Rural Gardening: What kind of roosters do I have?, 1 by fleursdefouquet

fleursdefouquet wrote:
We know nothing about poultry and have been given three roosters. Can anyone tell me what breed they are? They are not fully grown and have not started crowing yet. One is black and white. The other two are red with black/green tail feathers. Their feet are not the same color - one has very light colored feet and the other has dark yellow feet. One also has 5 toes (or claws, or whatever they are called) on each foot.

They were given to us to help with our tick problem. We haven't seen a tick since we got them. They are amazing bug eating machines. We don't have a coop yet but hope to start one this weekend. They have taken to roosting on my flower baskets under the gas lamps on our front porch. I can't blame them - that's probably the safest place right now so I will let them stay until we build them a coop.

We've only had them 2 weeks but I've sure grown attached to them. They run up to me when I show up with feed and follow me like puppy dogs. They love meal worms and eat them from a spoon. We named them Hewey (black/white), Dewey (red with light legs) and Louie (red with 5 toes).

Thanks for any information you can share about their breeds. Or any advice about chickens in general. I do know they were given to us because the previous owners needed to 'thin' their rooster population and as they get older we will probably have a problem on our hands. I'd like to add a couple of hens for fresh eggs. Will we need to reduce the rooster numbers to one? One rooster and two hens should be able to do what we need them to do.....eat ticks, lay eggs and entertain me. LOL!