What do you do with excess roosters?

[IttyBittyBirdy]

So, I have a bantam coop, that has 3 roosters and 7 hens. The "biggest" rooster is my silkie and the other two roos are his sons. So far no fighting, I believe because the two were raised together & Elliott shuts down any squabbles.
I even noticed an order to the crowing that happens.
Sam in the big coop.
Elliott in the little coop.
Rusty & Prince crow last.

I'll have an extra coop by spring, so I'll be able to roo-nap Rusty and Prince from the bantam coop and place them in the spare coop if any issues pop up.

Quick add: no freezer camp for the Littles because of obvious reasons, but if they were bigger roos...

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I make stock. One Roo. One back up. a couple potential replacements (for one or the other) in the brooder. Excess and underperformers are culled. It is no kindness to delay the deed.

 

[illinoishiker]

 

[Acre4Me]

Since you are inexperienced, you might not want a rooster right now- there is a learning curve. Also, male chickens raised in a mixed age flock often act better bc the older females teach the young boys some manners.

we started out with 4 males snd 15 females. Some were straight run breeds. Around 12-14 weeks of age, one breed became aggressive-they matured early, they were mean. We butchered the males and cooked them. In our inexperience, we did not let them rest. At the young age of 14 weeks, they were stringy and tough, so rest any butchered birds for 2-3 days after butchering. Then we were left with 2 males in a flock of all same age chickens. One quickly took the lead, but became aggressive towards our tween child, so we removed him. If you have children, be aware that young children are at eye level for an attack by an aggressive rooster. Even with a lot of land, some roosters will seek out confrontation bc they are aggressive and you don’t young children the focus of any aggression.

the remaining rooster in our first flock stayed for a year, but we removed him bc he became more aggressive, and had me in his sights always (not the kid!). So once we had a younger male ready to take over that second rooster was removed. The younger male (now the third rooster in the flock) was amazing!!! After getting his a$* handed to him repeatedly by the older hens and head rooster for months, he was quite the perfect flock leader! We kept him for about a year and then let another male take over (head rooster #4). Unfortunately that rooster just died unexpectedly!! So we are rooster-less ATM.

we have actually had several more males in our flock due to straight run, but they come and go around 4-5 months of age. We have switched out roosters also bc my kid is involved in 4-H and shows chickens.

Currently we have 15 (yes, 15) males that are 14 weeks old. They have been raised separately. We bought only sexed males bc that was the only option available at any hatchery last July!! We bought 8 breeds and 1 surprise chick. We ended up with one accidental female (missexed). We have now picked 3 males and the female to integrate into the flock. The other males will be raised for another few weeks then butchered or we will take to sell. In the spring we will likely remove 2 of the males, otherwise there will be too much fighting. Right now, in lower light fall/winter they are less prone to fight.

selling: Know that most males will get eaten by whomever buys them. I take mine to a livestock auction where the auction house takes a 25% commission, but hands me cash at the end (or mails me a check if I don’t stick around). Your selling price varies by who is there bidding. I know some of our males have gone to live in flocks, others went to become meat. The last rooster we sold -thegreat rooster #3 above - ended up as meat, despite my bringing him to auction early (more views and early in the lineup), tagging him with clear info that he was a good temperment, and caging him separately in a roomy cage...but it just happened that no one needed a flock rooster. Another rooster we sold went for quite a bit of money bc he won “Grand Champion” and was labeled as such. We have friends that raise up chickens and then post on CL and sell them forusually $5/head to individuals that will butcher them for meat, or who feed their dogs a “raw food diet”. We know someone else who has released his chickens into the woods/property of a relative when he was done with chickens ... so they entered the wild animal food chain eventually -rather like a free-ranging flock without the coop at the end of the day. Basically, you have a lot of options.

Good luck with your flock!

 

[Jedstar]

Yeah eat the roosters you don't want. I'd let them all grow up first and then pick the one with the best traits that you prefer in a rooster.

 

[cmom]

I noticed you are a fairly new member, . Many have given you good advice. Everyone is different as well as their situations. In the past I have processed my extra males but not anymore. Now I take them to our local farm swap and sell them. I have regular buyers so they are pre-sold. If I want chicken to eat, I go to the butcher down the road and get some that are already processed and it costs less than I can sell my males for. Usually around half of the hatches are males +/-, but I have a lot of birds and hatch out a lot of chicks every year so selling the extra males helps to offset the costs of the feed but I also go through a lot of feed, around a half ton a month. When the males start competing for the females I separate them and put them in bachelor coops and pens. As long as there are no females they get along fine. You will have to find out what works best for you. As far as breeding goes, I usually have no more than 10 females per male. I do maintain a primary and a backup male for each of my chosen breeds. Good luck and have fun...

 

[cmom]

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.

Free ranging is fine but eventually you will loose a bird/birds to predators once they are discovered and a rooster can be had too. I don't free range anymore due to losses in the past but my birds still have a lot of room. They have nice large pens. around 20'x60' per pen. Now when I let them out shortly after they're all back in their pens. My land is mostly open pasture. The pens have shade. Now I have electric wires around the coops and pens, good heavy duty netting covering the pens and concrete under the gates. All due to losses from predators in the past. I also have several game cameras up around my property and have seen many predator roaming here especially at night. Again, good luck and have fun...
A bobcat at my chick/grow-out coop the other night.

Coyotes. I think the parents teach their young to stay away because of the electric wires.

 

[spaceylocust]

We bought straight run when we first got into chickens, about a 1 1/2 years ago, with the intent to process the extra roos. We studied about the property harvest method, how to defeather and disembowel. There are many YouTube videos about the process along with very helpful books.

Since our mindset at the beginning was to process the extra males, they were not treated as pets, were not named, and we don't name the girls, mainly because I can't tell them apart!!! All are black australorp.

One thing I did on processing day that helped us both, as I was heading to the cone with boy in arms, I thanked him for giving himself for us and told him how much we appreciate his sacrifice. Didn't know it at the time, but hubby told me he really appreciated my doing this as it helped him during the procedure.

We both love animals and we respect all the creatures God has created. We want to treat all with kindness; however, I really didn't mind when the day came for George. He was the rooster we kept to protect the free range girls. He let 2 get taken by dogs while he stood by and crowed. Then he turned mean as a snake. Not sure if he was stricken with a case of the guiltys or not.

Good luck with your decision. If you decide at the beginning that you are going to raise your own meat, like you raise your own vegetables, I think that helps a great deal at the end of the day.

 

[Liz Birdlover]

I ended up attached to my chicks, egg laying breeds of Wyandotte, Ameraucana, RIR & Buff Orpington. 10 chicks, 5 grew into Roos. Right now at 7 & 8 mos of age 3 Roos are together with no hens & getting along together in their "bachelor pad" but the other 2 Wyandottes became very grumpy & aloof. So now I have to build another coop to keep everyone happy. Why do they all have to be so sweet & huggable? No way could I ever consider butchering my flock but that's just me.

 

[Xouie]

A note if you choose to process the boys: we butchered our hand-raised, treat-spoiled dual purpose breed cockerels at 12 weeks and the meat was wonderfully flavorful and tender. Not a huge amount of meat at that age, but sooooo good!