experience I do not believe that. I'm not going to type a lot more on that unless you want me to but I'd not really want more than one rooster with the girls unless you have a lot of room. That's whether you have 5 or 25.

If you decide to keep multiple roosters you can do the bachelor pad. Create a coop/run just for the boys, no females allowed. If they don't have girls to fight over they tend to not get too rough with each other. They will still do the pecking order stuff, just like the girls will in an all-female flock, but usually it is fairly peaceful. Many people are successful with a bachelor flock.

As far as I'm concerned that's pretty much you options. I don't know which is the right answer for you. As Sour and other said, have a plan B ready, a place to put the males if it goes south on you. That can happen pretty fast.

 

[bobbi-j]

If you can't re-home them, you should cull.

Re-homing is "culling". Culling is simply removing a bird from the flock, whether you find it a new home or stick it in the freezer.

We eat our extra roosters. That's part of why we raise chickens - to provide meat for the freezer.

 

[cluckmecoop7]

Re-homing is "culling". Culling is simply removing a bird from the flock, whether you find it a new home or stick it in the freezer.

Sorry, I mean't 'kill'. I just typed 'cull' because I had just read that in other posts and was still thinking about it.