[deepinthewoods]

ive got three LS cockerels that i want to choose the best from, one is much more curious than the others, is less bothered by my company, and seems to be on a mission to come in to the house. the other two are much more placid and dont feature much in the chicken politics that go on. are there any other signs i should be looking for to suggest a better bird to breed from? hes to go alongside my established cuckoo maran cockerel (whos infertile but dont tell him!) to better my meat stock.
cheers d

[jaykay]

I choose which cockerel to use on size, build, 'type' (how near a perfect whatever breed they are)

And then if all else fails, the temperament you want. I quite like 'up and at 'em' cockerels and tend to pick the most feisty. Others, wanting more peaceful birds, would pick the placid ones perhaps.

[Castle Farm]

If you have a choice of 3 always pick the top bird,ie the one that is dominant to the others, as he has the vitality to hold his position at the top.

You need to evaluate the bird, before you use him.

Is his comb the correct shape.
Are his toes and feet correct, no crooked toes.

You only need to worry about the markings if you intend to show or sell hatching eggs from standard bred birds.

I have a bit about stock birds on my web site.

[JEP]

you will find Wye the birds are together the other 2 will be placid
take the dominant one away they others will change one will dominate they other
we've had birds lived together fine till you split them up then put the backthey will try &
kill each other

[NormandyMary]

Id choose the one who seems to do the bizzo with the ladies more than the rest, and the one with the best cockle. I was getting a bit worried about our Jethro (also a LS cockeral, a fine specimen if I may say so)as we thought he had stopped crowing. It seems though that he is just an early morning cockler unlike our previous cockeral Monty who gave it large morning, noon and night.

[JEP]

we had a cockerel never crowed till he went
on his own & turned very nasty then he had to go
kids wouldn't go in the run

[deepinthewoods]

one has just turned into the  most rampant cockerel ive seen, hes staying!
now i just need to mark him so i dont pick him up during the night when i will cull his brothers out. easier said than done.

[hughesy]

Earlier in the year we had three LS cockerels. I had selected the one I was going to keep as he was the biggest, proudest and appeared to be the top dog. Unfortunately before I got round to necking the other two they ganged up on my chosen one and killed him. Ended up keeping one of the seemingly lesser birds but it's turned out fine as he's doing a great job. You can't judge a book by it's cover.

[Barrett]

My First cockerel was LS called Scooby Doo and he was the finest you have ever seen, sadly he died in the summer, he was proud, gentle with the girls, and protect them to the bitter end, he had 2 bad attacks by buzzards and survived and all the girls were safe and in one piece, I have kept 2 of his sons one is commercial brown X LS and the other a pure LS called Alfred, Alfreds mum is no longer with us so I will keep him as he does look a lot like his dad.  Never thought I would get so attached to  a cockerel but some are just really special, we were going to bury him but decided not to as the dogs would dig him up .

[JEP]

we had a cockerel was soft as a brush with the kids
the lad loved him hes still got pictures of him on his wall