9 roos out of 15 chicks

[Shorty22366]

I just think it is important that people should know that I am new to chickens and I wasn't sure how to order these babies. So I went on line and researched places to get my chicks. I finally ordered from Purely Poultry. 15 silmie bantams. They came in 2 died so I had fourteen babies. They are now 19 weeks old. I have 9 roos and 4 hens. I just don't think that is a good percentage. I ordered them unsexed I figured 50/50 at best but this is not 50/50. I have rehomed 3 of my roos which leaves me with 10 out of 15. Now I have 4 hens and 6 roos. I will never buy from Purely poultey again. I am getting 25 babies in June from My Pet.Chicken these will be sexed. Just letting you know that some hatcheries will send you alot more roos than hens when you order.
Any feed back is welcome just upset I need to find homes for at least 4.more roos.

 

[sylviethecochin]

That's probably not Purely Poultry's fault. They don't sell sexed bantams, which means that they're probably not sneakily removing the females. Instead, I'd say you were just unlucky--I once got a nine, three hatch ratio of roos to hens. Bad luck, but it happens. My father once bought feed-store muscovies straight run and got all females. Good luck, and it happens.

Hope you enjoy your new birds.

(EDT'd because my colon got re-interpreted as an emoji.)

 

[bobbi-j]

I agree - when you buy unsexed chicks (also called "straight run" so be careful of those words) it's pretty much the luck of the draw. Even when you buy pullets only, there is a slight chance you may get a cockerel.

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

I just think it is important that people should know that I am new to chickens and I wasn't sure how to order these babies. So I went on line and researched places to get my chicks. I finally ordered from Purely Poultry. 15 silmie bantams. They came in 2 died so I had fourteen babies. They are now 19 weeks old. I have 9 roos and 4 hens. I just don't think that is a good percentage. I ordered them unsexed I figured 50/50 at best but this is not 50/50. I have rehomed 3 of my roos which leaves me with 10 out of 15. Now I have 4 hens and 6 roos. I will never buy from Purely poultey again. I am getting 25 babies in June from My Pet.Chicken these will be sexed. Just letting you know that some hatcheries will send you alot more roos than hens when you order.
Any feed back is welcome just upset I need to find homes for at least 4.more roos.

When you purchase chicks as straight run which is what you ordered it isn't about them sending more or less roosters on purpose they literally do not sex the chicks at all. Straight run chicks are grabbed out of the bin and placed in the Box in the numbers ordered. This is basically like you setting that number of eggs under your hen and what hatches is what you get. It is not uncommon to have hatches that are predominantly one gender or the other just as it is not uncommon for a straight run order to be heavy on 1 gender or the other

 

[TattooedChicks]

I bought 20 unsexed assorted Bantam chicks last year from Ideal Poultry and got 17 roos in the group. It’s the risk you take when buying straight run and it hurt to rehome all those sweet boys. I have much better luck picking the pullets out myself at chick day events held locally. My last hand chosen batch was 11 of 13 chicks being female.

 

[keesmom]

I just think it is important that people should know that I am new to chickens and I wasn't sure how to order these babies. So I went on line and researched places to get my chicks. I finally ordered from Purely Poultry. 15 silmie bantams. They came in 2 died so I had fourteen babies. They are now 19 weeks old. I have 9 roos and 4 hens. I just don't think that is a good percentage. I ordered them unsexed I figured 50/50 at best but this is not 50/50. I have rehomed 3 of my roos which leaves me with 10 out of 15. Now I have 4 hens and 6 roos. I will never buy from Purely poultey again. I am getting 25 babies in June from My Pet.Chicken these will be sexed. Just letting you know that some hatcheries will send you alot more roos than hens when you order.
Any feed back is welcome just upset I need to find homes for at least 4.more roos.

You cannot blame Purely Poultry. You ordered bantams. MPC aside, hatcheries do NOT sex bantams. They did not intentionally send you extra cockerels. You got the luck of the draw. If you get a large number of chicks your average will be closer to 50/50, but for small quantities it's not unusual to get more of one sex than the other.

As someone who excels at hatching cockerels I'd be happy with the 4 pullets. One year my gender ratio from an incubator was skewed so badly (80% males) that I gave some broodies eggs as a test. All 7 eggs hatched. ALL were cockerels.

 

[Krazyquilts]

Last year, an entire hatch of six was cockerels. All cockerels! At least they were tasty.

 

[SunHwaKwon]

9 out of 15 is not bad. My recent bantam order from ideal is looking like 5-6 out of 11 are male (45-55%) which I consider excellent odds, especially since I ended up with a breeding pair (and a possible trio) of each variety ordered. I typically expect percentages closer to what you got (60%) or higher. Granted, you don't know if the two that died were male or female.

This is no different than flipping a coin 15 times, or reaching into a jar with two colors of marbles while blind folded. You can't be mad about the results.

 

[SunHwaKwon]

As someone who excels at hatching cockerels I'd be happy with the 4 pullets. One year my gender ratio from an incubator was skewed so badly (80% males) that I gave some broodies eggs as a test. All 7 eggs hatched. ALL were cockerels.

It sounds like you have at least one hen that you should stop hatching from. It's supposed to be random, but some females tend to lay high numbers of male eggs.

 

[joydix]

I just think it is important that people should know that I am new to chickens and I wasn't sure how to order these babies. So I went on line and researched places to get my chicks. I finally ordered from Purely Poultry. 15 silmie bantams. They came in 2 died so I had fourteen babies. They are now 19 weeks old. I have 9 roos and 4 hens. I just don't think that is a good percentage. I ordered them unsexed I figured 50/50 at best but this is not 50/50. I have rehomed 3 of my roos which leaves me with 10 out of 15. Now I have 4 hens and 6 roos. I will never buy from Purely poultey again. I am getting 25 babies in June from My Pet.Chicken these will be sexed. Just letting you know that some hatcheries will send you alot more roos than hens when you order.
Any feed back is welcome just upset I need to find homes for at least 4.more roos.

They really can't sex bantams safely. i would be very careful getting them from someone who does vent sexing on bantams. silkies are notoriously hard to sex anyway! the others are correct in that it is the luck of the draw! i did hatch once and got 8 roos and 3 hens.....it just happens..but i have also hatched and seriously got ALL girls..its risky!