What do you do with excess roosters?

[Heivonz]

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?

We have a fair amount of land and the birds will mostly be free range, so I would like a rooster for some protection. Of course, if that doesn't go well, we'll reconsider.

 

[Jabebee13]

I have 10 hens and 4 mix sexed. One or two is growing it's crown. I forgot the word. I want to keep one rooster. Of what I have now. For breeding. The other is eating. Unless I got more hens. I want a non black rooster. But I wanted a red rooster. But I feel happy with a black Crower living. As long as friendly to me.

 

[Heivonz]

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.

I like

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.

I like this method a lot. I was planning on choosing based off of who I like the best, but there's a lot of other factors here I haven't considered.

 

[NatJ]

I was planning on choosing based off of who I like the best, but there's a lot of other factors here I haven't considered.

Sometimes I have trouble deciding who I like best.
But it's usually easy to decide which ones are annoying me

I make a point of eating any chicken that needs special care, because I like an easy-care flock. And when life gets extra-busy, special care just won't happen--but if I already ate the bird, it's not neglected and suffering.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

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

Hi there, hope you are enjoying BYC!

I would say that most beginners feel this same trepidation. I was afraid I would end up vegetarian as we faced harvesting our first cockerel. And I DID screw it up some!

But with patience AND practice the skill and confidence of a job well done along with KNOWING exactly how the animal that gave it's life so my family could eat lived every single moment including their last.. but now, even there after.. market chickens are sprayed with disinfectant inside and out.. after floating down blood bath alley.. (in the US).

Another key factor to having honed my poultry harvesting skill is that NOW if or when one of my beloved pet hens faces an injury or something else I cannot help.. I now have the confidence to know I will NOT make them suffer more at my hand.. THIS is a huge bonus when it comes to chicken math.

Many gave good advice.. Noting for heritage breed boys, I prefer a stag pen because most are trying to mate and getting rowdy before they are ready size wise for harvesting. But I too harvest according to antics more than size and also according to MY convenience. I did have someone else doing it for me, my standards were higher regarding left over pin feathers etc... and I name most of my birds.. some even go in the freezer labeled with their name.. the meaner the roo the sweeter the stew! One boy that was very cherished suddenly passed.. he was harvested and used accordingly. Weeks later I still mourned his loss and literally cried tears... not because we ate him.. but because losing him was a loss to my entire flock and it hurt.. I'm in my 40's, harvest cockerels regularly.. it doesn't mean you're heartless. Quite the opposite it means you care enough to provide the best life you can even though an animal may become food. And trust me.. harvesting yourself, now that takes heart!

It's a worthy goal.. especially if ya wanna do your own hatching. You'll find lot's of knowledgeable folks in this community who are willing and excited to share their experiences no matter where your adventures lead,

 

[BGcoop]

I agree with the advice to not name them, treat them as livestock and eat them. There are places you can take live birds to get butchered and packaged for you for a small fee per bird if you don’t think you can handle doing it yourself. Also if you plan to rehome them be aware that Roos are more difficult to get rid of and many that do take them will be taking them for a food source.

 

[Heivonz]

Hi there, hope you are enjoying BYC!

I would say that most beginners feel this same trepidation. I was afraid I would end up vegetarian as we faced harvesting our first cockerel. And I DID screw it up some!

But with patience AND practice the skill and confidence of a job well done along with KNOWING exactly how the animal that gave it's life so my family could eat lived every single moment including their last.. but now, even there after.. market chickens are sprayed with disinfectant inside and out.. after floating down blood bath alley.. (in the US).

Another key factor to having honed my poultry harvesting skill is that NOW if or when one of my beloved pet hens faces an injury or something else I cannot help.. I now have the confidence to know I will NOT make them suffer more at my hand.. THIS is a huge bonus when it comes to chicken math.

