Adding Another Flock And Coop?????? Need Advice

[Tracie70]

Hi Everyone,

I have 18 chickens all together. A mix, Mostly EE. The story goes like this. I have been living in the country for about two years. My husband built a coop and we went to the flea market and purchased 8 baby chicks. Mostly are turning out to be roo's. (I am starting to think that the flea market lady had a pretty good idea of the sex of these lil guy's LOL) So we new that the two ee were roo's so we went and bought 8 ee and two frizzles to add to my flock everyone get along really well in there coop. After reading I know I don't have a good roo to hen ratio. I have a total 12 hens and 6 roo's. I know that is way to much. So we have been thinking instead of getting rid of the roo's just to add another coop which we are going to call a duplex so we can seperate 4 of these roo's to two and two and add more hens. Then I was thinking of buying some already SEXED FEMALES so I am sure, about twenty or so for the one side of our duplex. My questions are before I even begin to contemplate this new venture are.
I already free range my flock of 18 for a few hours at night and they just return to there coop at dusk. This works so easy for me. I let them out at 5 ish and they are back in there coop 8: 30 then I lock them in for the night. Now if I do another coop can I let them all free range together and will they return two there specific coops at night. For lock down lol.
The other thing I was wondering for agricultural exemption purposes on our property this seems to be a good way to save money and enjoy our birds. My kids just love the chicks now. We sit outside for hours and just watch them what a great way to keep the children away from t.v. and video games. As a family we are really enjoying this. But I am looking eventually into about fifty or so birds. What will I do with all the eggs? Do you get customers when selling them just with a sign at the end of your driveway? Also how about selling the fertile eggs how does that go for some people? I mean I am going to research all of this very well before having a ton of chickens but you guys on here are just so knowledgeable so I wanted to just get some of the basics first from you guys.

Thanks again for any advice

 

[tammyd57]

The chickens you have already know 'their' coop as home and go in there at night. When you get more chickens, it's a good idea to lock them up in their coop/run area for a week or so until they know where home is before you let them out to range. Then they will go to the right coop at night.
If you are getting more chickens as adults, have you considered the accommodations to quarantine them from your existing flock? If you are getting day-old chicks or hatching eggs this isn't necessary.
As far as selling eggs: You can get some customers just using the sign method if your road is fairly busy. Another option is listing eggs for sale on Craigslist, making a flyer to put up at your feed store, selling at a farmers market if you have one, and any other free classified ad papers you have in your area. Don't forget family, friends & co-workers.

If your chickens are going to be mixed breeds, you will have a hard, if not impossible, time trying to sell hatching eggs. If they are purebreeds but hatchery stock, still hard to sell as hatchers.