we have WAY too many roosters, which to take first?

[LaSombra]

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Good point. My oldest rooster is only 2 months old right now, still hasn't grown into... what's the word? roohood? hehe

Anyway, So far, he's pretty nice. He doesn't usually let me just pick him up, but then, neither do most of the girls. He doesn't act much different from them besides the crowing. I have to catch them all and then they're pretty passive after that.

I suppose he's starting to act a little "cocky" but not in an aggressive way. He's never tried to bite or flog yet. When do they normally start acting that way, anyway?

 

[70monte]

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I had a rooster once that was aggressive toward everyone but me. He learned after a few kicks from me that I wasn't one to mess with and he left me alone. After biting my grandma, he ended up in the oven.

I kept one of my stronger roosters for about six years until one of the younger roosters kicked his butt one year and then he turned into a weak rooster that all of the others ran off. My guinea finally killed him. It was kind of sad watching him go from the top rooster to the one everyone ran off.

Wayne

 

[Ugly Cowboy]

Keep the strongest, like other folks said, make sure he aint mean towards folks. Mean chickens go real good with mashed potatoes and gravy LOL.

 

[LaSombra]

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[cutlass1972]

what about mean to the other chickens?
I have some that are not mean towards me but over the top mean towards the other chickens, hens included. I have seen them get a hold of one of their combs, pin them down and just thrash them for a solid 5 seconds. I understand that they have to establish a pecking order, and I cannot be there all the time to protect the weaker ones but I want to go over there and stomp them when they do that.

The big thing that is driving this right now is I found one of my roos dead the other day (the first one ever). I am fairly sure one of the others killed him as none of the others appear to be sick and they are all fighting a lot more.

 

[cutlass1972]

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My chickens seem to be maturing a lot slower than a lot of others. My roos didnt start crowing until about 3 weeks ago and they are about 17 weeks old now. As of right now my delawares havent even started crowing, only my alstralorps. The delawares havent started fighting much yet either. All they way around I like my delawares better, they are far more friendly. I have a couple of them that will hop up in my lap and sit down (not just beg for food) if I sit down near them. I have to surprise or chase an alstralorp if I want to catch them.

I think the moral of the story here is that all breeds are different, and there are individual differences even within a breed.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I can't tell which rooster will be aggressive until he is fully into his self-confident manhood. There are theories that roosters that are handled a lot and very friendly when young consider you part of the flock so when they become mature, they consider you worth of dominating. I just don't know. I don't handle mine to train as pets, just for treatment and examinations. Many reading this will have different objectives.

When deciding which to eat, I will get rid of ones with personalities and traits that I don't want. Once that is done, I eat the smallest first. I can't tell which rooster is going to breed hens that will lay the best, but I'll try to keep the rooster who's offspring will give me the most meat.

 

[LaSombra]

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Man, I've heard the complete opposite theory also. "You should handle him often now so he's gentle when older," they say. I don't know. I'll just go with the flow, handle mine as much as I feel like and see how it goes...

 

[elcunni75]

If I too have too many roos and want to focus my flock on egg laying, should I not worry about trying to keep like breeds together to keep the breeds true, not mixed? Does that make sense?

 

[Judy]

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Personal choice. If they are hatchery stock, and you're only interested in eggs and fried chicken, I don't see any reason to bother. If I had good breeder stock, I would not cross the breeds, unless I was smart enough to know how to breed for desirable traits, which I'm certainly not.