Ameraucana thread for posting pictures and discussing our birds

[DMRippy]

Quote:
I keep thinking about this simple but great advice.
I have a question. What do breeders do with all the chicks from lots of hatches while they are growing big enough to know if they need to be culled? So far I have chicks from hatches that were close together housed together waiting until they are full size and can be either culled or put into the appropriate pen with full grown birds. So I have 4 different pens with chicks at various stages of growing up. I don't consider that I have really hatched a lot of birds yet. I can see my property becoming littered with little grow up pens. lol
Is there another way? Is there another method for keeping chicks till they grow large enough to decided if they are keepers or culls except for separate cages?
I am in the process of building breeding pens but what am I gonna do with all the chicks?? Build the same but for growing up chicks? I might wait till this one is done before I tell my husband I need another...hee hee

I have kinda had that same question and issue. Since I built the breeding pens it has helped. It freed up 4 pens, sort of. One pen has my Sept Hatch pullets. I have a chicken tractor type thing for the October hatch pullets. The sept pullets are about ready to be integrated in with the layers and then the Oct pullets will go in that pen. and the cycle continues. Ok I know you are going to ask.... the roos..... they are in my shop in modular pens we built. We can make a large 3.5' x 7' or divide that into up to 3 smaller pens. It has been great having these and the sizes we can change them when needed. We are going to process the Sept roo in a month or so and then we will have more pens for the Oct roos and that cycle will continue too... until we build a bachelor pen.

 

[Christie Rhae]

Quote:
I keep thinking about this simple but great advice.
I have a question. What do breeders do with all the chicks from lots of hatches while they are growing big enough to know if they need to be culled? So far I have chicks from hatches that were close together housed together waiting until they are full size and can be either culled or put into the appropriate pen with full grown birds. So I have 4 different pens with chicks at various stages of growing up. I don't consider that I have really hatched a lot of birds yet. I can see my property becoming littered with little grow up pens. lol
Is there another way? Is there another method for keeping chicks till they grow large enough to decided if they are keepers or culls except for separate cages?
I am in the process of building breeding pens but what am I gonna do with all the chicks?? Build the same but for growing up chicks? I might wait till this one is done before I tell my husband I need another...hee hee

I have kinda had that same question and issue. Since I built the breeding pens it has helped. It freed up 4 pens, sort of. One pen has my Sept Hatch pullets. I have a chicken tractor type thing for the October hatch pullets. The sept pullets are about ready to be integrated in with the layers and then the Oct pullets will go in that pen. and the cycle continues. Ok I know you are going to ask.... the roos..... they are in my shop in modular pens we built. We can make a large 3.5' x 7' or divide that into up to 3 smaller pens. It has been great having these and the sizes we can change them when needed. We are going to process the Sept roo in a month or so and then we will have more pens for the Oct roos and that cycle will continue too... until we build a bachelor pen.

So your september pullets are ready to go with big girls already? I have July chicks that I have not integrated yet. Maybe that is my problem. I was kinda thinking the pullets needed to be like 8 or 9 months old and the cockerel needed to like 1 year old. I tried last month to put my July chicks in with 4 hens and they lasted 30 seconds, Well the young cockerel got bloodied. Guess the young pullets didn't get bothered...not in the first 30 seconds anyway. lol I removed them quickly.
So maybe I need to think of rooster pens. What do you think is a good size for one rooster? hmm I am thinking of a new project for my husband. A nice little row of rooster houses. My neighbors will think I am raising fighting cocks.

 

[Goose and Fig]

I have step down pens as well. The first "real coop" that the birds get to free range from is my cochin house. Almost everybody spends some time there before moving onto thier permananet pens. I put them in at about 3-4 months. Roos and all. And besides feed & water, everybody gets locked in for about 4 days so they can get thier bearings. Then I open the coop and they wander out with the rest of the flock, and go back in at night. I have never lost a young bird because of the pecking order. I have lost a few that were too stupid to come in from the rain- but hey- its survival of the fittest. The big birds usually don't bother them for more than a couple minutes. Some breeds are better than others at integrating. The delawares I just moved there last month have basically taken over

I don't put roos in the bachelor pen until they are big enough to start breeding- maybe 5-6 months and up. The rest of the time they get to stay with the rest of flock and everybody gets along fine.

 

[DMRippy]

16 weeks is what was recommended to me to integrate. I know most of these roos are not keepers so that is one reason they are in pens to keep fighting down. 8-9 months is a long time and might cause more drama when you introduce them... IDK

I differ to more experience on this one....

 

[admhotel]

I like to try moving all of birds into a new/different pen at the time of intergration. That way nobody has a "home field" advantage. If I am adding birds to a pen then I try adding a few at a time so 1 new one doesn't get singled out.

I sent in my membership for ABC. So excited!!

 

[Christie Rhae]

Awesome info guys! I am gonna think about this, draw some diagrams... make some notes. LOL!

 

[janchilds]

Donna:

Do you have pictures of your modular pens for the roos? They sound very interesting!

 

[DMRippy]

Quote:
I do but they are not very good. Let me see what I can get today for pictures.

 

[Tailfeathers]

Quote:
I think this is a dilemma that probably all of us who got into breeding and hatching chicks have encountered. The joy of newborn babies all the time and seeing the little potlickers grow is something that one can never get enough of. That usually leads to an ongoing hatching process. Which then leads to chicks congregating together at different ages. Not to mention possible overcrowding that comes with its own set of issues.

Having gone thru this and wearing myself thin in the process of not only moving birds around but the constant necessity of cleaning various brooders, pens, coops, etc.; I am now limiting myself on my hatches. I have also found thru review of my records that chicks hatched during some months simply don't seem to do as well as other months. So why bother hatching then?

I would recommend looking at what you have or plan to have in the way of facilities. Then plan out your hatches accordingly. Perhaps larger hatches at one time would make more sense than ongoing hatches.

God Bless,

 

[janchilds]

Tailfeathers,

What months have been your favorite to hatch and how many chicks are you sorting thru to find those exceptional few. I'm anxious to improvement but on a manageable scale.

Thanks!