What To Do With Extra Roosters

Drowning in extra roosters as grow-out season hits? This episode lays out a practical, ethical roadmap so you can plan before you hatch—and avoid the last-minute scramble. We cover the real-world options, their pros and cons, and how to set up a reliable, humane system that fits your space, goals, and local rules. 

What you’ll learn

• Why planning matters: straight-run math, space, feed, timelines, and neighbor considerations
• Option 1: Grow out and harvest yourself — reliable, data for dual-purpose evaluation; skills, time, and costs required
• Option 2: Outsource — establish relationships with families raising for their tables or approved wildlife/raptor programs; how to make it consistent
• Option 3: Rehoming/private sales — screening, limited demand, and why you can’t control outcomes after sale
• Option 4: Livestock auctions — volume potential vs. zero control
• “Bachelor pad” roosters — where it can work and common limits
• Ethics & responsibility — don’t abandon birds; how to handle aggression (and why not to rehome aggressive males)
• A simple, repeatable plan for next season: identify outlets, set thresholds by age/weight, calendar your decisions, and communicate clearly

Have a listen to this episode at www.thepoultrykeeperspodcast.com 

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Transcript

Alex: 0:00

Welcome to the Poultry Keepers Podcast. In this episode Maleeah Tom talks about a topic many of us struggle with each year, and thats what to do with extra roosters.Now, here's Maleeah.

