We thought we were only getting two roosters, but turns out we have four. That is at least two too many for us. At this point, they aren't fighting or hurting the chickens, but the crowing does get a little annoying sometimes. It can be fun to watch as each rooster tries to out-crow the other, but less fun when it's 5:00 am. They are a little over four months old now, they just started crowing and trying to mate with the chickens. The chickens are not laying yet however and they usually get away easily. I don't know how much this will change as they get older.
We have one cuckoo maran rooster and three brahmas, we thought we had ordered one cuckoo maran and one Easter-egger. Right now the plan is to butcher two or all of the brahmas. While, I love the brahmas, they are the biggest and they have really cool feathers on their feet, we weren't planning to raise more of them. They are supposed to be a good dual purpose chicken, good for eggs and meat, but they are not supposed to be the best egg layers, and that really is our primary purpose to having chickens. The Easter-eggers are our favorites because they come in so many variety of colours, and we are looking forward to the blue and green eggs. I wasn't that big of a fan of the cuckoo marans at first, but now that they are getting their patterned feathers I like them a lot more, and the cuckoo maran rooster is just beautiful.
The plan is to butcher the roosters this weekend. As neither Ron nor I have ever butchered a chicken, we are a bit nervous about doing it. We keep watching videos and are learning about the most humane way to kill them. I am also a bit nervous about removing the guts because you have to be careful not to cut the intestines or gall bladder or you are basically poisoning the meat and then you've just wasted a chicken. Wish us luck and check back next week to see if we follow through!
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