He wants to breed and show desperately. He has several bantam flocks started, but his problem is every chook is a treasured jewel not a chicken. With the volume of birds he intends to have losing some to age, illnees, predators, or any of the other numerous reasons chickens die is going to be a common occurrence. Right now he takes every loss really hard and sulks for days. I euthanize his birds when it's nessecary, he gets too upset. I will euthanize a sick bird when I get home without waiting for him because he has such trouble making the final call.
Eventually he's going to have to cull to make room. He's not going to be able to keep every bird he hatches. I have told him several times I will NOT allow him to keep more birds than we can keep in healthy happy conditions. I will cull, I will make them go away if he leaves me no choice. It's causing stress neither of us needs.
A friend of mine with a similar issue with her hubbies pigeon hobby solved it with raccoon gettting it the coop periodically and making off with birds. When she felt it was getting out of hand the raccoon would come back and make room then she'd drop off some cages at the auction barn on her way to work. The only problem she ever had was when her DH bought the same bird back twice at the auction without even realizing his "replacement" was his bird to begin with. I wish mine was that easily fooled.
Eventually he's going to have to cull to make room. He's not going to be able to keep every bird he hatches. I have told him several times I will NOT allow him to keep more birds than we can keep in healthy happy conditions. I will cull, I will make them go away if he leaves me no choice. It's causing stress neither of us needs.
A friend of mine with a similar issue with her hubbies pigeon hobby solved it with raccoon gettting it the coop periodically and making off with birds. When she felt it was getting out of hand the raccoon would come back and make room then she'd drop off some cages at the auction barn on her way to work. The only problem she ever had was when her DH bought the same bird back twice at the auction without even realizing his "replacement" was his bird to begin with. I wish mine was that easily fooled.