Maleah Thom: 0:22

Hello poultry keepers. This is Malia Thom in Southern Oregon and I just wanna talk to you guys about something that is really near and dear to my heart, and that is what to do with extra roosters. We are quickly approaching grow out and evaluation season. Even those of you who have just bought birds. This year that you bought from your feed stores or that you ordered from hatcheries online, birds are starting to get old enough that you're being able to tell your pulls from your cock rolls. For those who are evaluating cock rolls, deciding who's gonna stay and hopefully be their future roosters, who's gonna go? Because they don't have the merit to be a breeding animal, or you simply just don't have the space to keep as many roosters as you ended up with. This is the season where we start seeing all of the Facebook group posts of what do you do with your extra roosters? Who wants these extra roosters? The rehoming posts are coming in, floods for extra brewsters, as well as the sales posts on Craigslist marketplace and other outlets. So let's dive into this because I think it's a really important topic. If you're keeping birds, it doesn't matter if you're hatching your own or buying from hatcheries or buying from the feed store, even if you're buying sex puls. If you raise enough chicks, you are eventually going to get roosters. That's just statistically what's going to happen. Even from a sex pull bin, it's not a hundred percent assurance. You will eventually get a rooster. So really important. When we're thinking about raising chicks, we're thinking about hatching eggs, especially if we're hatching eggs or buying straight run because it's cheaper or that's what's available. We know before even getting into this. That 50% of those babies on a good day are going to be res. It's really important that before we commit to raising these babies who are super cute when they come out of the egg, we need to have a system in place for what we're gonna do with those boys.'cause most of us can't keep even two or three males. Most of us aren't even in a position to keep multiple males, let alone having. 10, 20, 30, however many birds you're hatching are raising. Divide that by two. For some of you that may be in the hundreds, whatever's happening to those boys, there has to be something in place for those cock rolls, those extra roosters, so that there is an outlet for them and a responsible outlet for them. Before you find yourself in the hole of, oh my gosh, I have all of these extra roosters and I don't know what to do with them, and nobody wants them. And now we're freaking out and we're going into winter and no one wants these roosters. So I just wanna talk to you guys about some options. I will, I'm more than happy to share what we do here and what works for us, but I just wanna go through kind of some of the common options of what can be done with some roosters, pros and cons for each of those options. Not trying to persuade you on one option being better than the rest, depending on where you lie on the poultry spectrum, whether you are. More on the production side, breeding showing, or the commercial side versus pet keepers. You're probably gonna lie on opposite sides of the spectrum for what you feel is the most ethical and responsible method. What is going to feel the most ethical and responsible for one person may not work for you, and what you feel is the most ethical and responsible might not work for someone who has much larger quantities of birds. So we're just gonna go through some of these options, pros and cons, and then hopefully you have the tools as we go into this grow out season. Maybe you're already in the hole, but to help you prepare for next year if you get more birds to keep you out of this hole and maybe already have a system in place where you're thinking about what are we gonna do with these boys before we even have them on the ground. I think that's really big is that we recognize these are living, breathing animals. They do deserve our respect, and in that they deserve our forethought and our planning to make sure that we have systems in place before it becomes a problem because they don't deserve to be a problem. So the first that I'm gonna get into is probably the most obvious. It's gonna be controversial for some. But it's certainly the most consistently reliable, and that is to grow them out and harvest them yourself. Pros, you're going to have an outlet. You have a guaranteed outlet if you're doing this yourself. You have a system in place, you're already planning for them. It's self-sustainable. If you're raising dual purpose breeds, this is how you are going to get in-person data. You're gonna get measurable, direct feedback on exactly how those birds are performing. So if you're raising birds that you wanting to raise for both egg and meat production, this is how you're measuring. Are these birds actually living up to table production traits? How are the carcasses looking? If I'm actually. Processing the birds myself, I'm comparing those carcasses. I'm seeing them, maybe we're playing with different ages and how different feeds and different systems are affecting those carcasses so that we can perfect what works best for this line. What works for best for these birds if we do end up selling to other people, to raise those birds, and we'll talk about that next. Then we can inform them better of Hey, you should do this with these birds. Or if we've tried this in the past, they didn't really do well. You might avoid this kind of feed. Or I wouldn't harvest them before this age, or maybe I wouldn't harvest them after this age because maybe the meat starts getting tough. Or if you do harvest them at this age, you should treat that meat a little differently or cook it and process it a little differently. So that's gonna give you all your data. It's by far the most informative, it's the most sustainable, and it's the most reliable option. Cons, the number one and probably the most obvious is just a willingness to do it. For people who are keeping backyard PET flocks, the willingness to harvest a rooster, the OR several is