Please help me choose a rooster!!!

19 years ago

I need to decide on which of our (6 months) cockerels to keep. We killed 5 Buff Orphingtons males last weekend. Still left are 6 Speckled Sussex and 2 Columbian WyandotteÂs and 2 Buff Orphingtons. We want to keep one male (we have 9 pullets)

I spend a lot of time observing these chickens. The keeper will be one of the two Columbian WyandottesÂthey are both healthy and confident and donÂt go around picking fights. They are not always after the pullets. They are friendly to me and they are just my favorites.

Today we had snow and the chickens decided to spend the day in their house. I was shocked when I went out there this afternoon to see one of the CW with blood on himÂit seemed to be from around the wattle; there were also some dark spots on his comb. He appeared to be doing fine when I saw himÂwas eating, no one was bothering him. Our older ooster has never fought with any of the younger males--when he wants to assert himself he will kind of rush at the cockeral and that's all that he needs to do, So I really don't think it was him. I have no idea who did it. I didnÂt see any others with injuries. So he got the bad end of it in a fight. Since I want to pick a male that will be not be aggressive, would it make sense to pick this "loser"? I guess he has always kind of been my favorite. This is so darned hard!

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Comments (4)

Maggie_J
19 years ago
Claraserena, didn't you post about this some time ago as well? If I remember correctly I suggested you get rid of all the non-keepers and then reassess thie situation and choose one from among the finalists.

I suspect decreasing the cockerels last weekend, combined with the confinement during the bad weather, led to some testing of the pecking order.

I could be wrong, but I suspect that if you have more than one rooster with only 9 hens, there is always going to be trouble. If you want to keep one of the young ones, why not cull the older rooster along with the excess cockerels? It will make your chicken coop a lot more peaceful.
chicken_ingenue
19 years ago
You definetly don't want all those roo's to just a few hens. We kept getting featherless roo's and were told they were hens (four total)ended up with two to one hen and they really messed her back up. They were beautiful but had to go. I don't have roo's but have heard that the buffs are the nicest. We had a buff for a short time but he hadn't come into marturity yet. So I don't know how he would have treated the ladies. He was very tame and if we could have kept a roo he's the one we would have kept.

Good luck
CI
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sullicorbitt
19 years ago
I agree w/CI about the Buffs, I have heard the same thing. But if you have your heart set on one of the CW's you should like Maggie said remove all the other roo's from the flock.

Also just a quick note, the marks on the waddle/comb could be from a hen. I have a Barred Rock hen who is like a senior Mob member. She proceeded to fight my roo and pinned him to the ground by his waddle, she stood on top of him and pecked at him. After their fight there were similar markings you described on his comb and waddle. He has had a few go arounds with this hen and has finally accepted his place under her (yes he is a whimp, the br is half his size).

I chose him out of 20 others for his beauty and whimpiness, he does not overly mate the hens (that let him!) and has never shown any aggression towards people. I assume you are not a breeder so picking a roo with gentle behavior alone sounds like a good choice for a pet.

Hope this helps :)
-Sheila
claraserena
Original Author
19 years ago
Thank you, all of you, for your posts. We had to do the killing yesterday. We saved the one Columbian Wyandotte that was not injured. I was sobbing, It was an awful day.
IÂve never seen one if the hens attack a rooster though I did see head hen Oprah break up a fight between two cockerels.
DonÂt think we could have killed one more chicken (we did 9), To this point the older rooster watches over his harem of older hens, IÂve never seen him go after one of the pullets, I am hoping that this generational thing will continue. DonÂt know. Things were blessedly quiet in the chicken house this morning with the pullets not afraid to come off their roosts. to eat. I gave them lots of oatmeal and put it in various places so they wouldnÂt get competitive about it...
We are new to this, Might have to kill another rooster this winter. I hope not.
Thank you all again for all of your help. DonÂt know what IÂd do without you.