Which cockerel should I get rid of.

Altairsky

Songster
Mar 25, 2024
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Veneto, Italy
I need help decide which cockerel I should keep and which one to get rid of.
I have 6 chicks, they are almost 4 weeks old, 4 araucana and 2 legbars.
The legbars are 100% male and I believe all araucana are pullets.
The 2 legbar cockerels are fighting (without doing any harm though), they only fight each other and leave the araucana alone.
I wish to keep one of them and use him to make mixes with my buff hens.
As you can see in the picture, the dominant one is resting with the group of females, while the submissive one is resting at a safe distance.
Now the question is, since I want a good boy, I should get rid of the dominant one, right? Or would it be better to wait and see how their personality evolves in the next couple of weeks?
 

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You’re not gonna know how they turn out until much much later. Cockerels don’t turn into roosters until about the 2 year mark and their personalities can change a lot as they mature and go through their hormones.

It also depends on what you want in a rooster. Some want aggressive watchful roosters to protect the hens from predators, others want gentle roosters who don’t attack humans or over-mate the hens.

If it were me and I had to choose this early I would go with the cockerel that the pullets prefer.
 
I definitely want a gentle rooster. We don't have many predators other than the neighbor cats, corvids, and the occasional hawk. My buff hens already take the initiative to attack the cats and I doubt our small hawks are gonna bother hens that weight almost 9 pounds.
I'll keep both cockerels at the moment and see how things goes. Right now they aren't fighting seriously, they don't even peep or screech. Though as soon as they start fighting for real, I will need to make a decision real quick.
 

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