What do you do with your cockerels?

[Mervin]

I'm with chicks4kids. I put the time in, I'd prefer to keep them. The wife and kids are coming around. I don't think they'll get as attached in the future. I think I'm going have to put together a bachelor pen next season though. I thought about rehoming one that we'd gotten attached to, but he had gotten mean. I'm not going to push my problems off on someone else.

 

[zazouse]

My last hatch i kept was 250 fuzzy butts, i ended up with 168 roos , so i used most of them for dog food.

 

[kooltex]

Chikin-NoOdLes

 

[Illia]

I use them as my "meat flock." If you raise a bunch of roosters together, they get along just fine. Keep em separate from the girls, and raise them humanely. . . . Good food.

We raise ours up to 5-9 months old, then cull/eat them.

Otherwise, there's also selling them, but pet quality roosters and common breeds/mutts don't sell very well at all.

 

[HeatherLynn]

This sounds bad but when my husband refers to the chicks they are all called dinner. He will hold a little fuzzy but and say something like " and how is my little dinner doing tonight" When we know they are girls they get their big girl name and are off the menu. Its his way of reminding every one not to get too attatched until we know what we have. Granted my husband does all the processing so he makes sure he is not partial to any of them until they spit out an egg.

 

[Rozzie]

When I had chickens, all the roos lived out their natural life. I only kept enough chickens to supply us with eggs, so I usually didn't have more than 8 or so roosters at a time.

The ones that didn't play well with others got their own individual bachelor pens.

Now I have quail. The extra roos have a bachelor setup.

Perhaps I should clarify that I'm a vegetarian. I have quail for eggs & pets, not meat. (I've gotten to where I can only eat very small numbers of chicken eggs but can indulge with quail eggs. Some sort of low tolerance for chicken eggs.)

Since I'm a veg, I'm also unable to send my roos off to be eaten.

Good thing I'm raising coturnix, not chickens now! Space here would prevent me from having a dozen chicken roosters & the neighbors might object, too.

 

[bock]

I have been thinking about this lately too. I am wondering what I will end up doing after this Spring's hatch.

 

[western edge]

You cant buy chicken like that at the store!

 

[bakerjw]

I'm going to be looking for someone to help me make capons out of my extra roos. It seems such a waste to harvest a smaller roo to ensure that it isn't all stringy. Capons might just be the way.

 

[sonew123]

Quote:

now thats ALOT of roos!