Which rooster?

[peafowl_Lover]

I have a small flock of 1 brown leghorn, 1 white leghorn, 2 ayam cemani, 2 light sussex and 1 bluebell. I hatched 13 chicks in August 8 of them are roos they are 3 cream legbars, 1 buff orpington, 1 white leghorn, 1 silver laced wyandotte, 1 bluebell and 1 rir crossed light sussex. Which roo should I keep?

 

[peafowl_Lover]

The pullets are 1 rir, 1 light sussex, 1 bluebell and 2 white leghorn.

 

[Mrs. K]

You really are not going by breed. What works for me, is to thin a group like this in stages. There is always the fear that you cull the wrong one, and it does happen, dang it.

Fist cull, be rather heartless - but anything you don't like, off with his head. Divide the boys in half, half stays, half goes - so that leaves you 4.

Wait 4-5 weeks. Again, anything you don't like now, for what every reason, cull, and cull anything that is the least bit aggressive, crows a lot, fluffs up at you. But take a good look at them. Check their feet and beaks for alignment, weigh them, (they all have had access to the same food, who does better on least?) Feel their breast bones.

Again divide in half - keeping two. Wait a couple of weeks. At this time either they will be both acceptable, or there will be a winner. Cull the last one.

Mrs K

 

[peafowl_Lover]

My chickens are my pets so I won't cull them

 

[BDutch]

My chickens are my pets so I won't cull them

You cant keep the all together without misery.
If you like to give all your cockerels and pullets a descent life there are two things you could do:
1. Give away the surplus of roosters and keep 2 cockerels. Ad on craigs list / on BYC / etc.
2. Make another coop and run far away from the hens, just for the cockerels. People say they wont fight if there are no hens to spot (no experience myself).

 

[Mrs. K]

My chickens are my pets so I won't cull them

You asked which one to keep? I assumed that you were removing birds from the flock. That is what culling means, to remove from the flock. What you do with the removed birds is up to you.

Oh wait - I said - "off with his head "- that can be literally or figuratively, but I see the confusion.

 

[NicholeT]

I hatched 5 Black Sex Link roos, 4 of them bullied one out of the coop who hid up on a hill in the brush. Ironically, we couldn't get the bullied roo out so we culled the other 4. Once the 4 were gone, he came back immediately and has flourished, has grown up to be a really nice rooster, not too aggressive with the ladies and a great protector. I just went with my gut - knowing if the bullied roo didn't work out we would cull him too and get another (tons of people are trying to unload roos) or he would die out in the wilderness.