Truth needed

We ordered chicks for the first time and received 3day olds on May 12.
Ordered all females and out of 15 sent pretty sure only one is rooster. (Possibly there is a less vocal at this point second because before I open their door in the morning I hear two distinct voices. One for sure continues to crow through the day and I can easily identify him. I never hear that second voice all day once they are out.
Dilemma. I do not want baby chicks.
Our cope and run is set up in a way that eggs should be easily retrieved throughout the day.
Our run is 60+ft X 10ft the coop is 4X6 with 4 nesting boxes.

15 was the minimum we could order. I only wanted 8. That seemed like a nice manageable number for a newbie. Everyone said a few will likely die. None did, of course I mothered and indulged them all. They are all beautiful, happy and healthy now at 12 weeks I can't bear to let any go. (We have a farmer lady that has hens and said she'll take whatever I don't want)

We are on a small 28 acre farm. We have three fainting goats and a beautiful barn. The coop and run were placed in what you would call a coral area for horses that shares the opening to the barn.
Do I pull the rooster out and let him free range?
Won't he miss his buddies that he's been raised with terrible if separated by fence?
Won't that cause tremendous anxiety?

He is not aggressive (yet) he is the only one that will not eat out of my hands. He waits for me to sprinkle his treats. He runs from us if we try to pick him up. He is just so proud when he crows. It breaks my heart to think of separating him.
No sign of Spurs, not even a nub. But he is only about 12 weeks.

He is not needed for protection of the flock. The run is completely enclosed with a perimeter of fencing buried 15 inches out from the border on all sides. I know never say never but trust me my husband did a great job.

Is 4 nesting boxes enough for the remaining 14 hens?
Again, I don't think I could give these girls away to reduce my numbers because they will not have the indulgences they have here and appreciate.

Thank you for listening and I appreciate your feedback

It's hard to part with any you raise.
The run is fine but the coop is pretty small for that many birds. It can work if they're allowed out at dawn.
4 nests are enough. They'll likely only use a couple of them. They develop favorite nests.
There's no need to get rid of or separate the rooster. Just because the eggs are fertile it doesn't mean they'll become chicks unless you incubate them.
Roosters just seem to make the flock complete to me. He would miss his friends if separated.
Besides fertilizing eggs and protecting the flock from predators, they like to find food for the hens and watch over them while they eat. There was research that showed pullets start laying earlier when there is a rooster present.

As long as you collect the eggs you won't have chicks anyway.

Canoe said it. If you do not incubate the eggs you will not hatch chicks. I don’t see your problem. Is there some concern you are not telling us?

I always suggest you keep as few roosters as you can and maintain your goals. Since your goals did not originally include a rooster, maybe zero is the right number for you.

Depending on your climate (putting your location in your profile can help folks give better suggestions) 4x6 is good for about maybe 6 hens.
Way too small for 15.

First I will address your coop size. It is not big enough. You are probably ok, now, because your birds are not full grown, but as they grow bigger, the coop will grow smaller. In the summer, you can cheat, because the days are long, and the nights are short, and they really don't spend a great deal of time on the roost.

However, winter is coming and by the time it gets here, your birds are going to be full grown and that coop size is going to cause problems and tension in your flock. A 4 x 6 coop should fit 6 hens, but it depends on the third demension. I am not quite sure why on this forum we always talk about square footage, when space is three demensional?

You need to measure your roosting space, and look at how far the roosts are from the ceiling and wall. If they are too close to the wall of ceiling, it makes for damp chickens and that makes them cold. Your roosting space is more important than more nests. 3 nests would be probably more than enough, mine have always tended to lay in one or two nests. I have even seen them standing in line, when there was an empty nest right next to it.

You have way too many chickens for that set up, this will cause a lot of tension, fighting, feather picking. The flock will be highly stressed. You need either to reduce the flock, or build a bigger coop ASAP, or increase the size of the one you have. The run is very big, so that is not a problem.

As for your rooster, leave him be. Sounds like a perfect rooster to me! I want my roosters to move away from me, to keep a respectful 4-6 feet between us. That is how he shows me respect. Roosters that are not a little afraid, often become very aggressive toward people. You won't get chicks by having a rooster, and more than likely until you get some experience, you won't even be able to tell which eggs are fertile and which eggs are not.

