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

[Araucana Nest]

Still looking for a good solution. This subject is what caused me to no longer incubate eggs. (I still have broody hens). I sold at least 60 cockerels in a six month period and later found out they were going for bait. I was heartbroken. The only ones buying cockerels and roosters nearby are people involved in shady dealings. Taking them to farmer's markets, auctions or swaps means having to invest in many more transport cages and traveling minimum one hour north or south. If there were a closer place, I might consider selling them there. When I have older chicks, I group one cockerel in with a few pullets and sell that way.

I used to slaughter extras for my dogs but no longer kill for personal reasons. No longer incubating is one way to reduce the number of cockerels but the ones my broodies hatch will still need to be removed. I've been adjusting a rooster colony set up and so far haven't found the right arrangement. Right now I have boys that I'm keeping for one reason or other (one is blind in one eye due to a fight when he was younger) in 16 sf cages under one roof. I also have 8 Araucana roos (tend to keep many of them ) and they have at least one companion hen or pullet so they are kept in runs.The ones that will not go for breeding and are healthy and mature are released into my lot next door. My dogs are their protection but they are cage-free on 4.5 acres. I just started with this because I was concerned about opossums and raccoons but I cleared the property of underbrush and keep it down so the predators have left the area for now. This isn't a long term solution. I don't think I'll be in business in a few years.

 

[DatCampG]

First and foremost, if you don't have a plan for the cockerels don't hatch any eggs. They are your responsibility, act responsibly.

While you can eat any chicken of any age and sex, some breeds and crosses are going to give you some pretty small chickens. Still, people eat quail and they are pretty small. One option with unwanted males is to eat them at some point.

Another option is to kill unwanted males and dispose of the body. A lot of breeders and hatcheries do that with males and also unwanted females.

Depending on your set-up and how many you have you may be able to keep a few with your flock. This is more of an option for rural areas where space is plentiful, it will not work nearly as well in suburbia for several reasons.

You can create a bachelor pad, keep the males in their own flock. With no females to fight over they are generally peaceful. You have to build the extra facilities and feed non-productive chickens but you have that option.

You can try to sell or give them away. Realize when you do that you have lost control of their future. They are likely to be eaten.

I liked the first paragraph Enjoyed reading your post.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

eggsplain, i dont get it

Noise laws

 

[JacinLarkwell]

I sell/trade/give away the ones that I can and the ones that I can in good conscience. Any that are too aggressive/have defaults (mainly crooked beaks or bad legs, things that I wouldn't want to be given)/ or I can't move along are hopefully culled for food. We have a pair of males currently that will likely be culled but not processed just because we have to get the job done before they kill a pullet (she's mentioned on my 2021 thread).

 

[CrazyCochin]

We have/and will never kill our boys, (currently 11 of them), as with all our flock, we let their lights go out naturally, but we do what we can to make them comfortable in their last days.

We have a section of our 2 and 1/2 acres dedicated to a large bachelor pad pen, containing four roosters, and five drakes.
Then, we have a row of kennels, divided into three pens, one kennel has a fenced-in area containing a flock of 13, 11 hens, and two roosters, two more roosters have made their home in the second kennel, (which has a large run surrounding both kennels) and the third kennel and half the run is home to our Gander, my nemesis, Gussie.

Then in the main flock of around 50+ hens, there are 3 roosters with them.

Regardless of the occasional rooster hatching, we have never killed nor re-homed any of our past roosters. But the thought of re-homing has briefly come up once in a blue moon.

(This is what we have done with our flock for 7, almost 8 years, and anything I do is in my opinion, and I do not want to alter anyone else's )
~Good day, and all the best, CrazyCochin!~

 

[1muttsfan]

You have 61+ hens and only 11 roosters? I assume you mostly purchased pullets. Most who hatch have at least a 50:50 ratio, if not worse.

 

[Ilovemychicks08]

It's still nuts.

Punish the guilty, don't forbid everyone from doing reasonable things because someone did it wrong.



Indeed.

My one in-town neighbor didn't mind our rooster if we didn't mind his muscle car.

My neighbors would probably be okay with it they have kids and they love to see out chickens. But the town ordinance says no.

 

[Pollito Pelon]

Currently raising chicks to sell at a very small scale.. most people want hens so all chicks that aren't sold I see as an opportunity to grow and then eat.
I do know some people that do no like hens and all they have are game cocks.

 

[Pollito Pelon]

You have 61+ hens and only 11 roosters? I assume you mostly purchased pullets. Most who hatch have at least a 50:50 ratio, if not worse.

It's about 50:50 sometimes more sometimes less.

 

[cssilkies]

Since you can't really eat Silkies, I usually list them on craigslist instead of on bst here because I'm not old enough. They take a while to go, but they do eventually.