Which cockerel should I keep?

[jak2002003]

I must be lucky as I have never had any human aggressive roosters.. and I breed chickens as a hobby.. so have had literally 100s of them over the years.

Also I keep a lot of roosters together.. with hens, and again no problems... they all get a pecking order same as the hens. The dominant ones keep the lower down ones away from the hens. No bloodshed.. just a few fights as they grow up. Only when one gets past it.. a little too old, do the lower down ones challenge him and when they win he will be bullied a few days and then settle lower down in the pecking order.

The lower down ones hang out in boy groups... and sometimes form pairs with a lower ranking hen.

My roosters are never scared of me. All feed from my hand and can be picked up and touched without getting upset. But they don't attack me as they know I am not another rooster.. and I am not a danger to their hens.

Currently I have 8 roosters of different breeds all living in my flock... and about 17 hens and lots of young chicks. They are free range, so perhaps that is the difference? They do all sleep and roost together though in the coop.

My advise to you is keep the shy one. You like the look of him the most.. and his personality seems to agree with you, if you are nervous of more confident roosters.

I find the personality of the chicken parents tends to pass on to the young. That is why I don't breed from very nervous birds, or ones that are not good parents, or cause trouble in the flock.

In over 15 years breeding different breeds, I only had one case of a rooster I had to re home. That was because he lost his top place, but would never give up trying to get back up there... so kept getting beaten up over several weeks. If he just gave up there would not have been a problem. He was a lovely friendly white rooster too.. so I miss him.. be he was a bit dumb!

 

[Ridgerunner]

I’m not familiar with your Koekoek breed, but it appears they are a black barred chicken. Either of those red roosters over Koekoek hens will produce black sex links. That’s the easy question.

Which one to keep really doesn’t have an answer. A lot of that depends on your goals and what you want out of a rooster. They are still cockerels, it’s hard to determine what their behaviors will be like when they actually grow up and become roosters. Another big issue is that when you have more than one male where hormones have hit, one is going to be dominant. A dominant rooster acts quite a bit differently than one that is subordinate. He is going to take on some of the roles and responsibilities of the dominant rooster, even as a young cockerel. The competition from the others may stir him up and make him even more aggressive. He may calm down without that competition or when he matures, he may not.

The non-dominant one does not take on the roles and responsibilities of the dominant one. If he tries he may get his butt kicked. If you remove the other cockerels and turn the flock over to the weakest one, his personality may totally change. You just don’t know.

What I want out of a rooster is enough self-confidence and swagger that he can win over the hens just based on his perfection and attitude about it. If a hen gives him problems with that, he has enough oomph about him that he can bring her in line, sometimes physically. I know it makes me different, but I hold my hens responsible for flock behavior as well as the rooster. I don’t want a rooster that is mean and abusive to his hens, but he needs to be the flock master and they need to acknowledge that for the flock to be peaceful.

I find that the late-maturing cockerels that don’t have much self-confidence are less likely to win over the hens when they mature. Some of them can, a lot of it depends on the hens’ personalities too, but I have less luck with the weaker cockerels. I find that since the weaker cockerels often cannot win the hens over by personality they are more likely to resort to force or the eggs are not fertilized to the extent I want. That’s part of my goals, fertile eggs.

In any case, I do not tolerate a rooster that is human aggressive. Sometimes that doesn’t come out until later. I don’t have any way to tell that when one is a young cockerel.

I don’t know which one will be more likely to meet your goals. Since you said you can’t really keep them all and separate them out (which would tell you very little about the behaviors of the ones not with the flock) and you said you’d have no troubles getting rid of one later, I suggest you pick one and go with him. Be flexible. If he doesn’t work out you can always try a different one.

Good luck!

 

[chameleon]

Wow, thanks for taking the time to give such comprehensive answers

I had one rooster before, but he was the only one in the flock and his father was very friendly. I guess the only reason I'm even worried about them being aggressive towards people is because a restaurant we go to has a touch farm and they have a little bantam cochin roo that attacks our shins, and even my toddler, whenever we're there. It's annoying but harmless, but these will be much bigger and if they do the same it could cause real damage.

You asked about my goals: These chickens are for eggs, and sort of pets. I ordered more than I'd need, with the plan of getting rid of the roos. But then I thought that if I keep one, I could occasionally hatch eggs if I need to add to my flock, with the advantage of having a broody raise them instead of having to brood them myself and integrate them later. The cat also gets a little cheeky with the chickens sometimes, so if the roo could keep her in her place the hens would be much happier, has well as hopefully providing some protection from predators. They're secure at night but free range during the day and we do have a couple small predators around, nothing that a roo couldn't handle. So basically a good roo would be nice, but not absolutely necessary.

