Which Rooster to Sell?

[GrFChickens]

Hi there!

We've had several flocks of chickens in the past but this is our first flock with roosters!

We bought straight run and now have 8 chickens total; 3 of them are roosters, so we are planning to sell two of them. They are lavender orpington; beautiful, docile hens, but I think there are too many roos for them to handle!

Any wisdom y'all might have about which two roosters to sell? The biggest rooster is dominant and can be aggressive with the hens - we've watched him pecking their back so he can get the best grub during feeding time (the hens haven't started laying yet). Should we sell him and hope one of the other roosters becomes dominant? We haven't noticed any other aggressive behavior with the other two roos yet.

Thank you so much!
Megan

 

[igorsMistress]

Great advice to separate and wait for awhile! We will do that. They are all about 4 months old.

Try to give each of them a few weeks with the hens to observe their behavior. By 6 months or so you might have a pretty good idea who you want. They're still a bit young to be nice to the girls yet though.

 

[igorsMistress]

Some advice I was given I found invaluable: Separate the dominant roo and see how the subordinates behave if you can. The dominant roo can change his behavior without the subordinates too. See how each treats the girls and you and go from there depending on what you're looking for.

How many hens do you have?

Oops, you have 5.

ETA it can take a while for a rooster to develop personality, how old are they?

 

[GrFChickens]

Some advice I was given I found invaluable: Separate the dominant roo and see how the subordinates behave if you can. The dominant roo can change his behavior without the subordinates too. See how each treats the girls and you and go from there depending on what you're looking for.

How many hens do you have?

Oops, you have 5.

ETA it can take a while for a rooster to develop personality, how old are they?

Great advice to separate and wait for awhile! We will do that. They are all about 4 months old.

 

[DobieLover]

Hi there!

We've had several flocks of chickens in the past but this is our first flock with roosters!

We bought straight run and now have 8 chickens total; 3 of them are roosters, so we are planning to sell two of them. They are lavender orpington; beautiful, docile hens, but I think there are too many roos for them to handle!

Any wisdom y'all might have about which two roosters to sell? The biggest rooster is dominant and can be aggressive with the hens - we've watched him pecking their back so he can get the best grub during feeding time (the hens haven't started laying yet). Should we sell him and hope one of the other roosters becomes dominant? We haven't noticed any other aggressive behavior with the other two roos yet.

Thank you so much!
Megan

Your cockerels are young still.
But a good cockerel/rooster will tidbit the pullets/hens and give her the best food.
He will also watch out for predators and sound a ground or aerial predator alert that will tell the girls to seek shelter.
He will be gentle with the girls when breeding them. This is sometimes hard to determine when they are young, hormonally crazed cockerels.
He will NEVER harm the girls.
He may sacrifice himself to protect the girls.
Ideally, he will not be aggressive towards humans.
Each one will have to be tested for about a week without the other boys around. The other 2 will have to be housed apart from the flock during testing of each cockerel.
Chose the one that comes closest to the above and rehome the rest.
You will be lucky to get $5 each for them. There are always nice cockerels looking for a new home. There is far more supply than demand so be prepared to just give him away.
You can also just grow them out and process them yourself or have them done for you. That is just the reality of being born male in the chicken world.

 

[GrFChickens]

I had bought Marans like 8 6 turned out to be cockerel sold all 6 have 1 Easter egger I am
raising as my new rooster also bought 3 blue marans to give my silkie to raise 1 is cockerel I am going to keep him if the EE and him can get along

It's hard to know how many will become roosters, huh? Great job taking care of your flock!

 

[DobieLover]

Great rules above! Yes, that all sounds ideal and is what we were hoping for, so it concerns us that the dominant roo hurts his ladies. . I think if we separate him out for a time maybe we can better see how the other roos operate.

Blessings, and thanks for the response!
Megan

When you say he hurts them, how is that? They are all still pullets, correct?
The screaming and feather pulling is because they are not quite ready for his attentions. He, on the other, can't wait anymore so he forces them to submit. It's not the same thing as him being aggressive. This is still stressing out the girls so isolating all the boys from the pullets will help. It will give the girls a break and a chance to mature. Once they start laying, they are more receptive to accepting him.
Young cockerels can be idiots when trying to court pullets. They will drop the wing and circle the object of their affection then jump her even if she doesn't submit.

 

[Ridgerunner]

They are all about 4 months old.

There is a world of difference in immature cockerels and mature roosters' behaviors, that's a big part of what makes this so difficult at 4 months. The cockerel's hormones are telling him "Dominate! Dominate! Dominate!" He does that by mating with them or just bullying them. The pullets are not mature enough to know what is going on but they know they don't want to be dominated so they resist. What you are describing is pretty typical behavior between immature cockerels and pullets. What normally happens is that when the cockerel matures into a rooster and the pullets mature into hens you get a really peaceful flock. But getting to that point can be hard to watch. I don't consider that aggressive, I consider it a phase they are going through. Not all cockerels or pullets mature into good roosters and hens but most do, as far as behaviors between each other. But sometimes you get a rooster or hen that is just a jerk.

Sometimes when you have two or more cockerels they fight each other, usually not a lot but sometimes a lot. When one establishes his dominance the others may take a submissive role. The dominant "flock leader" has certain rights, privileges, and responsibilities. The submissive ones have those behaviors squashed, the dominant one often won't tolerate them assuming any privileges. Sometimes all the cockerels will try mating the pullets, sometimes that is the privilege of the dominant one. I'm not sure if your two have become submissive or if they are just late maturing and the hormones haven't really hit yet.

I don't have any foolproof suggestions for you, sometimes I get it wrong. Typically the pullets mature enough to act like hens when they start to lay. With cockerels it's harder. I had a cockerel mature enough at 5 months, though that is rare. I had one wait until he was 11 months to mature enough. Mine typically flip that switch and gain control of their hormones at 7 to 8 months, but it can really vary by cockerel.

What I want to see is that the male dances for the girl he is interested in and she squats. I'm OK with her initially running away and him chasing, as long as she squats when caught without him getting very physical. She's not really resisting him, just wanted to see if he was really interested. This is when they mature, not still immature cockerels and pullets. But if you do see this with cockerels and pullets, it is good. It shows they are growing up.

The head grab is an essential part of mating. The male grabs the back of her head. That is the signal for her to raise her tail up out of the way so he can hit the target. That's not him being mean and brutal, it's essential. Immature cockerels sometimes have really bad technique with this, as they mature they typically do much better. If the back of the head becomes bare there is a risk he could cut her skin when he grabs back there. So pay attention to that.

This is when mating. If he is grabbing her head or back a other times, he is bullying. As long as no one is getting hurt I'm OK with this, it's part of them growing up. But if you see blood or bald spots you need to intervene.

 

[GrFChickens]

We also have 8’roosters and 7 hens. Your post makes me laugh because we also experienced this issue. Who stays and who goes. We had such a hard time we kept them all. They each have their own personality and we love each one. We laugh at our set up. We know the girls can’t be around the boys so they each get rec time and each night return to xl crates in our heated and cooled garage. I know this doesn’t help but roosters can be the best pets. I have one red and he loves me he rubs his face on me and talks to me following me around. Best of luck.:::

It IS so hard, huh? Our kids are attached to the dominant one. I'm so glad y'all could keep all of them! Sounds like your fam is loving and caring and they have a great set-up.

 

[pennyJo1960]

I had bought Marans like 8 6 turned out to be cockerel sold all 6 have 1 Easter egger I am
raising as my new rooster also bought 3 blue marans to give my silkie to raise 1 is cockerel I am going to keep him if the EE and him can get along