Too many roosters

[Crazy chicken lady 77]

So. My chickens hatched 24 chicks this year and I have atleast 11 roosters/cockrels. How do you decide which ones to keep and when do you butcher to get the best meat? This spring My flock consisted of 3 golden laced cochin, 3 light brahmas, 5 dark brahmas, 1 rhode island red, 1 partridge cochin, 6 Easter eggers, 1 buff brahma, 3 buff brahma partridge cochin crosses, 1 partridge cochin rooster and 1 light brahma, partridge cochin rooster. All these came from that.

 

[nuthatched]

Keep who treats the girls the best and ignores you

 

[LoveMyPeepers]

What breed is number 7 we had a rooster once who looked just like that

 

[tlcmurphy]

Keep who treats the girls the best and ignores you

This. Do not keep a rooster for looks, you’ll regret it.

 

[Crazy chicken lady 77]

What breed is number 7 we had a rooster once who looked just like that

Unfortunately I have no idea. He has clean legs. My guess is ee mom and Love is his dad? I think all the white comes from love. Love looks light brahma, but his dad was partridge cochin so that's where the color and the ee hen?

 

[McChooky]

Send them to freezer camp and keep Mr Love(#1)

 

[BoundlessLove]

Send them to freezer camp and keep Mr Love(#1)

My thoughts exactly

 

[Mrs. K]

Do this in stages. People agonize over this as in you might pick wrong. You really will never know.

Divided the flock in half. Remove half. Clear the forest to see the trees. Wait a couple of weeks and repeat.

Removing cockerels changes the behavior of the remaining ones. Now you should be down to 2-3 and generally one will suit you much more so than the others. Once in a while, you will have two. Put one with the hens and wait a week. If they love him, decision made. If not try the other one.

But realize that there is a good chance none of these will male a flock master. Cockerels are a crap shoot. The best way to get a great rooster is not to keep a rotten one.

 

[Crazy chicken lady 77]

Keep who treats the girls the best and ignores you

Explain the ignores you. All my chickens come running when they hear me coming. I handle babies as much as I can to socialize them. None of them enjoy being picked up but some tolerate it and are easier to catch than others.

 

[Mrs. K]

While trying to socialize puppies and kittens, it can backfire with cockerels. In chicken society every bird has a place, and will either peck or give way. When they give way, that is respect. It can look like fear of you. And that is what they mean.

Now you don’t want panicked fear, you just want a calm walking away from you, giving you about 5 feet of space all around you. That is respect.

Often times people want a pet. They want them to approach, taking that as being friendly. It is a misinterpretation, it is a lack of fear, lack of respect. Very often these cockerels can become more and more aggressive towards humans.

This forum is filled with posts where the darling becomes the nightmare in an instant. Not probably true, but inexperienced people miss the cues.

It is nearly impossible to believe that the darling stage does not last forever. Or that today’s behavior does not indicates next weeks. As a cockerel comes into his own, it is very common that they become aggressive. Some do, some don’t.

Mrs K