Let me explain how hatching eggs work, if you already know, please excuse. Obviously you have to have a hen and roo, but that is the least of it. Birds are different than mammals where upon fertilization the embryo begins to grow immediately. As in a fertilzed egg in inert until it has been warmed to around 100 degrees F for 24+ hours. Until then it just sits there in limbo. What this does is allow a clutch of eggs to be gathered into a nest. This is why hens like to lay their eggs in the same nest. It builds a clutch. If you have the right hen, and she likes the clutch, all the stars line up and you get lucky, she will go broody, set on the clutch, heat up the eggs, and they all start to grow at once, so eggs that are even 8 - 14 days older than the other eggs, all begin to grow at the same time and will hatch together. They all hatch, mamma takes care of the live chicks, not tied to a nest trying to get others to hatch, in fact she will leave the ones that don't hatch within a certain time period.

Now, depending on the breed of hens that you have, some are more likely to go broody than others. Some NEVER go broody their whole lives, some go quite often, it depends on the breed and the hen. (However, my first broody was a breed that was never suppose to go broody, go figure)

So if you collect eggs each day, you will not get chicks.

I cannot emphasize enough how your coop is too small for the number of chicks that you have. You have indulged them, but really it is better for chickens to have enough space, than the best of treats. It sounds like your rooster is turning out, they are kind of a crapshoot, however, when asked, I don't recommend roosters the first year. In my experience, roosters take a little experience, and an all hen flock is the best way to start. Your original plan was best, 6 head would work perfectly, give you happy chickens and a lot of eggs. Go down at night, pull off half of them and the rooster and take them to the neighbor.

If you do nothing, you have a wreck waiting to happen.

Mrs K

Where you live makes a huge difference.

Your coop is way too small. You have a barn an 28 acres, why not let some of the chickens free range?

To be honest I am a huge proponent of free ranging. I free range everything I can. Your set up sounds like the perfect brooder, BUT way too small for 15 birds..

BTW congrats on the super job of not losing one, that is an amazing feat.

You have to be an egg expert to tell if the egg is fertilized or not, as long as the hens do not go broody and sit on them they will never hatch.

Do you have other animals? Chickens during summer/warm weather are pretty much self sufficient eating bugs seeds and whatever they can find. I have feed available but they do not eat it. I do feed them scraps from the table and fridge as a treat though. They love bacon. but who doesn't?

Welcome to BYC good luck on your birds.

I live in central PA so we get full range of weather. From -10 to 90.
I posted several pics of the coop as I realize 4X6 does not give full description.
I can fully stand inside.
Right now they huddle next to each other similar to the way they did as chicks. I'm always telling them why don't you guys spread out?
We could add more roosting to inside.
The coop cleans easy.
There is room that my husband said he could cut back wall out and expand it a couple feet.

We chose this size as I mentioned I wanted 6-8 hens.
We have 15 that we actually pull up chairs inside the run area and sit with them. They sit on our lap and I feel having raised them (inside my sunroom for first 5 weeks) caused them to become very attached to us as it is right next to our living room.

We have



SILVER LACED WYANDOTTE 2
ARAUCANA/AMERAUCANA Females 3
WHITE CRESTED BLACK POLISH 3
GOLDEN POLISH 1 Rooster
GOLDEN WYANDOTTE 6

I am thankful for all suggestions and comments.

Would love to free range but wouldn't that bring predators?

My husbands field cam from January showed we have Bobcats, coyote, Hawks, golden eagles. I know there are weasels down by our stream. Hence we built a fortress for their run. Do I just let some roam and nest in a designated barn area?

Read the stories from " free ranging" the amount of death is unreal , I wouldn't do it with the predators you've seen in your area. I built a huge closed in run and I can sleep at night knowing we've done our best to protect them.
its not perfect but they're safe!!

Right now they have room to spread their wings and move about. In a perfect world free ranging looks so free and nice but I do not want to worry about them being attacked.
Our goats have never in 5 years had a problem as we do leave the barn doors open at night.