If the fighting is going to settle down once they've sorted out the pecking order and they don't do any serious damage in the mean time, I guess I could wait a little longer and see how it goes. I think I'll try that for now. But if they start doing more serious damage I guess I'll stick with the friendly roo and see how he turns out. Although I also like the points you made about a self-confident rooster being good for the flock. I have noticed one of the pullets seems to be quite feisty, and if the weaker roo doesn't step up when the others are gone, he might still get picked on by the hens? I guess I should wait a bit longer before making a final decision...

 

[Stephine]

I’m not familiar with your Koekoek breed, but it appears they are a black barred chicken. Either of those red roosters over Koekoek hens will produce black sex links. That’s the easy question.

Which one to keep really doesn’t have an answer. A lot of that depends on your goals and what you want out of a rooster. They are still cockerels, it’s hard to determine what their behaviors will be like when they actually grow up and become roosters. Another big issue is that when you have more than one male where hormones have hit, one is going to be dominant. A dominant rooster acts quite a bit differently than one that is subordinate. He is going to take on some of the roles and responsibilities of the dominant rooster, even as a young cockerel. The competition from the others may stir him up and make him even more aggressive. He may calm down without that competition or when he matures, he may not.

The non-dominant one does not take on the roles and responsibilities of the dominant one. If he tries he may get his butt kicked. If you remove the other cockerels and turn the flock over to the weakest one, his personality may totally change. You just don’t know.

What I want out of a rooster is enough self-confidence and swagger that he can win over the hens just based on his perfection and attitude about it. If a hen gives him problems with that, he has enough oomph about him that he can bring her in line, sometimes physically. I know it makes me different, but I hold my hens responsible for flock behavior as well as the rooster. I don’t want a rooster that is mean and abusive to his hens, but he needs to be the flock master and they need to acknowledge that for the flock to be peaceful.

I find that the late-maturing cockerels that don’t have much self-confidence are less likely to win over the hens when they mature. Some of them can, a lot of it depends on the hens’ personalities too, but I have less luck with the weaker cockerels. I find that since the weaker cockerels often cannot win the hens over by personality they are more likely to resort to force or the eggs are not fertilized to the extent I want. That’s part of my goals, fertile eggs.

In any case, I do not tolerate a rooster that is human aggressive. Sometimes that doesn’t come out until later. I don’t have any way to tell that when one is a young cockerel.

I don’t know which one will be more likely to meet your goals. Since you said you can’t really keep them all and separate them out (which would tell you very little about the behaviors of the ones not with the flock) and you said you’d have no troubles getting rid of one later, I suggest you pick one and go with him. Be flexible. If he doesn’t work out you can always try a different one.

Good luck!

Very interesting and very good point!
I had two cockerels when we started out, one planned and one oops. The planned one, a Welsumer, matured fast, crowed at 6 weeks (if I remember right, he was *really* young) and became the alpha very naturally. The oops roo was a Buff Brahma, matured much more slowly and behaved like all the hens, so it only became apparent that he was a roo once his colors changed and his saddle feathers came in at maybe 15 weeks.
The Welsumer became aggressive to me and I eventually let him go when he was about 9 months old. I kept the Brahma, hoping the hens would warm to him - they had all liked the Welsumer and he mated with them without anyone showing signs of wear and rarely a squeek out of the hens.
Well, the Brahma was happy about the lack of competition for the hens now, but the hens did not agree. While everyone was having an easy time getting along most of the time and the Brahma was very good about letting the hens eat first (the poor guy never did get a treat), mating was a different matter. Most hens put up a fight and a few never let him mount. He, in turn, never danced for them, he'd just lunge at them and grab their head/neck feathers to jump them and often feathers were all he got. Eventually he managed to mount most of them but there was a lot of protest from at least half the flock and my hens went bare rather quickly.
So, this played out exactly like you describe.
I couldn't stand the bare hens anymore after about two months I sold the roo to a lady who wanted a roo to warn for hawks and apparently didn't mind bare backs.
I turned around and ordered a new roo. Maybe third time is a charm?
I need to add: The brahma never turned aggressive to me or anyone else , though, so that part was good.

 

[Mrs. K]

I agree with the above advice, it is very good, but I will give another option. Let all three of these roosters go.

Check at the feed store, poultry club and find someone near you who also does chickens. What you want is a rooster that is a bout a year old, that has been raised in a flock, and is so darn nice, that is the reason he did not get culled.

However, with the little child you mentioned, roosters can be dangerous and they will attack children first. I think that I would wait a couple of years, until your child is closer to 6 years old, before adding a rooster. By that time, you both will have a bit more experience. Roosters have ruined the whole chicken experience for a lot of kids.

