What do you all do with your roosters after hatching?

[Jonny]

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I agree: You REALLY should seriously consider this. There is a huge, untapped source of wonderful, nutritious food for you in this. You many THINK you can't slaughter--our culture has bequeathed us such a phobic attitude about life and death--but with the right attitude it is really not a difficult process at all.

I can't help but be cynical about "finding a home" for your roos. You are always going to have about the same number of cockerels as pullets when you hatch. What exactly do you think people are going to do with them if you give them away or sell them? Chickens often live for a decade, and how many pet roos do you really think there is a market for in this world? BTW I'm really not trying to be hard on you, but just trying to be realistic. Probably most of them will get eaten, but by someone else, when you could be enjoying them yourself!

If you really can't bring yourself to slaughter them yourself, then you could try to find someone who will do it for you. Otherwise, I would seriously reconsider hatching chickens in the first place. At best, it's a song and dance to try to get rid of all your extra cockerels, and not really responsible (kind of like neglecting to have your dog fixed). Furthermore, what do you plan to do when your laying hens get to old to lay? They will still live for YEARS afterwards, but will give you hardly any eggs. There is a reason that all throughout history, chickens have always been kept for meat AND eggs, because it's by far the most logical and practical way to keep chickens.

Sorry to sound so negative. Please, pleeeease, don't take offense.

it's just that you have to believe me when I say that even among my own friends and neighbors I've seen WAY too many chicken start-ups fall apart, or cause stress and send money down the drain, because people didn't take these things realistically into account from the beginning.

Best of luck to you!

Hey!

i really appreciate your comment! It makes sense to me, yes. However, the idea of slaughtering isn't something I could do so easily. However, I live in a farming community and there are plenty of people who could help me with this. I am fully aware that giving away roosters on CL or to friends or neighbors is like giving away free meat. And I'm totally cool with that.
There are plenty of options, I might end up having them processed for myself. Time will show.

I'm not only hatching chickens for the eggs. That is a bonus for me. I really enjoy the company of chickens, I want to keep them as pets even when they stop laying eggs. I believe as long as you have thought things through you'll be fine. ...researched, read and talked to other people with chickens.. you'll be fine. I think this is a great project and a great experience.

No offense taken

 

[BlackBart]

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x 5

 

[Judy]

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Very wise. Whatever you decide, you will indeed be fine. It's the people who hatch a bunch of eggs and think the roosters will all somehow find a happy home that get into trouble.

Our extra and mean roos get processed and eaten here. This was the plan when the first chicks were purchased, and roos were specifically bought for raising and processing. If you read a bit in the meat section, you will find many, many accounts of people who didn't think they could do it, then come back in a day or two and say it wasn't so bad. You can't expect to enjoy the killing, but then we do lots of things every day because they need doing, not because we enjoy them. And it's just a matter of getting adept after that.

Lots of people, me included, would not want to eat certain chickens, but don't mind at all for others. Some people only name the pets; some name the ones for eating things like drumstick and stew pot. I don't name any of them, but I do have pets among them.

 

[Sir Birdaholic]

Did somebody say......EXTRA ROOS?

 

[Sunny Side Up]

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X 2 !!!

 

[triplepurpose]

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Very wise. Whatever you decide, you will indeed be fine. It's the people who hatch a bunch of eggs and think the roosters will all somehow find a happy home that get into trouble.

I couldn't agree more with both of you! Sorry if I misjudged you, Jonny. You clearly know what you are about, and have your head on straight for sure.

It's just a sore spot with me I guess because I've seen so many other people with neurotic, short-sighted, or irresponsible attitudes about their birds. Hey, for the record, I love my chickens as much as the next guy--but I eat them too, and I believe that's a good thing, for me and for the world. It makes me love them all the more, because of all they do to feed and provide for us! I do it because I care about their welfare, and want to know they had a good life and an honest, humane death. It's about the bigger picture. It's a way to connect with nature for me. But I know my way isn't the only way. The important thing, as you said, is that you have a plan, and fully accept responsibility for the animals in your care.

But enough of my rambling...

Happy chickenkeeping to you and yours!

 

[briteday]

I have been breeding sexlinked chickens so that I can tell which will be roos on the day they hatch, by their down color. There are plenty of people that have snakes who need food for them. They call each week after our hatches (we always hatch on Fridays) and ask how many we have for the week. They pay $1 each for the day-olds.

If I happen to breed something that is not sexlinked, and we need to wait to hear the crowing, then I never have problems in my area finding homes. Either people loose chickens to predators, need to replace a roo in the flock due to age or want a new breed, plenty of people will buy them to eat, and when all else fails (and it hasn't yet!) the local feed stores will all re-home extra roos from a pen in front of the store.