Seriously, 3 out of 5?!

[Adenium]

I wonder if the overall sexing numbers are worse from feed stores. is it different hatcheries with less competent sexers or do the hatcheries maybe offload the questionable ones on the feed stores? i've heard many stories of missing or switched labeling too so maybe that contributes. we ordered from my pet chicken but i thought about some feed store EE's for next year. Not with those ratios....you WOULD actually be better off with your own hatch.

 

[Panth]

I wouldn't trust the feed store bins...I have a sneaking suspicion that the hatcheries use them as catch-alls for whatever chicks they have. Whatever hatchery (I believe Privetts) that my local TSC uses just kinda threw whatever chipmunk colored chicks they had in the EE bin. I got a welsummer, a silverduckwing OEG, and a Dark Cornish out of the EE bin along with my other 12 EEs. Really.

 

[Adenium]

Thanks for sharing that - I think I will be sticking with what I have for now and avoiding the feed stores when it's eventually time to add/replace chicks. If I hadn't seen this and other similar threads I'd probably be getting some nasty surprises.

It is safer with the sex-links I guess, but it seems sad they they appear so prone to rapid burnout and various health issues.

 

[The Lazy L]

Unsupervised child walks over and picks up a baby chick...oh so cute...."Where did you get that Put it back!...and the cock was put back in the the hens.....a unsupervised adult picks up a baby chick...oh so cute...and another cock was put back in the the hens...a unsupervised employee wonder why there is 12 yellow chicks in this bin and 48 yellow chicks in this other bin, twice as many feeders and waterers to maintain so the employee pulls out the divider...

 

[Adenium]

Probably all those reasons too!

When I went to TSC the chick area was gated off, but even then......since the employees often don't seem to know what's what I'm sure there's some potential redistribution from that end too.

Of course, I say all this having gotten hatchery birds that are too young to declare their gender......we'll see how it shakes out.

 

[RiddleMe]

Unsupervised child walks over and picks up a baby chick...oh so cute...."Where did you get that Put it back!...and the cock was put back in the the hens.....a unsupervised adult picks up a baby chick...oh so cute...and another cock was put back in the the hens...a unsupervised employee wonder why there is 12 yellow chicks in this bin and 48 yellow chicks in this other bin, twice as many feeders and waterers to maintain so the employee pulls out the divider...

I actually went to this feed store because it's a little mom and pop business vs our local chain feed store. The owner really likes the "odd" breeds so she gets a lot of breeds the chain store doesn't order and that way if anything doesn't sell she just takes it home. But she has stacked brooders vs bins with just one breed per brooder, located right next to the cash register so no little kids handling or mixing them around... I actually got the breeds I picked, just got boys.

I do wonder if it wasn't a case of the hatchery deliberately dumping some extra cockerels in her pullet order (she didn't order any SR other than meat birds and bantams), just because it is a small store and doesn't have the clout that a chain store might have.

 

[mandelyn]

Wow! Who knows how it happened. If you raise enough chicks though, you start to notice the trends in growth that tell males from females, earlier and earlier. I trust myself to buy chicks out of unsexed brooders, my last batch had 3 boys out of 10, because those EEs are hard to sex early on. I didn't know what I was looking at and just grabbed some. 50% error rate that way. LOL Not bad considering they were day-old.

They sell better when they have a girl with them to make a pair. Makes all the difference between $10 and not being able to even give the boy away. I tried and tried with the Golden Lakenvelder roo I had, but ended up having to part with a hen to get a deal done. It sucks that you don't have a matching hen to go with, that makes it hard.

For single roosters, usually they need to be older and showing their colors well to find homes based on their beauty. Lakenvelders are lean and light, not table birds, makes it harder still to find someone to take them. Keep an add running on craigslast all the time, updating photos as he grows.

 

[WRVgirl]

3 out of 5!!!

That's insane :/ My friend and I halvsied on some BO chicks and they were supposedly sexed. Of course I had nightmares the whole stinking time about hearing little roos and giant red waddles. lol Thankfully they're all girls. We got lucky.

I've never had experience buying them from a feed store....my friend found the BOs in New Jersey and I ordered my last batch from MPC.

I've given away a hen before but I've never tried a roo...I believe that inside the city limits of my town you're only allowed hens...I have no idea what I'd do with a rooster.

GL!

 

[Momma 2 silkies]

Don't feel to bad, Out of my first 6 chicks, 4 are cockerels and only 2 pullets. I still have hope though, I still have 4 more that could go either way but my chicks are the wait and see breed, silkies. It just means I have to get more chicks and hope for girls or find some pullets for sale to offset the numbers. I also know that if I keep my cockerels that they will get along,, silkies don't seem to fight as much as the standards from what I have read. Sorry for your mix up on your chicks and good luck re homing them and with your flock.

 

[RiddleMe]

Wow! Who knows how it happened. If you raise enough chicks though, you start to notice the trends in growth that tell males from females, earlier and earlier. I trust myself to buy chicks out of unsexed brooders, my last batch had 3 boys out of 10, because those EEs are hard to sex early on. I didn't know what I was looking at and just grabbed some. 50% error rate that way. LOL Not bad considering they were day-old.

They sell better when they have a girl with them to make a pair. Makes all the difference between $10 and not being able to even give the boy away. I tried and tried with the Golden Lakenvelder roo I had, but ended up having to part with a hen to get a deal done. It sucks that you don't have a matching hen to go with, that makes it hard.

For single roosters, usually they need to be older and showing their colors well to find homes based on their beauty. Lakenvelders are lean and light, not table birds, makes it harder still to find someone to take them. Keep an add running on craigslast all the time, updating photos as he grows.

I was actually highly suspicious (and sadly correct) about the three boys at about 2-3 weeks of age. The Wellie and Golden Lakenvelder both just had really big combs at a really young age. I was holding out hope for the EE until about two weeks ago, because his comb pinked up early, but was just the single row of "peas" instead of the obvious 3 rows you usually see in the EEs, and he didn't/doesn't have any of the red in the shoulders that is so typical. But then he crowed.

I think I've actually sold the Golden Lakenvelder (tentative yay until the deal is done!). Someone who saw my CL ad and has wanted this breed for over a year. He wanted to come pick it up tonight, but I told him I'd meet him in town tomorrow (biosecurity and all that). I'm glad he's going to someone who will appreciate him, he's a pretty little guy, and you're right, not much meat on them!