What if I get a Rooster ????

[mendogurl]

I ordered the chicks sexed, but what do i do if one or some turn out to be roosters?
Yikes !!!!

Terry

 

[BrackenFarms]

contact the hatchery and see what there response is? it will prob be "sorry we do not have 100% guarantee on sexing"

if so then you can always sell or eat him?

 

[mendogurl]

ohhhhhh.
Anyone on this board in the LA are, who might want a rooster?

 

[Dread Pirate Roberts]

Quote:
It happens. Hatcheries typically offer a 90% guarantee on the sexing. I recently had two roosters out of an order of 50 peeps. I put an ad on craigslist offering them for free and wound up trading them for a dozen fertile eggs.

heh, now I'm prolly gonna have 6 roosters. oops.

 

[Mahonri]

What if I get a Rooster???

He'll probably start crowing somewhere around 16 weeks.​

 

[Sunny Side Up]

That's a good question, and a good time to be asking it. No matter where you get your chicks, you should always have a Plan B for unwanted roosters, especially if you cannot/do not want to keep it.

There's a section of the forum for "Where am I? Where are you?", you can check there for BYC folks in your area. I'd rather give an unwanted roo to someone in this group rather than on Craigslist. I wouldn't mind if someone wanted my roos for dinner, but wouldn't want to give them to someone who would use them for some cruel purposes.

 

[chickenkerri]

On my last order of 25 "pullets" I got three males. I had to give a hen away with the male to get rid of it. The others I gave to neighbors. Sexing is not an exact science.

 

[mendogurl]

Quote:
Thank you Sunny Side- I don't mind either giving a rooster to someone for their dinner, but I would mind terribly if it were used for something else!
As this is my first foray into chickens, I am not yet ready for butchering, and I do know that sexing is not 100%.
I will start looking now on the Where Am I forum.

When will I be able to tell if I have a truant?

 

[midwife mama]

When do roosters start exhibiting adult male behaviors? In other words, at what point might one need to be observant for any potential problems? When do they start mating? Do they need to be separated?

 

[Sunny Side Up]

The first sign to look for is combs that are more red/pink than others. Some show that at 3-4 weeks old. The cockerels' combs often grow bigger & look more red than their pullet sisters, and their legs look thicker. Their wattles start showing sooner, they look like adolescent boys growing their first beards.

At around 5-7 weeks it should start to be more obvious by their appearance. At around 9-12 weeks some start to crow, screechy wimpy little attempts. Then their tail feathers grow longer, and the pointy hackle & saddle feathers begin to sprout.

The time frame is an estimate. Some breeds/individuals show these signs of maturity sooner or later. Some guys look & act manly almost from hatch, others will keep you guessing for months.

By the way, chest bumping, hackle raising, hopping & spurring is done by both boy & girl chicks.

Cockerels will be trying to mate weeks earlier than the pullets wish. They'll be trying to pin the girls down while they shriek & fuss. But they won't hurt them, you needn't separate them. A good ratio is 1:10-12, that should keep the boys busy & out of trouble with each other. Individual results may vary. Some roos can live very peacefully alongside others, while other roos will beat the giblets out of any other roo in the yard.