Topic of the Week - What do/can you do with unwanted roosters?

[Cyprus]

I've had 6 unwanted cockerels. All 6 of them came from pullet only orders in the same year.
I had 2 Light Brahmas, 2 Easter Eggers and 2 Asian Blacks.

A predator took one of the Light Brahmas. The EE and Asian Blacks went to butcher and were sold to friends. The remaining Light Brahma was sold to the family of a little girl who had lost her pet rooster of the same breed and wanted a replacement. He's just yard candy now.

 

[WVduckchick]

I was actually about to start a thread about one of my bantam cochin cockerels. I removed him from my breeding pens because of his hackle leakage. Was about to cull him a couple weeks ago, but decided I'd keep him for a bit. He was living alone in my baby grow-out coop. Well it was time for some inside chicks to be moved outside over the weekend, so Zippy was going to have to go! But I put the 3-week old chicks in with him, and turns out he's a good Momma!!

I'm sure others have done this, I was searching when I ran across this thread. Anyone else use roosters without hens for raising chicks?

He even let them sleep with him.

 

[Mylied]

I was actually about to start a thread about one of my bantam cochin cockerels. I removed him from my breeding pens because of his hackle leakage. Was about to cull him a couple weeks ago, but decided I'd keep him for a bit. He was living alone in my baby grow-out coop. Well it was time for some inside chicks to be moved outside over the weekend, so Zippy was going to have to go! But I put the 3-week old chicks in with him, and turns out he's a good Momma!!

I'm sure others have done this, I was searching when I ran across this thread. Anyone else use roosters without hens for raising chicks?
View attachment 1389195


He even let them sleep with him.
View attachment 1389196

My showgirl rooster is a good dad. He doesn't raise them alone, but he helps. Shows them food, keeps them warm. I love him.

 

[WVduckchick]

My showgirl rooster is a good dad. He doesn't raise them alone, but he helps. Shows them food, keeps them warm. I love him.

My roosters have all been good with chicks, but I had never tried it without a hen being around.
I think this one was just happy because he knows his life has been spared, and he now has company.

 

[Akrnaf2]

 

[4 Georgia Hens]

I have a few upcoming roosters, and I plan to rehome them.

 

[chickendreams24]

I end up keeping all our unplanned roosters, because they have good names, beautiful colors, and have become attached. I have 3 roosters, and they generally are ok, except for the D'Uccle guy. He's a real jerk.

That's very odd my D'uccle cockeral was an amazing great little boy before we lost him in a freak accident. He even protected me from an aggressive cockeral.

That number is correct. We sell straight runs. Lots of people give back the boys to us after awhile. The birds that don't sell always wind up being half boys as well. Add those numbers together and we have a ton cockerels running around.
So we raise many boys. Some go to freezer camp, others are sold in batches. All the proceeds go right into the feed funds for the general population.
The noise at the end of the season will put you into the nut house.
Last fall/early winter, we sold a mass number to a local processor. Our farm was so quite right after the sell. You could here a pin drop.
Roosters are our bread and butter. 3rd in line on the poultry list. Chicks on the top, eggs, then Roos.
There is an incredible market for them. If you don't mind all the noise.

That sure would be nice if we had that around here. I'm curious how you found out about it.

I was actually about to start a thread about one of my bantam cochin cockerels. I removed him from my breeding pens because of his hackle leakage. Was about to cull him a couple weeks ago, but decided I'd keep him for a bit. He was living alone in my baby grow-out coop. Well it was time for some inside chicks to be moved outside over the weekend, so Zippy was going to have to go! But I put the 3-week old chicks in with him, and turns out he's a good Momma!!

I'm sure others have done this, I was searching when I ran across this thread. Anyone else use roosters without hens for raising chicks?
View attachment 1389195

He even let them sleep with him.
View attachment 1389196

I had a silkie rooster adopt and finish raising chicks after one of our hens was killed by a fox. All of our roosters have been great with chicks (I wouldn't keep one that wasn't) but not all have helped with the raising enough to count let alone fully adopted them. Sadly that rooster was killed a month later by the same fox while drawing the attention away from a hen the fox had cornered. I wish I had a dozen more just like him.

 

[aart]

I'm sure others have done this, I was searching when I ran across this thread. Anyone else use roosters without hens for raising chicks?

Vaguely remembers a thread called 'broody roosters' or something like that.
If ya can't find it, start one and link here!

 

[PouleChick]

But I put the 3-week old chicks in with him, and turns out he's a good Momma!!

he is adorable! I love the first pick with the dear little chick looking up at him like he's thinking 'he's my dadda'

I was pretty unsure right through until some point when the chicks were almost due. I realised I really like having chicks - great fun for me and the kids and I just love it so I knew I had to decide what I'm going to do. My neighbour has lots of experience so I spoke with her - turns out our other neighbour has a cone (she rears ducks on her little lake each year) and we can borrow that and neighbour 1 is happy to do it for me and teach me to process them. I feel this is the best option for us if I need to. I'm at the moment hatching interesting breeds for my flock so will probably try to sell them if people are interested but I will presume that that won't happen and I've planned for that too.

 

[chickendreams24]

We raise them up and eventually they go to freezer camp. If they become trouble the go sooner rather than later. We do keep a bachelor group for any boys that become trouble and as a sort of controlled grow out for any boys we may want to breed.

We have processed between 5-6 months as far out as 18 months. Yes I said that.

We like to keep a couple older boys in the bachelor group to keep the cockerals in line and keep the peace. We don't always do this but have had luck with it.

We rest the processed birds for 4 days and then freeze or eat. Even the 18 month old roosters are tender and juicy when cooked correctly.

This year we are aiming for faster processing as we now have a plucker. It was harder before doing them by hand when we had approximately 25-50 at a time.