Which roos to cull and keep

[wvplucker]

They are around 3 months old, should I wait a little longer?

 

[tinabrat1]

My experience with roos is that the ones that act somewhat aggressive toward me are the keepers...because they are the ones who will protect the girls when they are free ranging! The ones that ignore me or run away from me were not protective of the hens but were very rough with the hens, they had to go!

 

[poodlepill]

I ended up with 3 BO roos and 2 SLW to choose from, two of the BO's have very poor conformation walk choppy and look un ballanced in general. The BO I will keep moves very freely, has a nice tail and he actually is the one that started "wooing" the pullet/hens first (they are 18 weeks same as him) with his wing dance. The girls want nothing to do with the other two poor quality BO boys, they try to grab them and make them screech so they run from them and hang around the nicer BO who is really trying to work his mojo on them instead of being rough.

Nicer BO boy is not show quality and I will not be producing chicks to sell, I just wanted to keep the nicer roo to the girls and me (I had BR, RIR SLW) to choose from and actually sold all my other roos and also kept one SLW roo. The SLW roo was the larger of the two and had nicer feathers, moves freely . He dosen't get a chance at the girls and seems a bit adolescent still but dosen't go after the girls.

So far all the Roo's are leaving me alone but I grab them up in the chicken house and face plant them into the cement (in front of the other chickens) to make sure they know I am the head leader (we shall see LOL).

The two poor quality BO's will probably be freezer camp as no one wants them off CL. I will try the two roo's the SLW and the nicer BO, hopefully they can get along and manage and protect the girls appropriately.

 

[jossanne]

Cockerels and roosters need to be treated like they're the underlings at all times. You are the boss rooster, and they can't forget that. Otherwise they will one day try to treat you like they're the boss rooster, and beat the tar out of you or some small person.

I read on here that you should watch the flock when you give them treats and keep the roo from eating until everyone else is done. If he comes near you, kick at him so that he is leary of you. Carry a big stick and swing it in his direction if you're near him. If you see him mating a hen in your presence, run and chase him off. Do all the things that he would do to another rooster to show that he was the alpha, and he'll learn that you're the alpha and should leave you alone. Make sure that all the people in your household do the same thing.

My roos leave us alone totally. When we sit outside to get the hens to come eat out of our hands, the roos stay around the outside perimeter and only eat what we throw to them after the hens finish. Usually they cluck and scratch to show the girls where the good stuff is before they'll eat any for themselves.

I know of a family who had a pet bantam rooster of some type. I'm not exactly sure what he was except that he was a bantam. He had been the family pet, and they dearly loved him. One day the 18mo daughter was out in the back yard with the roo while mom was in the kitchen cooking. She heard the toddler crying, and ran outside to find the rooster on top of her, with her little scalp and face spurred pretty badly. He had never even made a move at any of the people before that day and had been dearly loved, but one day he decided to strut his stuff...