What do you do if one of your beloved chicks turns out to be a rooster

[4kids*2dogs]

I have 9 chicks coming...I chose all females on the site, but I am afraid of one being a rooster by accident. What do you do if that happens? I heard that roosters are hard to sell. Do you separate the rooster from the rest of the group until you find a home for it? 2 coops????

 

[sonew123]

4kids*2dogs :

I have 9 chicks coming...I chose all females on the site, but I am afraid of one being a rooster by accident. What do you do if that happens? I heard that roosters are hard to sell. Do you separate the rooster from the rest of the group until you find a home for it? 2 coops????

all of us are faced with that contantly..Turns out usually our favorites from hatching are roos:-( Last year I put all up and coming roos in my meat bird pen and run--no attachments-I can't because I am the only one that butchers:-( I try and get rid of them asap if not needed for breeding-if I can't sell them-I try and give them away-if that doesnt work they wind up getting put in freezer:-( Which reminds me -Advertise on Craigs list to get rid of them-I have to do that right now for 4 BCM roos:-( 4/5 that hatched were roos...​

 

[arenea74]

I think one of my sweetest chicks is a roo. I found a place that will process him humanely and then we'll eat him. I'm not sure how I'm going to handle this when the time comes but I have come to realize that this is the fate of so many roos. It'll be freezer camp for my sweet boy

 

[darkbyrd]

"Thank you, friend roo, for this meal we are about to recieve..."

 

[babyrnlc]

I have a friend that wants my roos. They are "Ameracuana" (really EE) blues of various shades. Very pretty and she wants to keep them. I also have another guy that will take my extra roos. If they are pretty and nice he keeps them, if not, he eats them, but I will never know. I am gonna give my friend my favorite that is probably a roo and then give the other guy the ones I am not attached to. We have 5 chicks that are the blues that at least 3 are probably roos.

If my br some how turned out to be a roo, I would just have to keep her. She follows me around like a puppy. I highly doubt it could happen, she looks like a hen, but I could not give her up.

 

[HEChicken]

Before starting this venture, we decided that girls are for eggs, boys are for meat. The reality is that 50% of all chicks hatched are male but a ratio of only 1:10 males to females are needed for a flock which means most of those male chicks that hatch have no purpose. After researching the commercial chicken industry, we decided that if we give a male a good life while he grows out, and kill him humanely, we're okay with eating him. Our flock free-ranges our back yard from dawn to dusk. They have access to feed fed freely, get a handful of scratch now and then, kitchen scraps, sun, grass, bugs. When the time comes, we do it quickly and gently and I really believe they feel little discomfort or fear.

This doesn't mean we don't care about them. Its because we do care that we are so careful to ensure they don't suffer. And, it gets easier with each one. The first one was awful - I hated the feeling of seeing the life go out of his eyes. But we've done enough now that it really isn't that big a deal. Here is a picture of our next roast dinner. This is a little guy I hatched a month ago. I feel fortunate that of my first hatch, I got 3 girls, 1 boy, but I was fully prepared to end up having to process as many as 4 boys.

 

[orpingtonbabies]

I'm not going too eat it, I'm a vegetarian. My family isn't though. So that could possibly be the fate of any mis-sexed "pullets" I order. I think most of the breeds I'm getting would be OK meat birds (

)... Silkies wouldn't. Since Silkie chicks are usually sold straight-run, I've had to think about this. I have a friend though, that has a ranch with LOTS of chickens possibly more roosters than hens (or that's what it feels like when they all chase you around) but I'd like to think that that could be a nice life for any possible silkie roos I might get. Even though he might look pretty silly running around with all their RIR's

 

[LarrySC]

We ended up with three roos out of 12 last year.. And you're right; one roo was my wife's favorite. We gave all 3 to a neighbor that has about 50 chicks, and we go visit with them all the time.. It was so hard to give them away, but we did not want the trouble of havings roos..

 

[chickened]

I suppose you could make him a capon and let him guard your harem (eunuch).

 

[darkbyrd]

Quote:
Would a capon still have the protection instinct? I eventually want to caponize roos on a regular basis. Good behavior, good flock companion, and good meat, all rolled in to one? I'm sold!