Which rooster to keep?

[anir dendroica]

We have nine four-month-old chickens (down from 13, but that's a different story) - two buff orpington hens, one black sexlink hen, and six cuckoo marans (3 hens, 3 roosters). We introduced them to our year-old birds (three rhode island red hens, three ameraucana hens, one ameraucana rooster) a while back. Aside from some general unfriendliness, they got along fine for awhile, but...

Our largest young, very friendly marans rooster has reached a size where our ameraucana rooster considers him a threat, and what began as chasing has progressed to pecking and bleeding. We were hoping to keep both, but one of them has to go soon, and we are having a hard time deciding which one.

Our ameraucana rooster is beautiful, with a golden "mane" and the cute tufts of face feathers characteristic of the breed. He tends to our hens well and watches the sky for hawks. He is not aggressive to people (we got him to replace a RIR rooster that kept attacking us), but he is deathly afraid of us and very difficult to catch. At least one of our neighbors hates him, since he has a very loud voice and crows about once a minute starting before 5 am. If we keep him, we can raise blue-egg layers, but if we eat him he has more meat than our youngster at the moment.

Our marans rooster is handsome in his own way, but not as colorful. He doesn't mind being touched (but will that change?), and has not yet developed a mature-sounding crow. He is not aggressive at all, and we don't know if he will be a good leader (the other two marans roosters have some genetic abnormalities/slow growth and will be eaten when they are large enough). If we keep him, we may have a more friendly flock, and we can raise chocolate-egg layers.

So...any votes? Our household is split on which one to keep (but I am leaning toward keeping the youngster).

Mark
Corvallis, OR

 

[AngelzFyre]

Personally, I'd keep the one that is the best with his girls.
My Marans roo is the only one we kept out of 17. He was the ONLY one that watched the girls and put them first. The others were like flying pigs and the girls were last to eat and/or be warned about hawks or anything else.
He's shy of us, but is catchable and hasn't ever offered to go after any humans.
I've only seen him fight with another Cuckoo Marans roo that I tried to integrate in with a few Cuckoo hens a couple of months back.

My Orp roo is both a great pet and a great protector of his girls and I kept him for the same reasons...he put the girls first and himself last.

I'd rather have a bit of a hard time catching them and know they are going to be great protectors than have one I can pet that runs and hides and leaves the girls to fend for themselves.

 

[shawnm2639]

I have 7 Rooster and 11 hens. I need to get rid of 5 or 6 of the roos but they all look alike other than maybe one is bigger than the rest. I want to beable to tell which would make the best roo for the girls but have a hard time telling them apart. They are all Barred Rock. Any suggestions. I was thinking about squirting them with food coloring in a squirt gun

 

[Dread Pirate Roberts]

Well if you keep the Marans rooster, then all your Marans eggs will be purebred. That may or may not be important to you.

If you keep the Ameraucana rooster, then all your Marans eggs will produce "Olive Eggers". That may or may not be important to you.

 

[sred98]

I agree...you need to decide which is more important, purebreds (and what purebred you want) or someone that has proven themself a good provider. I would tend to go with the good provider and flock protector. But, that is what I am looking for.

I would just wait. Things might change after you butcher the other 2 marans. It changes the whole flock dynamic, you know? The Ameracauna roo might be seeing 3 roos competing for the limited hens. After those 2 are butchered, he might not feel as threatened, and will show the other roo how to treat your girls.

Shelly

 

[BethESH]

Why not keep both of them - just separate the two "flocks" and keep two purebred lines? Just a suggestion...

 

[SussexInSeattle]

One other consideration; if you do remove the older roo, the Marans may step up to the plate and become a much better guardian when his rival is no longer squelching his attempts at being a man.

 

[anir dendroica]

When I opened the coop this morning, the marans rooster had been pecked down to the bare skull, with a large patch of missing skin and feathers. He seems blissfully unaware of his plight, but I see no hope for it healing without infection. So...he is isolated for the day and I will be butchering him tonight. I won't be trying any more multiple-rooster experiments so long as we have our Ameraucana roo.

 

[anir dendroica]

Hey! Why did my very specific post about a rooster conflict (definitely a "management" concern, or possibly suited to the "behaviors" section) get moved to the "pictures and stories" section??