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

[SourRoses]

I have had success rehoming roosters with hens and with people who like them very much, my roosters are bantiys.

Everyone does things differently. Many of us cull unneeded roosters.
In the wild, they would be food for other animals and only the most successful would live long enough to pass on their genes.

 

[Mrs. K]

I just half to laugh, I am fully capable of dispatching roosters and rather like canning up chicken broth, and chicken soup. But last Sunday, I had one mature rooster, and 3 cockerels.

Monday - mature rooster gone - coyote
Tonight - 2 cockerels to neighbors - that I accidentally found out that they needed a rooster! haha
1 cockerel to grow up in the flock.

No soup for me!
Mrs. K

 

[Silkie2299781]

My 4 mature boys sleep with my goats and free range during the day, I'll be adding 6 more and building a coop for them soon.

My oldest silkie roo and SLW roo are with my main flock, the SLW only gets to stay because the silkie beats him up

 

[Betsy57]

I live in an urban area where rooster is not allow. If I have a small farm land then I would keep my rooster. He keeps the girls peaceful, and look after them. It is so nice to see how they interact with each other. It is really very sad to not keep my rooster.

So silly as dogs can make more annoying noise than roosters

 

[BDutch]

So silly as dogs can make more annoying noise than roosters

It depends on the dog, the rooster and who you ask.
Main problem with roosters here is that they ‘bark’ in the middle of the night in spring and summer.

Therefore my suburb-neighbours allow me to keep cockerels from a spring hatch until late January/February.
This gives me enough time to rehome a few cockerels. Someone else I know kept them until they reached full size to harvest.

But yes unfortunately its very complicated to keep one for a longer period.
A no crow collar seems to be a torture for most roosters. Leaves me with the last possibility I know of : pick the crower up each evening and put him in a sound proof cage.

 

[SkyAJK]

So silly as dogs can make more annoying noise than roosters

My rooster started crowing around 3am.
My dogs bark like crazy whenever a walker walks pass our house.
I did hear a rooster crow from a few streets away and I rather the sound of rooster crow than dog barking. That rooster only get to crow that 1 day, I never heard his crow again, not sure what happened to him.
Most people associated and have more endurance with dogs than chickens because I think they are used to dogs, chickens are only found in the supermarket and dead!
One of my neighbour had 20 hens, they do egg songs every day and someone complained. Just a few house away from me, there are a few large dogs that bark frequently like they are killing each other, and they have been doing it forever so it seems. People tolerate with that.
This is the sort of topic that bleed the heart, I remind myself the world is not perfect, do my part and live with it.

 

[Yardmom]

Had to take 3 cockerels out of the coop and didn't have time for butchering. Sold them at the livestock auction for 15 dollars a piece. Every week the same guys bid against each other. They will go in the ring and feel breasts ect. to check for quality. The bigger the chicken the better for them. They buy hens and rabbits too. Not sure who they are feeding.

 

[SkyAJK]

It depends on the dog, the rooster and who you ask.
Main problem with roosters here is that they ‘bark’ in the middle of the night in spring and summer.

Therefore my suburb-neighbours allow me to keep cockerels from a spring hatch until late January/February.
This gives me enough time to rehome a few cockerels. Someone else I know kept them until they reached full size to harvest.

But yes unfortunately its very complicated to keep one for a longer period.
A no crow collar seems to be a torture for most roosters. Leaves me with the last possibility I know of : pick the crower up each evening and put him in a sound proof cage.

Like you did, I picked up my rooster and put him in the sound proof area.

My first rooster was by accident, I had him wear a rooster collar. He slept in the closet set up with sound proof. He started to crow around 3am in the morning and we let him out at 9am in the morning.

He started wearing a collar to reduce his crow as soon as he started crowing outside. We took the collar off around 4pm as he stopped crowing around that time. He stayed with the flock in the coop until 11pm, at that time before we go to sleep so we took him inside the sound proof closet. It went on like this for nearly 7 years.

When he started crowing around 1 year of age, he was sleeping in the coop in the garden with the flock. I woke up at 5:30am to put a collar on him because he crowed before 6am.

Then he eventually crowed earlier, I woke up earlier, and when it reached to the point of 4am, I can not do it anymore so he moved in the sound proof closet at 11pm.

During the week day, I sometimes took him to work with me which was a treat for the people at work, they love him. He was in a dog carrier box, every 2hours I let him out and about for 10 minutes, and so it went. Sometime I took him over to mom's place. Then I started only work half a day because I can not take him to work, or leave him with mom, or in the closet all day, or wear a collar without us at home as I fear he might die from it when he tried to crow his mighty crow. Since Covid, 1 of us working from home so he was free all day at home. He wore a collar for a few hours, then we took it off, then put it back on whenever he crowed again. There were days, he did not make a sound, then there were days he crowed his lung out. Most days he crowed, but not excessively. A few weeks ago, he was sick, did not responded to the Vet's medication and I had him euthanize at the vet. It still hurt and I regret it deeply.

The journey with my rooster was a love & pain journey for him and us. We did what we did because that was what we knew and can do. My flock of hens are now crazy fighting each other every day without a rooster to lead them.

My rooster is now free from wearing a collar, to live a life that was the price. I wonder would he had choose to wear it to live?

 

[GodLovesU]

Here’s an article I wrote on how to rehome and why:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/three-reasons-to-rehome.79725/

 

[2 chiks n a roo]

So silly as dogs can make more annoying noise than roosters

I live in town (NZ) an roosters aren't meant to be kept but I've got one. Council know about him, seen him heard him etc..
But he wears a collar, they work, and as long as you change them often and use soundproofing in his house (I haven't got a coop yet) then they're quieter.
My neighbors have had a rooster for the entire time I've lived here without issue.
Many council's around the world have the option to apply for a permit.
Don't get rid of him until you've done research with the council.. but Before you go to them, you need a minimum of 4 neighbors to sign a letter by you asking Their permission to keep him.. and them in a supply of eggs, let's face it, a roo will get you up to 12 chooks and some sales, faster

Here it's $75nzd to apply for a permit. You need a cover letter stating, why, what's your purpose and how it would affect you having to get rid of a "Member of Your Family"

Believe it or not.. mentioning being a family member helps

You've got to have a secure coop, at least 2 meters from a residential dwelling. Show that you keep them clean (water, feed dishes, the lot) have fly traps, I also use snail traps, oh, rat traps are a must! Not so much council requirement but to show you're doing everything to "ensure the well being of your animals and your neighbors" by keeping rodents away. Store feed in waterproof/rat proof bins, basically, go overboard with prevention an you'll get the permit if ones available.
I have 50 sheets of soundproofing ready for my coop. But my boy wears a collar 24/7, he sounds like the tail end of the bagpipes but, he's happy, healthy and still here

If all that's too hard, can't be achieved, then find someone who has a forest.
I sent 5 boys out to a forest where they live grubbing under the trees, with 300 other roosters. They even get well fed at night, and scraps during the day when checked over for injuries etc.
The family who own it, really care about their wellbeing.