Sadly one of the pullets ( Little Crow ) has turned out to be a bloke, I had my suspisions from the start, he didn't walk the same as the others and his voice "broke" a lot sooner than the other three, then this morning after I'd let them into the garden and gone back to bed ( it was 6am ) clear as a bell I heard " Ooo Hooo " I didn't quite believe it at first, it took a trip outside in me jimjams to confirm the diagnosis, and there he was, little neck stretched out and wings- a - flapping " Ooo Hoo ". Being a complete sap I'll be taking him on a one way trip to the vets tomorrow rather than back to the breeder to have his neck wrung, poor wee soul.

That's the sad part of it, Celli, I swore I wasn't going to let any of my hens hatch an egg this year for that very reason--I had to get rid of 5 lovely cockerels last year and I felt terrible about it. They could have stayed--they never fought even though there were 8 all in the same pen with about 20 hens, but a resident in our village who lives about 200m away decided to make an issue of it with complaining to environmental health and so they had to go. Needless to say it was impossible to find homes for them. Last week I found that in spite of my best efforts my crazy broody hen has managed to smuggle two eggs and has hatched two tiny little sooty chicks (they're definitely not hers!) and instead of feeling thrilled about it I keep thinking that at least one will be a cockerel.

The heartbreak of chooks.  Totally understand about his trip to the vet.  And I would come back crying myself.

kindest thing to do.  I hate seeing all these ftgh adverts for young cockerels.  Sorry if they don't want the bird enough to pay a couple of £ for it then they don't really want it. some of these free ones meet with horrible ordeals . Unless exceptional enough to be desired as a breeding or show bird they are better off being PTS

A few friends have suggested having him neutered and his vocal chords cut !. I don't think people appreciate how stressed chooks get, putting him through all that would have him keeling over from a heart attack.
I agree Weimed, I'd much rather know he'd been pts than ending up god knows where or some incompetent fool trying to wring his neck for the pot.

I've brought him inside with one of the others for company to make it less stressful to catch him tomorrow, he's in the quiet of the back room in a large puppy pen and went to sleep with a crop full of strawberry's.

Fingers crossed Jay15's little peepers turn out to be girls.

its illegal in UK to castrate and devoice cockerels anyhow.  and for good reason- their anatomy on both voice and sex  means all the relevant bits are very deeply buried inside so not a quick simple procedure.  Its still very sad though and i usually find the cockerels the more personable chicks :(

Ah, I didn't know it was illegal, I was just thinking of it from a welfare point of view, I had read it was illegal to caponise them for commercial purposes but didn't know vet's couldn't do it either.

He's got a 10 o'clock appointment at the vets.

its classed as procedure that would be benefit of owner not of bird . same sort of terratory as declawing cats.