may not be there. People do get attached. They're roosters, they're charming, they're enjoyable animals, and it there can be an attachment that can be very difficult to get past. So the willingness to raise them and to utilize an animal that you've raised from being this cute little fluffy chick to this full-blown cocker who's now a harvestable age. There does have to be this decision, and there does have to be this willingness to actually go through it and educate yourself on the most humane ways to do it and have it all organized because there is some forethought, there is some planning that goes into harvesting birds. You're not just gonna go out there and start harvesting without systems in place to actually know how to process the carcass and how to. Have that taken care of so that you actually have a usable product at the end of the day and that bird doesn't go to waste. That's really important. So there is some learning, there is some education, there is some forethought that has to go into it, and a willingness to educate yourself and then actually go through with it. The next thing is infrastructure. So I'm gonna be honest, for us, this method doesn't work. We live on the edge of town. We have neighbors that are a stones throw away. We, while we live outside of city limits, we are still technically within a neighborhood. I, for out of respect and care for our neighbors, we limit ourselves to two mature brewsters. That's all we keep here. That does mean that I have limits for breeding. That does bring its own challenges for selecting breeding stock and growing out breeding stock, especially on the male end. But for us, where we are, it is just not physically po. We don't have the space. And then just having a lot of young crowing, loud, obnoxious males. It just wouldn't be considerate to our neighbors. So it's both a space issue and a consideration to the people around us because we want to be able to continue having roosters and breeding our birds. We need to be considerate of those around us. And having 20 young birds, young cock birds, making a ruckus that just would not be, that wouldn't be a responsible thing for us to do. So for us, the. Location of where we are makes it to where this isn't feasible for us to raise our own birds to a harvestable age. We have Morans. They're very slow maturing. By the time they're growing, they're grown out enough to harvest. They are very they're full blown growing. So we don't wanna do that for the sake of our neighbors having to set up an additional space to raise the young males away from the females. We just don't have that much space. So that's something to consider, the willingness to do it and then the physical ability to do it. And then you also have to consider the cost. Both your time, you're gonna have these birds, whether it's to 14, 16, 20 weeks, depending on the breed of bird that you have. There's the time that's gonna go into them, the time they're gonna be taking up the space that you have, and then the cost of feed to get them to a Harvestable age. So those are the cons. Those are the things to consider if you're gonna be growing out yourself, which leads to option number two. Which is going to be outsourcing or giving to people who can use them. The first outlet is going to be finding people who are want to raise birds for their own tables. There are a lot of these people who exist. It might surprise you. There are quite a lot of people who are willing to buy young cock rolls and raise them out to harvest, who are interested in raising birds primarily for meat, who don't want to raise Cornish Cross. They would rather raise heritage dual purpose breeds, and they are more than happy to take your extra roosters. The other option. And another great resource to consider is donating to programs. A lot of wildlife conservation, Raptor preservation and conservation programs, Raptor Sanctuaries. These sorts of places exist where you can donate these extra birds so that they can be fed to other animals. So if you are really passionate about conservation you really want to help these programs by providing food for the animals that they have in these programs. This can be a great outlet and a great way for you to support those programs. They, when you're setting these sorts of things up, these tend to be pretty secure outlets for large numbers of birds. So for people who are breeding and are hatching, and you have. 10 20, or maybe even a hundred plus cock girls that you are finding yourself needing to get rid of. This can be a great outlet. Another pro is that you don't have to be very old if you don't want to raise all of those roosters that most of these outlets that you can set up are more than happy to take the birds as soon as they can go outside and you can tell it's a rooster. Or a Cockrell. The moment you can tell it's a Cockrell and separate it from your puls, which might be quite young, might be four or five, six weeks, they're ready to, at that point, they're ready to go outside, depending on your area, which is very nice for the people taking them, that they don't have to brood them. That's another perk for them. So it becomes an outlet for very large numbers. Not such a great outlet if you only have one or two birds, but if you have large numbers, this can be a great system to have in place. And you don't, yeah, again, you don't have to grow them out. You don't have to keep them long term. As soon as they're old enough to tell their cock girls, they can be gone. So this is what we personally do. We have a family. Who they raise birds for their own table and they are more than happy to take all of our extra ros. So once I get to the point where, in a hatch, if I know, like for instance, this year. I have a rooster from last year. I'm very happy with. I'm gonna go ahead and keep him to breed back to his daughters again next year to solidify some of the traits that I saw this year in his daughters that I'm really happy with as well as in him. I know that I'm not gonna replace him with one of his sons this year, so I already knew I'm not keeping any of his cock girls. So before. They started utilizing