Arizona Chickens

[Mahonri]

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[Mahonri]

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See you Saturday! I got five more marans today and 3 w/Bw Ams.

How much room do you have in your incubator?

 

[Mahonri]

GC Kidd.

I've never taken any of my excess roos to the feed store... just for the reasons you have given.

Any I've sold have been for breeding.

I gave 17 away to the father of a family friend and his family had a 'rooster fest' and barbeeq'd them.

He did sell one of the wheatens.. VERY PRETTY BOY as a down payment on a trailer. The guy was going to use him for breeding EEs.

 

[pimachickens]

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I have only been a chicken owner for a month. We built a small coop in the backyard, and got two hens for eggs for the family. The woman told me both girls were about 6 months old. Well, I have just found out that probably both (but definitely one) are roosters not hens. I cannot have roosters in my area, so since the feed store and CL is out, what other options are there? Are there services in southern AZ that will dispatch of them for owners? I wouldn't have the slightest idea how to do it myself. I am already disgusted by the fact that I was taken advantage of, but it would kill me to know that these two guys end up in a cock fighting ring.

 

[Beckyhsinglsc]

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I have only been a chicken owner for a month. We built a small coop in the backyard, and got two hens for eggs for the family. The woman told me both girls were about 6 months old. Well, I have just found out that probably both (but definitely one) are roosters not hens. I cannot have roosters in my area, so since the feed store and CL is out, what other options are there? Are there services in southern AZ that will dispatch of them for owners? I wouldn't have the slightest idea how to do it myself. I am already disgusted by the fact that I was taken advantage of, but it would kill me to know that these two guys end up in a cock fighting ring.

I found a farm to take my LB rooster last year. I was just over there a couple of weeks ago and he was still there. He had taken over the chicken yard.

 

[gckiddhouse]

Dispatching a chicken is really not hard. It isn't easy to do (mentally), but it isn't complicated. I really do believe that every chicken owner should know how to do it. Even if it isn't a rooster, it could be a hen that is mamed by a predator, or has an illness that can't be cured. It will need to be done to one of your chickens at some point, even if you don't want it to. It is part of having chickens. You should be able to do it.

If you check with your local university extension or the permaculture guild, they often have workshops on butchering meat birds. I attended one locally. It gave me a lot of confidence in my ability to humanely and quickly dispatch a bird. If you live near me, I will be butchering chickens the week before Thanksgiving. You can come participate. Bring your unwanted roosters and i will help you dispatch them.

I don't mean to get on everyone's case about this, but I see roosters on CL all the time. Then to see all those roosters on that show. 102 is a whole lot of roosters. And that is just ONE operation. Rufus has told us about the "other thing" that these unwanted birds are often used for. I just don't want to contribute to either situation and I would rather take care of the situation myself than turn a blind eye. I know none of you wants to contribute to the madness, either. I am certainly not suggesting you do.

Let me know if I can help.

What I do:
zip tie legs together above knees
put chicken upside down in a cone (traffic cone, or I have a cone shaped cage made from chicken wire - super simple, just holds birds still)
just below the ear lobe is a soft spot where that main vein is. Slice it with a very sharp knife. They don't fuss, just bleed out quickly. It takes a minute or so. Very humane and quick.
For butchering instructions, there is a great sticky in the meat bird section.

 

[AZKat]

I took a bunch of pictures on my camera phone, I'll post them here once I figure out how to upload them from my phone. I got pics of the 2 chicks that hatched from the eggs that I got from Mahonri, the Wheaten Ameraucana roo I got from Mahonri, and my WA/Blue Andalusian pullet. I think that both of the chicks are pullets, they have pea combs, so its a bit tricky to tell, but the combs are small and not even slightly red.

 

[NoSkiveez]

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And he's in with my EE girls. I need to take pictures. He's turned out to be very pretty and he's quite docile.

 

[ltdmom]

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See you Saturday! I got five more marans today and 3 w/Bw Ams.

How much room do you have in your incubator?

Hope you had a nice hike. 108...ugh!

My egg turner will hold 42 eggs.

We are puppy raisers for Guide Dogs for the Blind. Will it be a problem to bring our dog?

 

[NoSkiveez]

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Where is the store your buying from and how much are you paying per bag?