2 Buff Orpington and 2 Ameraucana Roosters need rehoming - Northern IL

[cavalier870]

Hello,
We bought 6 "female" day old chicks from a local breeder to have a backyard flock here in Roscoe IL after the village approved a backyard chicken ordinance. 3 Buff Orpingtons and 3 Ameraucancas. They are about 4 months old now and one started crowing a few days ago, now both Ameraucanas.
I sent picts to the breeder and she said that two of the Orpingtons were also roosters. She has offered to replace them but can not take the roosters back so we need to rehome them as the local ordinance does not allow roosters and they spent the night last night having a crowing contest in their coop from 1:15am to about 5:45 am (our A/C went out yesterday so we spent the night with all the windows open). So I need to rehome them asap.

Our family is especially attached to them, particularly my 9 yr old son and "his" two ameraucana roosters "Betsy" and "Caroline", now "Bill" and "Charlie". I agree with him they are the two I choose to hold and spend time with as well as they are the easiest to catch and seem to enjoy the affection.

All of the roosters (and the two hens) are very friendly and none of them fight with each other. There was the occasional pecking order squawk but that it. They also never had issue with order 2 yr old son trying to get them and even let him catch them from time to time. From day one they have had hours of attention from the family, friends, babies, and our dog.

I am hoping we can at least rehome "Bill" and "Charlie". They are good birds and I dont want to see them have to get butchered if possible - my kids are already devastated at having to get rid of them.

These are the pictures of the roosters. The one with the black face tufts is "Bill" and our overall favorite bird.

Thanks to you all the readers.
Let me know,
Jon Havrilesko

 

[keesmom]

We bought 6 "female" day old chicks from a local breeder to have a backyard flock here in Roscoe IL after the village approved a backyard chicken ordinance. 3 Buff Orpingtons and 3 Ameraucancas. They are about 4 months old now and one started crowing a few days ago, now both Ameraucanas.
I sent picts to the breeder and she said that two of the Orpingtons were also roosters. She has offered to replace them but can not take the roosters back so we need to rehome them as the local ordinance does not allow roosters and they spent the night last night having a crowing contest in their coop from 1:15am to about 5:45 am (our A/C went out yesterday so we spent the night with all the windows open). So I need to rehome them asap.

I am sorry you had to deal with a clueless breeder. I have no idea what method she used to supposedly sex them. Unfortunately the only reliable way to sex Easter Eggers and Orpingtons is vent sexing and that isn't for hobby breeders.

She should make things right by replacing them with same age, known pullets AND taking back her males. What excuse did she give as to why she won't take them?

 

[cavalier870]

The breeder says she vent sexes them and just sent me an email explaining that she went from a 70% correct last year to 85% correct this year. I was just one of the unlucky ones.

The only real issue I have with this is that I had a conversation with a few breeders about our 6 hen only limit in our village and about sexing success. I was a little limited because I was looking for 3 Buff Orpingtons and 3 Ameraucanas. One breeder told me they couldn't guarantee at all, another was said 2/3 or better, and this one said no problems. I had done research about vent sexing and expected 90% so the odds should have been 50/50 we would either come out with all hens or one rooster. Just were not prepared for 4 of the 6...

Her excuse was that her NPIP certification did not allow her to take non certified poultry onto her farm, and the only offer was to replace with chicks or a voucher for chicks in the future. My issue on this point is I can not have roosters and really did not want to go through raising day old chicks again with my kids only to find out 2 of the new ones 4 are boys and repeat the process again...

I decided to just buy pullets from another source. Next post.

 

[cavalier870]

Given the situation with the breeder we got the chicks from originally I decided to look into buying some pullets, found a few potentials on craigslist and thought to try them for new homes for our four roosters. One replied that he knew I was in a pickle and offered to trade the 4 roosters for 2 of his pullets and I could buy however more I wanted. He had ISA Browns, Buff Orpingtons, Ameraucanas, and a couple other breeds available and said I could let my kids pick. He was a retiring farmer getting back into breeding with his daughter so they have a nice forever home to go to.

We just got home with the new girls - I am no expert so I will post better pictures tomorrow in the gender breed section for verification. He did show me a couple cockerels of the same age and the red combs were apparent.

Thanks for the feedback and I am happy we resolved the issue (even though my son is still pretty upset about loosing his birds - all in all a not fun but good life lesson for him)