What do you do with unwanted Cockerels ?

[nminusyplusm]

@nminusyplusm That is exactly what we did too - just placed an order for three baby pullets, and shipping was not cheap! But they guarantee pullets We are anxiously awaiting their arrival! They are in a box, making their way to the desert from the cold that is OH - they should be here first thing in the morning!

I know, that shipping cost is painful, but good decision! I'll bet I know where you got them, mine came to the desert from Ohio, too ;-)

 

[Wickedchicken6]

If you want to hatch just for the fun of it, sell the chicks unsexed at hatch up to a couple weeks old. That way you don't have to deal with roos but you still get the experience.

While I agree that this is one way to be able to incubate and still have chicks, (although I would be advising that you should be selling them by a week old...they really grow on a person) you also have to question yourself if the hens you'll have and the rooster you'd get to breed them are breeding material to produce chicks. I just wanted to mention that point.

 

[dunnmom]

This is interesting. I have had chickens almost 2 years, but no roos yet. A couple of my hens went broody last year, and I broke them instead of letting them sit on eggs. I had no good plan in place for the eventuality of having cockerels around.

It was hard, I really wanted new babies and I know my girls did too. I might try this upcoming year to slip a few day-old chicks under a broody and see if she'll adopt them. At least then, I might be able to have more control over gender.

 

[AllynTal]

... My better half says ABSOLUTELY NO to putting them in the freezer. I will continue to try to convince her, but she has already put her foot down and said that I would have to kill, clean, cook, and eat it myself!

That's a shame. If she'll eat chicken from the supermarket but won't eat a chicken you raised, pull up some YouTube videos on commercial poultry farms and the hell those birds go through to provide chicken for those styrofoam trays wrapped in saran wrap. Chickens you raised, you know they're healthy, they aren't pumped full of steroids, antibiotics, and hormones, and you know they had a happy life. Happy chicken tastes so much better than tortured-life chickens.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Chickens have been selective bred to grow fast and thus reach processing age at as early as 4 weeks old. In fact hybrid meat birds are even unconcerned with moving around which helps the environment because more chicken can be produced with less chicken feed.

 

[birdofhermes]

If you find a rescue let me know, but I've had no luck with that either. I've only seen suspicious craigslist ads in the El Paso area saying they will adopt unwanted livestock but I sincerely doubt any animals they get have good lives. They're probably crammed into overcrowded cages and then butchered. Better we do it ourselves than that.

https://www.facebook.com/adoptabirdnetwork/ seems to be having success re-homing roosters

 

[nminusyplusm]

https://www.facebook.com/adoptabirdnetwork/ seems to be having success re-homing roosters

I had seen that site during my searches. There are no listings in NM which usually means no one is looking there either. Unfortunately, my state is sometimes like a black hole, especially the southern part.

 

[birdofhermes]

I had seen that site during my searches. There are no listings in NM which usually means no one is looking there either. Unfortunately, my state is sometimes like a black hole, especially the southern part.

that's too bad. people are getting them shipped to new homes so it may be worth a try. that might be where i go if my current rooster dies before i do because he is my favourite pet so far

 

[nminusyplusm]

Shipping down here is hard too because of the way it has to be routed. The only major city down here, if you can call it that, is Las Cruces. I'm 60 miles away from there in the only city in my county, 30 miles north of the Mexican border.

 

[birdofhermes]

Shipping down here is hard too because of the way it has to be routed. The only major city down here, if you can call it that, is Las Cruces. I'm 60 miles away from there in the only city in my county, 30 miles north of the Mexican border.

damn that sounds like an expensive and difficult task. if it were me i would do what it takes because the cost of not doing it is higher. the whole animal exploitation system is messed up and the males are really getting a raw deal