a lot of our feed and our resources and starting to grow very big. They could go the moment I knew that they were cock crawls, they could go I could call up this person and say, Hey, I've got a dozen cock rolls for you. Pick'em up whenever you're ready. So that's a very secure outlet and it's really nice to have. The cons on this, you need to have, this has to be considered ahead of time. You're going to have to set this up. You're not going to be able to just, you may be able to post on Craigslist for your roosters, but really the best way to make this a secure system is to have a relationship set up. With a family or with families or with a program that you know is going to take those roosters consistently so that you do have a secure outlet for high volume numbers. The other thing that you're going to, that is gonna be really important here is you have to accept that these birds are probably going to be processed and used for foods. I know that a lot of people, especially in like the backyard chicken group and other primarily pet poultry keeping groups, there is a bit of a negative a. Feeling about processing and utilizing and harvesting birds, and there are people who feel very strongly about their birds being sold or given to people who are going to eat them. If that's the case, you're probably not going to be able to utilize a system like this. Also, if that's the case, if you have very strong feelings about the birds you produce being eaten, I would strongly urge you to reconsider hatching and getting yourself into a. Or buying straight run birds and getting yourself into a position where you now have multiple roosters. Because we're gonna get into the next option, which is rehoming in private sales. So when you have birds and you utilize these Facebook groups, these re-homing groups, there are rooster re-homing groups, regional. Some are regional, some are state groups, some are specifically for roosters. You might be utilizing Craigslist. However, you're doing this and you're listing these birds. If you have large numbers, the problem you're going to run into is. A limit on demand. So the pros of this is you can find homes with the stipulation that you do not want your birds eaten. And because you're selling privately, it does give you the opportunity to screen and talk to people and do your due diligence to ensure that. Those birds aren't going to be eaten. The other pro of doing things this way of doing the private sales or maybe you're sharing in groups or how, however you're marketing your birds, is you could potentially be sharing possible breeding stock. I know that John has spoken about on the podcast before, sharing with local people some birds so that you have a backup within your neighborhood. So you have some stock sharing that can happen. That can be a really neat opportunity, especially if you have limited numbers of you have a really tight limit of birds that you can grow out and keep yourself. Or maybe you have a group of really nice birds. If you're growing out large volumes of birds and you're only keeping back 10%, you might have some birds that fall outside that 10%. Or maybe you say I had 60 roosters. I'm only keeping one. And there's two or three that are still in that top, like you know that top tier, the top three, the two and three are still really nice. Roosters that would make great roosters for someone else's program. So this gives you the opportunity to share some breeding stock birds that are still acceptable still within the standards. Still nice birds, but maybe aren't cream of the crop for what you need to be keeping for your program to take your program the next step. So that can be an outlet for those birds as well. Kongs, like we said, limited demand. That's gonna be the big one you're gonna run into. This is the least reliable option. You are completely dependent on people looking for. A rooster for their flocks. Most people who go out and are saying, I need a rooster, I want a roost. Just one rooster probably have something specific in mind. Some people are just looking for a flock protector and they don't have a whole lot of standards. Okay. But a lot of times people are looking for specific breeds. They are looking for specific things. For us with Morans, if we were looking to just sell a rooster, because people, the rainbow eggs and all of Eggers and all that are really big and they're pretty easy to sell individually. Still, I wouldn't rely on that for large numbers by any means. That's usually for us where we will utilize this is when we've had a flock rooster who has been our rooster for producing chicks for a year or two, and he's a really good boy. He's got a really good temperament. We've really enjoyed him. He's produced great chicks, but we don't need him for our program anymore. You do find yourself getting attached. It is difficult to harvest those birds that you've had and you've utilized for years. Then we start looking at, okay, who's looking for a really nice, sensible bird for their backyard flock that we know this is a safe bird. He's not aggressive. We have toddlers. So for us, we know this is a good bird. This is a bird that can be around kids. But will still do his job as a rooster. That's a good op. That is a better option there. And when you find yourself in a position with a bird like that, you're not in a huge rush because the other thing that you're going to be challenged when you rely on this outlet is that it can take quite a while. It, you can't rely on this to get rid of a bird. In a matter of days, it's probably gonna take you weeks. It might even take months to place a bird like the, because you're depending on the right person in the right area to come across your ad before the 500 other free rooster or rooster for sale posts that are floating around and decide they want your rooster. So it is a it's. A little bit of a luck thing. Luck of the draw, and it's very time consuming. And lastly, you have to accept that even if you're selling privately and you post, I don't want this bird to be eaten. You cannot control what someone does with a bird once they buy it. And people lie. Someone