Mrs K

 

[chameleon]

I agree with the above advice, it is very good, but I will give another option. Let all three of these roosters go.

Check at the feed store, poultry club and find someone near you who also does chickens. What you want is a rooster that is a bout a year old, that has been raised in a flock, and is so darn nice, that is the reason he did not get culled.

However, with the little child you mentioned, roosters can be dangerous and they will attack children first. I think that I would wait a couple of years, until your child is closer to 6 years old, before adding a rooster. By that time, you both will have a bit more experience. Roosters have ruined the whole chicken experience for a lot of kids.

Mrs K

Thanks. There's so many things to consider I'm glad I asked. I like this option, I didn't think of that. I don't know where I would find a roo like that in my area though. I live in a small town where it's very difficult to get anything other that day old chicks. The only time I've seen chickens in a store, it was at a pet store and it was a roo and a hen in a tiny cage and they looked miserable and sick. The cage was filthy and their beaks had grown so long they could barely eat. The only other place I occasionally see adult birds for sale is on Gumtree, but I have purchased and attempted to purchase a few animals on there already and have only had bad experiences with people not honouring their side of the deal or being dishonest about the quality of their animals.

I was looking for laying hens, but couldn't find any sellers that looked reliable, and the one I did find was an hour away and never turned up. I searched everywhere for hatching eggs for my broody and found nothing. I ended up ordering day olds from what seemed to be a reliable breeder from a town 2 hours away. He was much more professional, but he was trying to arrange a free delivery for me and couldn't so ended up sending them by courier anyway when they were two weeks old. So by the time they arrived they were so used to the brooder with a heat lamp that by the time I trained them to use the heating pad on their own they didn't need it anymore

Anyway, sorry for the long story, but this is what led me to think it might be easier to breed my own chickens. I should add, this whole process took about 4 months, I could have been getting eggs already but now I'll still be waiting at least another two months.

 

[Mrs. K]

Where do you buy chicken feed? Ask who else is buying chicken feed. In a small town, people in the area around you will have chickens, I am almost sure. Ask your county extension office if there is a local poultry club. Go to the county fair, and check out the poultry barn. These are ways to hook up with local people that have chickens. It is fun to share this hobby with other people who like it too.

Mrs K

Whoops - I just saw that you are in South Africa.... just made the assumption you were in the US.

 

[chameleon]

Where do you buy chicken feed? Ask who else is buying chicken feed. In a small town, people in the area around you will have chickens, I am almost sure. Ask your county extension office if there is a local poultry club. Go to the county fair, and check out the poultry barn. These are ways to hook up with local people that have chickens. It is fun to share this hobby with other people who like it too.

Mrs K

Whoops - I just saw that you are in South Africa.... just made the assumption you were in the US.

As I was reading your coment I was busy thinking the exact same thing. I was about to reply that I live in Africa just before I saw that you realised it too. The feed store I go to is an agricultural supply store, so it's mostly production farms buying from them. There are very very few backyard flock keepers, and I wouldn't trust any of them to tell me the truth about what they're selling. The bigger towns do have more backyard chicken keepers and poultry shows and a pretty decent selection of breeds. But where I am, you can only get 3 of the local breeds - Potchefstroom Koekoek, Naked Neck, and Boschvelder. And even of those, few are pure bred. The breeder I got from is the only one in about a 600km radius that does more than that, and even then, they don't have the kind of variety you can get nearer the city. The only other chicken keepers in the area are people living in informal settlements that have very little money and need their chickens for food, or breed them for cock fighting.

That's why I love BYC so much, I can connect with people like you who have experience keeping smaller flocks and enjoy their birds. And I can talk about my chickens without people rolling their eyes and yawning at me

Even free range here is actually usually barn raised.

We do have an agricultural show here once a year though. I missed it last year, but I'm really hoping I'll get to go this year and hopefully find some more likeminded chicken people

I should add, even my dad who was raised on a farm with chickens thought I was completely nuts building a coop for my chickens. And if I even mention providing heat for new chicks people think I'm insane and quickly change the subject

I don't know what I would do without BYC!

 

[Bantam brother]

I would say the aggresive one. For one reason breeding and another for protecting the flock. With my experience I've found aggressive roosters to be better breeding partners than calmer ones, just some odd thing I found out.

But if you want to breed with your koekoe, I'd say keep the aggresive one and the koekoe. The friendly one will stay friendly more than likely amd the aggressive one will worsen probably. That's just what I would do. Also it would be good to seperate them soon, at that age if two are superior they will gang up on the outcast and possibly kill him

 

[Liv_loves_chickens]

I would keep the second one