What do you do with excess roosters?

[Heivonz]

I have had these precious little fluff balls for a week now and already feel really attached. We ordered 15 unsexed, so chances are well have a fair amount of roos. We were planning to cull the extras to eat, but I don't know now.....

What do you all do with extra roos? What is a good roo to hen ratio?

 

[RevlisRemmah]

I have one Roo with my 15 girls and sometimes it’s still one too many!
What I’ve learned from the site is that you can create a bachelor flock where the Roos just live together. Or maybe try to re-home to someone with a bachelor flock. Otherwise I think freezer camp would be the best bet! Good luck!!

 

[mommiesrcool]

10 Hens to 1 Rooster or 12 Hens to 1 Rooster

 

[bobbi-j]

We eat ours. My advice is, once you recognize a cockerel, don’t handle it, don’t name it and don’t turn it into a pet. That makes processing day much easier for me.

The best “rooster to hen ratio” is what works best for your flock. The 1:10 that is often quoted here is not a hard rule. That’s what the large hatcheries use to ensure optimum fertility. Smaller backyard flocks are a whole other ballgame. In a flock your size, one would be able to cover all the hena without any problem. May I ask why you want to have a rooster?

 

[Offshoreorca]

We try to re-home, then freezer camp it is for the ones left over. As mentioned already, as soon as you notice they’re a roo then be careful not to get too attached. I’ve found the roo ratio depends a lot on the breed. We survived a winter/spring with 2 Roos and 3 hens our first year, but the Roos were super docile Cochins and this would likely not work out in 99.9% of cases. We now have a much much better ratio though

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Depends on the set up and temperaments. Ive had pairs work just fine with tamer males. And sometimes even with large floxks, there can be a favorite hen that is always bald backed

 

[Lacy Duckwing]

Craigslist! I advertise them for free tick control.

Rooster to hen ratio:

Large: 8 hens to one rooster.
Average: 12 hens to one rooster
Small: 18 hens to one rooster

 

[cooingdove]

10 hens : 1 roo! thats what works the best, otherwise the poor hens will get bread too much.

 

[NatJ]

We were planning to cull the extras to eat, but I don't know now.....

What do you all do with extra roos?

I eat them, once they are no longer tiny fluffballs.

What age and weight depends a lot on how they are acting:
If they are annoying me with too many crowing at once, or if they're all pestering the pullets, or if the pen just seems too crowded, I will butcher them sooner.

If everything is going fine, and I just don't feel like deciding yet, I will butcher them later.

I prefer to butcher some of the obvious not-keepers sooner, and wait until later to make final decisions about the last few.

My obvious not-keepers would include any that I consider ugly, any that have physical problems (crossed beak, wrong number of toes, things like that), any that bite me or attack me, any that regularly get out of the pen, any that are so submissive that they don't get enough to eat, any that otherwise need special attention.

If I pick each male up to look at him, and if several tolerate it calmly while one panics and struggles wildly, the panicky one will probably get butchered.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

I chose (yes, yes, I know there are other ways and I'll probably get yelled at) the ones I enjoy looking at and that aren't annoying or agressive.