can tell you they have no desire to eat the bird, and then they might eat them. You do have to come to terms with that. You can't control what happens to an animal once you sell it. That's, unfortunately, that is part of having part of selling. So if you want control of what's gonna happen to that animal, then you really, it has to stay with you, whether you harvest it yourself or you keep it for yourself. The next option that we see talked about somewhat. I've never utilized this option. We don't even have this option available in this area, but that is Livestock Options and Sales. The pro from my understanding is that this can be an outlet for a large number of birds. It takes pretty limited time and effort on your part. The cons you have no control of where those birds go. The moment you drop them off at the auction, you consign them. They are out of your hands. You cannot control where they go. You cannot control what happens to them. You can't control if someone buys those roosters for fighting you. You can't control that. So once those birds are consigned to that sail, they are completely outta your hands. So that's just the thing you have to consider. Yes, it can be an outlet for large numbers, but you also have no way of knowing what happens to those birds once they leave you other options to consider. I have heard of people who keep all rooster flocks. They like, there are people out there who like to just have bachelor pads of roosters. That's what they enjoy keeping. They enjoy the beauty. Maybe you have the space and the infrastructure and the time and you want to do that, you want to have a rooster flock, then that is an option, not an option for many, but it might be an option for you. Or maybe you have someone local to you who does have a rooster flock and wants to take your extra rooster. Probably not an option for a large number of roosters unless you're keeping them yourself and even then you're gonna have limits. But it is an option. Some closing thoughts as we get through this, the big thing is be responsible guys. These are living animals. They do have feelings. They do deserve our respect. For those of us who are breeding and hatching, we brought these lives into this world. We are responsible for them, and we are responsible for what happens to them. Take the time to have something set up in place for them before you get yourself in this hole of having a bunch of roosters you can't get rid of. Please don't abandon your roosters. Or the other thing I've seen and. It does make me cringe to think about is birds being brewsters, being locked outta coops, being locked outta rooms, and basically just being sacrificed to the local wildlife. They don't need to be part of a wildlife experiment on survival of the fittest. They don't need to be raccoon bait or coyote bait, and having an attitude of if they live, and if they don't. It's not fair to them. So while it might be tempting to feed your local wildlife with your extra roosters because it doesn't require you to harvest them yourself, it really isn't the most responsible option and they really do deserve. A cleaner, more humane end than that. So that's just quick thought on that. The next thing really, I know that a lot of farm sanctuaries exist and it be tempting to get in contact with these places. Most of them are more than willing to jump at taking a rooster, especially if you state that. The other option is that they're gonna get eaten, but relying on bleeding heart strings, we have to acknowledge the fact that a lot of these farm sanctuaries, if not all of them, are being run by people who come from an animal rights point of view. That are already predispose, predispositioned to not like and not agree with animal production and livestock. Hu husbandry. If we rely on these places to take our unwanted roosters, we are only affirming that livestock husbandry and poultry breeding as well as animal breeding in general, are irresponsible. And uncaring practices that are taking advantage of these animals. That's not the, that's not the view we wanna be giving. So let's do our job. These places, they have a purpose. They can't exist to take on animals that are being abused and neglected, and let's leave them for that. But let's not rely on them to solve our unwanted rooster problems that we should be solving for ourselves. My last note on Rehoming roosters, because I'm a big temperaments genetic buff. I can't talk about rehoming roosters without giving a quick spi on aggressive roosters. If you have an aggressive rooster and you need to get rid of a rooster because he is aggressive, because he's hurt someone in your family or he is going after your children, don't make an aggressive animal somebody else's problem. Aggression is an issue. It's not something that we should be. Letting propagate. And we do need to be very considerate in that sense. So I would urge if you have an aggressive animal and that's what you need to get rid of them, there are a lot of really nice roosters in the world that can make great backyard flock roosters. Aggressive roosters. Make really good chicken noodle soup. And that's about it. So that's my last closing thought. I hope that this discussion was useful. Maybe got some wheels turning and gave you some ideas on what to do with those extra roosters. I'm sure there are other things that can be done with them. I'd love to hear back from you guys. Some discussion that can happen on what we can be doing and the systems we can have in place for those extra roosters. But hopefully this planted the seeds and can get you thinking about what to do with your extra roosters, if not this season, at least having some systems in place for next. I hope you guys all have a wonderful blessed day. Bye.

Alex: 28:32

Thanks for listening to this episode of the Poultry Keepers Podcast. Be sure to listen next week as Jeff Mattocks and Carey Blackmon talk with Frank Reese Jr. and Jessica Watson about saving heritage breeds of poultry. This is sure to be an outstanding program you won't want to miss. Until next week keep learning, keep improving and keep enjoying the birds you love.