Help! Two of our chickens may be roosters!

[The Happy Chicken]

I would keep one of you want and rehome the other one

Yes but the fact is the kids in the family have attached to the chickens

 

[JBirdy]

View attachment 1457460 LView attachment 1457453 View attachment 1457452 About two and a half months ago we bought 6 baby chicks from the farm store. Among those chicks were an ameracuana and a Brahma. Now we are starting to think those two may be roosters. Am member of our family went out and says they heard the Brahma crowing. The farm store manager said that they were all hens Please help us identify if they’re roosters and if so any suggestions as to what to do? And eating them is not an option! Those chickens belong to the kids in the family. I have included photos of both breeds.

I'm sorry that you're going through this dilemma! I'm curious - when did you start to notice that your brahma was displaying rooster characteristics? We recently purchased a 4 week old light brahma "pullet". There are no combs and waddles but "she" has some quirky behaviours. I'd love to hear what your experience was with his/her development...

 

[Cyprus]

Both are cockerels.
I have found EE cockerels to be aholes. Brahma cockerels, however, are the sweetest things to walk this earth.

 

[woodenfarm]

Yes but the fact is the kids in the family have attached to the chickens

Maybe you could make a man house for them. I don't have roosters so not sure if you can have rooster together separate from the hen....
Sorry no advice on that
but need more ladies for two roosters.

 

[PirateGirl]

If you want to keep both, then we should look at housing options. Perhaps a small separate pen that one cockerel can stay in one day while the other is with the ladies, and then they can trade off the next day. Perhaps a divider in your existing run would do the trick.

 

[FriAndRoo]

I had one rooster with 3 hens for a long time, he was a sweetheart though and didn't.... mistreat the hens. My daughter and I have had chickens as pets for a few years now, she's just turned 9 and has experienced chicks hatching, chicken deaths, chicken murders, giving away chickens and buying new ones. It's a growing experience for the child, just like any pet... just a faster time frame. If they start fighting you'll have to separate them, if they are too hard on the hens you'll have to get rid of one, it's just up to you if you think the kids will have a harder time rehousing one or seeing them kill each other or damage the hens. They may aaaaaall get along great, you just won't know till you know... you know?

 

[bobbi-j]

The 8-10 hens per rooster ratio is used primarily for large breeding facilities for optimum fertility. It's not a hard and fast "rule" for backyard keepers, farmers, or other chicken hobbyists. The only way to know how it's going to work out is to give it a try and see what happens.

If you want to keep both, you could build a bachelor pen for them so they don't endlessly chase, harass and breed your pullets. Cockerels mature sexually faster than pullets, so they may try to breed before the pullets are ready. You may need to separate them sooner rather than later.

In the future, if you want pullets only, make sure to get sexlinks of some sort, or buy them old enough to be able to tell the difference. Also, if you plan to hatch, have a plan in place - before you ever set eggs - for what to do with the extra cockerels. Otherwise, you're going to end up with a bunch of nonproductive birds that you will be feeding for who knows how long.

To be honest, eating them is not the worst thing in the world. Do you eat store bought chicken? Those chickens hardly have room to stand, let alone live a nice, happy life that ends with one bad day. You know how your chickens were raised. The important thing would be to explain to the kids, "These are for meat. They will not be pets." Often, roosters that are raised as pets become human aggressive. You need to have a plan in place in case that happens. Are you going to keep them and let them terrorize your kids, or rehome them (with full disclosure)? As Mrs. K says, "Roosters are a crap shoot." You need to be thinking about all possible scenarios.

 

[The Happy Chicken]

I'm sorry that you're going through this dilemma! I'm curious - when did you start to notice that your brahma was displaying rooster characteristics? We recently purchased a 4 week old light brahma "pullet". There are no combs and waddles but "she" has some quirky behaviours. I'd love to hear what your experience was with his/her development...

We had just got home from vacation (my dad was watching them) and when we got home we noticed they looked like roosters.

 

[The Happy Chicken]

If you want to keep both, then we should look at housing options. Perhaps a small separate pen that one cockerel can stay in one day while the other is with the ladies, and then they can trade off the next day. Perhaps a divider in your existing run would do the trick.

Good idea