I know I have too many roos, help?

[mandymcg05]

I have a question for ya'll. This is the first time I'm raising backyard chickens and I have at least 5-8 roos around 6-7 weeks old. Obviously, I can't keep them with my flock, it's not big enough. They are BR and RIR. My question is, should I find them homes NOW or wait until they're bigger? I don't really want to feed a bird for several months and then TRY to sell it... What do ya'll suggest? I know this is horrible, but I just can't make them new coops to separate them.

EDIT ** I’ve added pics of my RIRs for help with sexing them.

 

[chickenlittle21]

At this age more people will by them, but if you wait until they are adults, they will be worth more unless they are aggressive (which RIR roosters typically are). I would sell them for about 5$ very soon before they fully establish the pecking order. I would keep 1-2 BR roosters.

 

[chickenlittle21]

How many females do you have?

 

[mandymcg05]

At this age more people will by them, but if you wait until they are adults, they will be worth more unless they are aggressive (which RIR roosters typically are). I would sell them for about 5$ very soon before they fully establish the pecking order. I would keep 1-2 BR roosters.

Thank you! Would you keep any RIR roos? They seem to be nicer to me than the BRs lol.

 

[mandymcg05]

How many females do you have?

I have a total of 26 chicks. The batch I'm looking at is 18 chicks. 6 Golden Comets- pullets (supposed to be). 6 RIR (I'm afraid more than half are roos as well) and 6 BR (at least 4 are roos right now). I have another batch of 6 chicks that are 4 weeks old and I'm not sure what the sex of them are.

 

[LateBirdFarms]

Personally I would be picking my favorite and sending off the rest to new homes or freezer camp, unless I wasn't 100% sure they were all cockerels. I've handed off a beautiful hen for free all because I was -almost- positive she was a he a few times more often than I would like to admit!

 

[mandymcg05]

Personally I would be picking my favorite and sending off the rest to new homes or freezer camp, unless I wasn't 100% sure they were all cockerels. I've handed off a beautiful hen for free all because I was -almost- positive she was a he a few times more often than I would like to admit!

I've posted on here and researched my brains out and of my BRs I'm 99.9% sure 4 of 6 are roos. And so is everyone I've asked... I may give them one more week. And then I'll try and sell them. I'm not giving them away, I've put so much blood sweat and tears into these damn chicks its unreal lol.

 

[keesmom]

I've posted on here and researched my brains out and of my BRs I'm 99.9% sure 4 of 6 are roos. And so is everyone I've asked... I may give them one more week. And then I'll try and sell them. I'm not giving them away, I've put so much blood sweat and tears into these damn chicks its unreal lol.

I think 5 of the 6 Rocks are cockerels. Have you posted pictures of the RIR yet?

I would start trying to rehome them ASAP. It's getting to that time when everyone is trying to unload excess cockerels. Every year there's a flood of them, this year it will probably be more of a tsunami. It would be easier on your flock if the males are gone before the hormones kick in. Otherwise you will have to build a grow out pen for the cockerels.

 

[LateBirdFarms]

I've posted on here and researched my brains out and of my BRs I'm 99.9% sure 4 of 6 are roos. And so is everyone I've asked... I may give them one more week. And then I'll try and sell them. I'm not giving them away, I've put so much blood sweat and tears into these damn chicks its unreal lol.

I hear you on the effort side, and definitely wish you better luck with selling than I had selling my boys off. There always seems to be a ton around here that people are willing to give away, so I either fall in line or risk having to find another alternative unless they're particularly special... and I have no chest freezer!

 

[aart]

Romance meets Reality.
This is one of the hardest part of chickeneering.
I slaughter all my extra cockerels at 14-16 weeks.
It's darn near impossible to even give them away....but you can try.