BRAND NEW TO THE HOBBY!

[aran]

what about posting em back to the hatchery..is that a REALLY stupid idea?

 

[iopele]

I'm not sure (perhaps others who have more experience can chime in here) but I don't think the hatchery would take them back. Perhaps you could call them and request that they NOT put in free extra males? Many times the freebie chicks aren't sexed so they just put in random chicks. I think it's worth a try to call and just say no thanks on the free ones. Good luck, and let us know if it works!

 

[aran]

thanks for that info iopele...I read the website and they do say the sometimes pack extra males for warmth and if the order is too small...hmmm i should have just ordered more females to fill the box i guess. I really only want 1 dozen birds total though. How old do they have to be to figure out their sex?

 

[Llysse]

The experts at the hatchery can vent sex the babies at a day old... people like you and me can't tell the sex of our birds (unless they're sex linked) for weeks, sometimes months.

I have Salmon Faverolles. Luckily, you can tell the sex of the birds at about two weeks, sometimes sooner from the flight feathers coming in.

Here's a hen:

And here's a rooster:

They were a little less than two weeks old at that point. Some other birds like Marans, Barred Rocks and so forth have subtle differences in down color as chicks, but the birds don't always read the rule book and can fool you.

You can also sometimes tell roosters from hens by behavior. Roosters are generally braver, and will stand taller when startled, while hens will crouch.

Chances are pretty good that you'll get what you asked for as far as sex goes, though. I wouldn't worry.

 

[aran]

so I emailed ideal this morning around 6am telling them I would REALLY prefer not to get any extra males and if they needed extra chickens in the box to "pack it out" or for "warmth" that i would pay for an additional 6 buff orpington pullet chicks if it wasnt too late to change everything. I am sure it is too late as i have not heard back from them yet...albeit that it is still early and maybe the office is not yet open for the day. Anyway it will be what it will be, nothing is ever as easy as it at first appears huh?

my wife tells me she has a friend who would take the roosters if we did get some extras anyway so all will be well whatever ideal-poultry do.

 

[aran]

ideal emailed back that they are shipping my order today with 5 or 6 spare males in it. SOOoooo i will just have to grow em up and send em to my wife's friend when they are old enough.


never mind...at least my girl chicks are coming too
maybe i will keep 2 roosters instead of one...what do you think?

 

[iopele]

I think definitely keep more than one rooster. I'm about to get a dozen rumpless tufted araucanas, straight-run, and I'll probably keep 4 roos just because we have foxes and skunks here and occasionally lose birds to them. (True araucanas are SO hard to find that I'm keeping 4; if it was another, more common breed that'd be easier to replace, I'd probably only keep 2 or 3.) If you only have one rooster, and a cat or disease gets it, your breeding program is shot for the rest of the year if you don't have a spare! Yes, you can order another one, but you'll be in the same boat as now with trying to "make up" the rest of the order, plus you'll have to wait for him to grow up.

 

[AccidentalFarm]

Gosh, aran- I've been reading through this thread and just gotta say that I'm really excited for you! I'm getting my chicks from Ideal tomorrow, too, but ...I have chickens already, so while I am excited and anxious and probably won't sleep well tonight ...you're level of excitement just blows me away!

Kudos to you for planning ahead to make sure everything is just so for your chickies...I really love to see new chicken owners asking all these questions before the chicks are in hand.

Good luck with your chickies! And, of course, we would love to see pics!

 

[aran]

thanks for that AF and iopele. I had assumed that more than one rooster would equal bigtime fights in my chicken coop--> isnt that the basis of the whole illegal cock fighting industry?

I mean the roosters are cool looking birds...if i can have more than one without them killing each other then that would be cool.

Im not sure about the whole free range thing yet, im still on the fence about that. Where i live we have fox and coyote and hawks and i dont want my chickens getting munched on.

 

[iopele]

Fighting cocks are bred to be aggressive and are goaded in the ring, so I wouldn't worry too horribly about that. I've read that 3 roosters are less likely to fight than 2 (go figure). Also that if the roos are raised together with the pullets, they're less likely to fight--and yours will be arriving at the same time so that's good. We've probably got 10 or 12 roos here and fights very, very rarely happen because we've got docile breeds--Marans, Silkies, Welsummers, etc. And when the roos do disagree, it only lasts seconds because the pecking order here is well established and the lower-ranking roo backs right off. It's usually over hens--no, you can't mate with her!--kind of stuff. One roo squawks, the other one runs off. No biggie.

The last time 2 of our roos fought, it was hilarious because it was the little bitty Silky rooster against No-Face, our beakless Maran roo. One too little to win a fight, and the other without a beak so he can't win fights either, and neither with spurs! They just kept jumping at each other without ever making contact. Silly boys!