Who to cull?

[Themason4]

Hi there! We are new to raising chickens for meat and need some advice on who to keep to grow our flock (without buying more chicks) and who to cull.
We have Delaware broilers. 14 cockle and 4 hens for meat. I’d like to be able to hatch 30-40 for our next batch. I was considering keeping the 4 hens and 1 cockle but I also have a another rooster for my layers. Thoughts?

 

[Ridgerunner]

Are you planning on hatching eggs from your Delawares and the laying flock with the same rooster or keep different roosters? What breed is the laying flock, girls and boy? Are you planning to keep any replacement layers from that hatch or are they all to eat? It would help to know your plans and goals before I made any suggestions. And yes, photos of the boys could help.

In general, keep the rooster that is most like what you want the chicks to be. If you are planning on eating them the thing I'd look for other than size is early maturity. Maybe conformation is you prefer dark meat or light. But how important is size to you? For some people on this forum it is all-important, top priority. For others, not so much. If you eat the girls they won't be all that big anyway, even the pure Delaware pullets, let alone the mixed.

If we know what you are working with in that other boy and the laying flock and we know what you want to achieve we might be able to help you. Otherwise just pick the boy that is most like what you want the chicks to be.

 

[Themason4]

Are you planning on hatching eggs from your Delawares and the laying flock with the same rooster or keep different roosters? What breed is the laying flock, girls and boy? Are you planning to keep any replacement layers from that hatch or are they all to eat? It would help to know your plans and goals before I made any suggestions. And yes, photos of the boys could help.

In general, keep the rooster that is most like what you want the chicks to be. If you are planning on eating them the thing I'd look for other than size is early maturity. Maybe conformation is you prefer dark meat or light. But how important is size to you? For some people on this forum it is all-important, top priority. For others, not so much. If you eat the girls they won't be all that big anyway, even the pure Delaware pullets, let alone the mixed.

If we know what you are working with in that other boy and the laying flock and we know what you want to achieve we might be able to help you. Otherwise just pick the boy that is most like what you want the chicks to be.

Being new to this, I’ve been just looking at size and temperament of my roosters. Im looking to solely be replacing my broilers. I have enough layers at the moment. However, I really like my Orpington rooster. I’ve read they make good dual purpose birds which is why I was considering culling all of my Delaware roosters and just using him resulting in a mix.

I can send photos later today when home.

 

[bobbi-j]

I raised Delaware Broilers last year. I thought I’d save out a cockerel for my flock rooster until he was aggressive toward my 2-year old granddaughter. (Fortunately she was right next to me and I was able to pick her up before he actually attacked. But when I tried to chase him away, he kept circling back around toward me.) We processed all the cockerels and kept five of the hens. They’re fairly good layers. I would process the cockerels and cross the hens with the Orpington. They may not get as big as the DB, but would still have some meat, and would taste just as good!

 

[Themason4]

Being new to this, I’ve been just looking at size and temperament of my roosters. Im looking to solely be replacing my broilers. I have enough layers at the moment.
I can send photos later today when home.

Also

I raised Delaware Broilers last year. I thought I’d save out a cockerel for my flock rooster until he was aggressive toward my 2-year old granddaughter. (Fortunately she was right next to me and I was able to pick her up before he actually attacked. But when I tried to chase him away, he kept circling back around toward me.) We processed all the cockerels and kept five of the hens. They’re fairly good layers. I would process the cockerels and cross the hens with the Orpington. They may not get as big as the DB, but would still have some meat, and would taste just as good!

Thank you for this!

I raised Delaware Broilers last year. I thought I’d save out a cockerel for my flock rooster until he was aggressive toward my 2-year old granddaughter. (Fortunately she was right next to me and I was able to pick her up before he actually attacked. But when I tried to chase him away, he kept circling back around toward me.) We processed all the cockerels and kept five of the hens. They’re fairly good layers. I would process the cockerels and cross the hens with the Orpington. They may not get as big as the DB, but would still have some meat, and would taste just as good!

The exact experience I was looking for. Thank you!

