just ordered my chicks

ccarver80

Chirping
5 Years
Jul 28, 2014
154
10
86
Squaw gap ND
Hey everyone, this will be my first attempt to raising chickens.

I ordered from McMurray Hatchery,

Barred rocks - 4 females, 1 male
Black Australorps- 4 females 1 male
Dark Cornish -4 females 1 male
+ 1free mystery rare chicken?

I figured this will be an awesome egg/meat combo I'm really curious to see different combinations and mixed breeds in the future

After I ordered do I have to high of a rooster to hen ratio?


Ps. We live out of town and have 4 acres of room.
 
Way too many roosters. Ideally, I would forgo roosters the first time out. Figure what breeds you like and if you decide to breed or raise replacement birds, than get a rooster. Max for your 12 hens should only be one. Are you going to process the cornish? Hens typically finish out smaller than cockerels. They aren't the best choice if you plan on keeping them as layers. They will eat circles around the others and do not have a good feed efficiency. You really need to keep them separate from the layers.

I would also be surprised if you can have roosters in town even on 4 acres.
 
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we are located 30 miles from town roosters wont be a problems lol,

as for the cornish, im kinda regretting that now, looked up the other 2 breeds and both excellent meat producers also,

i just figured 15 was the min. order trying to mix up breeds and try differnt things.
 
Way too many roosters. Ideally, I would forgo roosters the first time out. Figure what breeds you like and if you decide to breed or raise replacement birds, than get a rooster. Max for your 12 hens should only be one. Are you going to process the cornish? Hens typically finish out smaller than cockerels. They aren't the best choice if you plan on keeping them as layers. They will eat circles around the others and do not have a good feed efficiency. You really need to keep them separate from the layers.

I would also be surprised if you can have roosters in town even on 4 acres.

You can have sirens, alarms and dogs barking all day and night, but no rooster, god for bid! LOL
 
If you just placed the order, call them back. The chicks haven't hatched yet and they should easily be able to change it. If not, you want some meat birds anyway. You can always process the roosters down the road if they become too much.
 
Yea, ill call them in the morning,

OK so Im getting rid of the 5 Cornish and eliminating the roosters

So i need a third breed to pick + 1 rooster.


Suggestions?
 
When's your ship date? There's almost nothing available this next week. I love my EEs and think everyone should have some in their flock. Who doesn't love a green egg? They do have S/R available and it would be worth the males if you get 50/50. If you got 8-10 EEs and you end up with 4-5 roosters, keep the nicest and process the extras. They should be large enough to butcher by 20-24 weeks. About the time they start getting too big for their britches. You'll end up with your 3-5 pullets. You might just need to wait until you talk to them tomorrow. They should have some assorted pullets available but can't commit until they hatch. I'd put EEs, welsummers and any wyandotte on the short list. A pullet assortment in a pinch. Gives you breeds you might not otherwise consider. I ended up with BR one year because that's what they had available. Never considered them because they were too common (also do not have any red or hybrid chicken) and they are now one of my favorites. I would stay away from any bantams (can be bullied because of their size) and RIR (tendency to be bullies in a mixed flock) .
 
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Still not the best selection for 5/18. Of what I see available, I would go with the golden laced wyandotte. That's the one that made me want chickens. Others were silver laced, columbian. blue laced red (S/R) wyandottes and buff orpingtons. All good looking mild mannered d/p breeds. I would only order pullets because chances are you will end up with 1-2 cockerels because most hatcheries have a 10% miss on sexing chicks. Often the free "rare" chick is a male as well. There are assortments available but the minimum seems to be 15. Depending upon where you are, it can sometimes be easy to sell the extras on CL. May might be getting a little late in the season but it could also be people want more after the first batch or the neighbor's dogs wiped their flock out because they didn't listen.
 
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Its very likely that your mystery chick will be a cockerel. I've gotten the "free rare breed mystery chick" each time I've ordered from McMurray, and each time it has been a boy and not such a rare breed. On my last order, it ended up being a silver spangled Hamburg roo.
 

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