Many gave good advice.. Noting for heritage breed boys, I prefer a stag pen because most are trying to mate and getting rowdy before they are ready size wise for harvesting. But I too harvest according to antics more than size and also according to MY convenience. I did have someone else doing it for me, my standards were higher regarding left over pin feathers etc... and I name most of my birds.. some even go in the freezer labeled with their name.. the meaner the roo the sweeter the stew! One boy that was very cherished suddenly passed.. he was harvested and used accordingly. Weeks later I still mourned his loss and literally cried tears... not because we ate him.. but because losing him was a loss to my entire flock and it hurt.. I'm in my 40's, harvest cockerels regularly.. it doesn't mean you're heartless. Quite the opposite it means you care enough to provide the best life you can even though an animal may become food. And trust me.. harvesting yourself, now that takes heart!

It's a worthy goal.. especially if ya wanna do your own hatching. You'll find lot's of knowledgeable folks in this community who are willing and excited to share their experiences no matter where your adventures lead,

Im really interested in culling myself so that I know they are living the best life possible and die as quickly and painlessly as possible. My family is trying to be more ethical about our meat consumption and seeing the whole circle of life in action is quite the lesson. I would love to hatch some one day too. Thank you and I love this community so far!

 

[NatJ]

I agree with the advice to not name them, treat them as livestock and eat them.

For me, if I can tell one apart from another, then it doesn't matter whether I name them or not.

I often do give them names, because it's easier to say "Blanco" than to say "the White Laced Red Cornish Bantam cockerel that has more white than the other one." Or "Biter" instead of "the Sexlink cockerel that bites me when I pick him up." (Biter tasted especially good )

 

[JacinLarkwell]

For me, if I can tell one apart from another, then it doesn't matter whether I name them or not.

I often do give them names, because it's easier to say "Blanco" than to say "the White Laced Red Cornish Bantam cockerel that has more white than the other one." Or "Biter" instead of "the Sexlink cockerel that bites me when I pick him up." (Biter tasted especially good )

Lol. I have one that I called Funky Wattles cause he had one wattoe that grew folded over so it was half the size of the other. He made my neighbor's happy when they ate him

 

[Ridgerunner]

When you order straight run there is no telling what your ratio will be. I once got 7 girls out of 7 total straight run, another time 2 girls out of 6. When I hatch 15 it's pretty common to get 10 of one sex and 5 of the other. The 10 could be either sex. Over time and enough hatches it balances out pretty close to 50-50 but any one hatch can be way off. For me it usually is.

They lay a trap for you that many people fall for. The boys are normally bolder and more curious. They come out to say hello. The boys are the ones you usually fall in love with. They have personality. I don't know if forewarned is forearmed but now you have been warned.

To me there is no perfect ratio of boys to girls. We keep them in so many different conditions for so many different goals and each has its own personality so there cannot be a good ratio that covers everyone. To me the only reason you NEED a rooster is if you want fertile eggs. Everything else is personal preference. Nothing wrong with personal preference, I have a few myself. My typical recommendation is that you keep as few males as you can and still meet your goals. That's not because you are guaranteed more problems with more roosters, you are not, but problems are more likely the more you keep.

I eat my extra cockerels. I know what my goals are and start eating the ones that don't meet those goals. With that method it's usually not that hard to get down to two or three before those decisions get hard. By that time, any one you keep is probably a good choice but that does not mean it is an easy choice. Those need to be your goals, not mine or anyone else's.

Other people have mentioned some possible things you can do other than eating the extra ones. I'll stick to talking about eating them because that is my experience. I don't know how much you know about processing a live bird all the way to the table. There are a lot of different ways to kill them and different ways to clean them. There are different ways to treat the meat before you cook or freeze it (aging, brining, marinades). The age you butcher has a lot to do with how you can cook them without them being too tough. Those are discussed in the meat bird section of this forum. You might do some reading over there or start your own thread with specific questions. There is a lot of experience in that section with dual purpose birds like yours as well as Cornish X or Rangers.

I understand some people just can't kill and butcher their own. That's nothing to be ashamed of, we are all different. Some people send them out to be processed or get help from neighbors. There are always different options. The way I look at mine they have a great life and then one bad moment. I try to make that one bad moment as quick as I can.

We are all different, you need to find your own way. Plans don't always remain the same, you need to be flexible as things develop. People on here are usually pretty good at providing moral support as well as technical help. Good luck, it can be a fun journey.