Which Rooster to keep??

[Airean]

You don't have four roosters, you have four immature cockerels. There is a big difference in behaviors between immature cockerels and mature roosters. The hormones of puberty can really affect their behaviors. Most (not all but most) cockerels mellow out when they actually mature but it can be a rough road through puberty.

Also, since you have multiple cockerels, one is dominant. The dominant one "can" suppress the actions of the less dominant. I say "can", and not always because different chickens can react differently. I've never seen it but some people on here say they have seen cockerels working together to gang rape a pullet. That's not suppressing, that's cooperating. You can never know for sure how any flock of chickens will act, but the dominant suppressing the others' behaviors is what I typically see. You can never tell how a cockerel will react if you take away the dominant one. A great one may become a monster. Or a rough one may straighten up if you remove his competition.

All this makes it really hard to choose at cockerel age. All you can do is the best you can.
Why do you want a rooster and what are your goals toward that rooster. The only reason you need a rooster is if you want fertile eggs. Everything else is personal preference. Nothing wrong with personal preference, I have a few of those myself, but that is a choice instead of a reason. I generally suggest you keep as few boys as you can and still meet your goals. That's not because you are guaranteed more problems with more boys but because the more boys you have the more likely you are to have problems. Sometimes that best number is zero.

Knowing your goals is important in making a decision. Your goals are what counts, not mine. If your goal is to hatch chicks, what traits do you want in those chicks? What do you want them to look like or what other traits. If hatching chicks is one of your goals try to choose a boy that is most like you want them to be. If you have other goals then try to base your goals on that. I personally like the look of a mixed breed flock, others prefer them to all look the same. Pure personal preference.

I agree that human aggression is a deciding factor. For me, Yellow would be gone. That's one of my preferences, I want to enjoy being around the chickens, not worrying about protecting my back. I can't make a decision on the others.

Honestly I'm not sure what my goal is with my flock. I guess that is something to make a plan for. I want to be self sufficient for myself and my dogs (I feed a raw diet to my dogs) and i want to start a garden. That is as far as my thought process went prior to getting chickens. I never knew I would enjoy a backyard chickens as much as I have.

I want my backyard chickens to help me with the garden. I want good temperament and good egg laying.

I have a batch of meat birds that I have had for a week now. Going to see how much I enjoy that process.

I never knew I would have ever put this much thought into a chicken ever in my life but I am glad this is where I am at.

 

[3KillerBs]

I want good temperament and good egg laying.

Temperament is, to some extent, heritable, so don't keep an aggressive male.

It's a general principle of breeding that the male is half the flock. Therefore he needs to be chosen with care.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Honestly I'm not sure what my goal is with my flock. I guess that is something to make a plan for. I want to be self sufficient for myself and my dogs (I feed a raw diet to my dogs) and i want to start a garden. That is as far as my thought process went prior to getting chickens. I never knew I would enjoy a backyard chickens as much as I have.

I want my backyard chickens to help me with the garden. I want good temperament and good egg laying.

I have a batch of meat birds that I have had for a week now. Going to see how much I enjoy that process.

I never knew I would have ever put this much thought into a chicken ever in my life but I am glad this is where I am at.

The popularity of this forum tells you how much fun chickens can be.

So you plan on breeding and butchering. One suggestion is to butcher the cockerels as you decide they are not the one to keep. That's the way I do it. The first ones I butcher are the obvious rejects. That helps me focus on the better ones and I can see how they behave with the others gone. I still get some temperaments wrong, that part is hard as they can change, but overall I get some good specimens of what I want. I generally start with 20 to 25 cockerels. By the time I get to the last three it's a coin toss, they are all pretty good.

If you don't have experience butchering, use these rejected cockerels to get some practice and refine your technique. That way you have an idea what to expect when you are ready for those meat birds.

For your garden I assume you have a compost pile working. Chicken poop can be an important part of that. When I butcher I bury the offal in a part of the garden I won't be digging in for a couple of months.

As far as egg laying, hatch eggs from your best layers if you can identify those eggs. That's not always easy.

It's all a learning experience. Your plans and goals will probably change some as you go, they usually do. Good luck with it.

 

[Shabby Chic-Hens]

you will have to cull yellow. he's attacked you. blond will probably have to go to the freezer as well.
don't kill green. sell him here on our wonderful buy/sell/trade forum.
and keep blue for your own personal entertainment while he chases and humps your hens.

 

[Dakota8472]

I agree with this.

Aggression is, for me, a hard NO.

This goes double if you have young children or if young children ever visit you and interact with your birds. Aggressive males jump up to attack, they go for the eyes on purpose, and young children can be blinded or permanently maimed.

yeah myself being exposed to the public with my free range chickens i actually had to cull a roo i loved. and now im rehoming the other one just because itll be easier having one roo who i know is completely uninterested in people.

 

[Mrs. K]

I have been there, and your pullets will thank you for attending this, it is hard, and you do change your mind a lot.

Do take a good look at the rooster, are they symmetrical, look at their feet and beaks, crooked toes? That can cause feather loss.

Weigh them, I am supposing they have all had the same opportunity to eat, so heavier birds are better doing birds. Feathers hide a multitude of sins. Check their breast development.

Do cull 2 soon, and then wait, often times then a better rooster will step forward... but do know, you might not keep either of them. Some roosters just do not turn out, no matter what people do. If so, cull these, and look around, people often have extra roosters. No need to keep a rotten one.

Mrs K

 

[SueT]

@Airean it’s been a year, do you have any updates for us? Which one did you keep, and how did that go?
I have to decide between 3 cockerels, and am looking at all these old threads on the subject…

 

[Airean]

@Airean it’s been a year, do you have any updates for us? Which one did you keep, and how did that go?
I have to decide between 3 cockerels, and am looking at all these old threads on the subject…

Well I didn't keep any of them! I kept mister green and then I gave that flock of Rhode islands reds to a friend. I kept 4 hens without a rooster and I enjoyed that. I brought on some Swedish flower hens that I ended up have 4 boys. I rehomed one cuz our energies were not voting and I have the other 3 in a bachelor flock. I'm taking my time to learn about rooster behavior with them away from the girls.