Roast Or Let Roost? What Should Backyard Chicken Owners Do With Roosters?

When that crowing starts a bit earlier or gets a bit louder each morning, some people decide it’s time to say cock-a-doodle-adieu to their roosters. 

Even if noise isn’t the issue, a rooster that doesn’t get along with the rest of the flock or one that’s downright mean are also common complaints among the unfeathered who come to a rooster crossroads of sorts.

“What do you do with the dang things?” Andy Heffron, owner of the Purely By Chance Farm in Alta, said of the debate about unwanted roosters. “It is an issue.”

Indeed, it does seem to be an issue based on the number of people who solicit advice online about what to do with a rooster. And more people may face the great rooster debate this year as the price of eggs led to a surge in demand for chicks at farm supply stores, as Wyomingites and others have flocked to the idea of a backyard chicken operation. 

Check The Chick

While this advice may come too late, there’s a pretty straightforward way to avoid the rooster dilemma altogether when you get chicks, said Ashley Cuevas who raises chickens on a farm outside of Cheyenne and writes the blog, Wyoming Prairie. 

At many farm stores, you’ll have the option to choose from straight run chicks — which aren’t sexed and will include a mix of males and females — or chicks that are sexed at a young age.

“It’s helpful to know some terminology when getting chicks,” Cuevas said. “You need to be prepared when you have roosters.”

If you familiarize yourself with some of the sexing methods described in detail online, Heffron said, you could successfully root out the roosters from a group of straight run chicks. “If there are chicks at Murdoch’s that are a week or so old, you can still sex them.”

Of course, sexing chicks is all well and good but not so helpful if you have a problematic rooster hanging around right now.

Rehome That Rooster

Heading into summer and fall, it becomes more and more common to see free roosters on Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace — and you might even spot a rooster up for adoption at an animal shelter, as Cuevas has.

It’s typically around the 6-month mark when people decide it’s time for a rooster to move along, said Cuevas, as this is often when in-flock fighting begins. Rehoming a rooster is certainly an option, presuming you can find a taker — but that could take a while.

Cuevas got a rooster from someone on Facebook Marketplace but he was “pretty beat up” by the time she brought him home. “He should’ve been rehomed a long time before.”

Particularly for people with backyard chickens, rehoming a rooster may be preferable to butchering it, especially if they’ve grown sentimental about their flock. While he and his wife now have about 1,000 chickens, Heffron recalled how his kids had nicknames for their feathered friends, like Cutie or Mohawk or Mrs. Feather. 

“For somebody with a small flock, gee, I could see them getting attached,” Heffron added.

Roast That Rooster

But if you can resist growing too attached to your rooster, there’s a far tastier solution. 

“My first inclination is to eat them,” Heffron said, adding that his preparation of choice is “Coq Au Vin,” or rooster cooked in wine. While a younger rooster will have “a few less laps around the barnyard,” this recipe is also suitable for older birds, he said.

“The beautiful thing about wine is it breaks down the meat to be really tender,” he said. “It has an awesome flavor.”

Some people are seemingly confused about whether roosters are edible — they are — but Cuevas said cooking a rooster is also her preferred solution. And one that’s at least 6 months old could easily feed a family, she added.

Because the muscles of a backyard rooster may be more developed than a chicken you buy in a store, you’ll want to slow cook it and perhaps inject some sodium water if you plan to bake it, Cuevas recommended. 

Of course, roasting the rooster requires you butcher it first — and that’s what seems to deter some people. You’ll most likely need to take matters into your own hands because there aren’t many viable alternatives, especially if you only have a few birds to butcher. 

Because Heffron and his wife process all of their birds on-site, he occasionally fields requests from people he knows asking to borrow their equipment. “Our processing is very simple and peaceful.” 

The process is pretty straightforward, once you know what to do. Cuevas detailed step-by-step how she butchered seven Cornish Cross broiler chickens at home in a recent blog post, plucking and all. She estimated the entire process took about an hour.  

One thing to note, Cuevas said, is that you should wait at least 24 hours after butchering the rooster to let rigor mortis set in before eating it. 

Finally, if you’re squeamish about eating your rooster, your dog may enjoy the feast. Heffron feeds his dog a raw diet, and he grinds up the bones and meat and all. “She absolutely loves it.”

Let That Rooster Roost

Of course, there’s a final option: Let that rooster hang around. 

If the crowing is your biggest complaint, Cuevas said a crow collar might be a good option — something she tried while living in New Orleans with a noisy rooster. 

And if you can deal with the noise, you might find that a rooster serves an important role in the flock, which is why Cuevas sought out that free rooster on Facebook Marketplace.

“I like having a rooster because when you don’t and you let the hens out, they follow their caretaker around,” Cuevas said. “He keeps them from being underfoot.”

But while Heffron’s not above trying most anything, he’s found his egg-laying hens operate just fine without a rooster running around. And even though roosters can serve an important role as a protector, that’s often when they run afoul of humans.

“There are roosters that are just meaner than a snake,” he said.