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Well... I could be completely wrong (wouldn't be the first time) I think Dom girls and an orpington male could make sexlinks. You probably couldn't see them at hatch because of the yellow fluff, but I think only the males will hatch barred

 

[Ridgerunner]

I personally do not link personality to breed, not as far as aggressive roosters go. Some of that is from my limited experience but most is from stories I read on here. You can read where roosters from Orpington, Delaware, Silkies, Barred Rocks, Rhode Island Reds, or about any other breeds have been absolute terrors or have been great. I don't judge whether a breed tends to go broody, how well they lay, when they start to lay, things like that based on one hen. I don't judge a breed's rooster behavior based on one rooster.

You never know how an immature cockerel will turn out when he grows up and is in charge. To me, juvenile behavior while hopped up on hormones isn't a great indicator of how he will behave when mature. If he is human aggressive he goes, no tolerance for that. But he may be fine with humans with humans as a cockered and change later. He may be really aggressive with the girls as a cockerel and become a total gentleman when he grows up. You just don't know.

If you have experience with your Orpington as a mature rooster and his behavior is OK, that would be a big plus for me.

Well... I could be completely wrong (wouldn't be the first time) I think Dom girls and an orpington male could make sexlinks. You probably couldn't see them at hatch because of the yellow fluff, but I think only the males will hatch barred

Where did Dominiques come from? Maybe you saw that from another thread or maybe I just can't find it in this one? You are right, a Buff Orpington over a Dominique hen will give you a black sex link chick and you should be able to see the spot at hatch.

Delaware are also barred, you can see the barring in the black feathers, not the white. A Buff Orpington rooster over a Delaware hen will give you chicks where the boys will be barred and the girls will not but you can't see the spot at hatch. They have to feather out and you look at the black feathers. A Delaware rooster over Buff Orpington hens will not work this way. All his chicks will be barred when they feather out.

 

[Themason4]

I’m reading sexlinked won’t breed further. Is this accurate? If that’s the case, I’m figuring I should try to also keep a Del. roo?

 

[bobbi-j]

I personally do not link personality to breed, not as far as aggressive roosters go. Some of that is from my limited experience but most is from stories I read on here. You can read where roosters from Orpington, Delaware, Silkies, Barred Rocks, Rhode Island Reds, or about any other breeds have been absolute terrors or have been great. I don't judge whether a breed tends to go broody, how well they lay, when they start to lay, things like that based on one hen. I don't judge a breed's rooster behavior based on one rooster.

You never know how an immature cockerel will turn out when he grows up and is in charge. To me, juvenile behavior while hopped up on hormones isn't a great indicator of how he will behave when mature. If he is human aggressive he goes, no tolerance for that. But he may be fine with humans with humans as a cockered and change later. He may be really aggressive with the girls as a cockerel and become a total gentleman when he grows up. You just don't know.

If you have experience with your Orpington as a mature rooster and his behavior is OK, that would be a big plus for me.


Where did Dominiques come from? Maybe you saw that from another thread or maybe I just can't find it in this one? You are right, a Buff Orpington over a Dominique hen will give you a black sex link chick and you should be able to see the spot at hatch.

Delaware are also barred, you can see the barring in the black feathers, not the white. A Buff Orpington rooster over a Delaware hen will give you chicks where the boys will be barred and the girls will not but you can't see the spot at hatch. They have to feather out and you look at the black feathers. A Delaware rooster over Buff Orpington hens will not work this way. All his chicks will be barred when they feather out.

I agree that the personality of a whole breed should not be based on my limited experience with one hormonal cockerel. If he had been misbehaving in any other way, I probably would have kept him, but I won’t take chances with my grandkids. He had his hackles up, wings dropped and was doing some pretty fancy footwork while giving her the evil eye. I would choose to keep the Orpington as he is a known factor.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I’m reading sexlinked won’t breed further. Is this accurate? If that’s the case, I’m figuring I should try to also keep a Del. roo?

Sex links will breed. What they are probably talking about is that is that you cannot make future sex links with sex links. To make sex links the parents have to be set up a specific way genetically. Once they breed the genetics are mixed up so they are no longer set up the way they need to be.

Or they might be talking about any hybrid (sex links are hybrids) not breeding true. That's true with garden plants as well as chickens. The genetics are jumbled so you don't know how they will pair up at the gene pairs. You can get different results with the chicks. You can get different colors/patterns, maturity rates, size, conformation. If you keep the best to breed you can improve your overall flock in just a few generations but you will have some that are not as good as others.

You'll also see that some of your Delaware cockerels are better than the others. If you keep a Delaware cockerel keep the best one.