Did I get swindled?

[Notgoodatchickens]

That makes sense; I have to admit I understand where you're coming from. I am curious, though . . . you say that you culled three other cockerels. Did you get any pullets from the same brood? I suppose not, since you are saying that now you have only cockerels.

Not one. Don’t let me pick your lottery numbers hahaha

 

[FunClucks]

Um, if your daughter is one or two years old, be very, very cautious on her interactions with the chickens. Cockerels (which is what you have until they are over 1 year old) can change personalities on the drop of a hat due to hormones. The nice rooster today can be the nightmare attack rooster tomorrow. There are warning signs, but you have to educate yourself in order to recognize them. I'd look at threads and Articles by @Shadrach and @RoostersAreAwesome on rooster behavior and warning signs of aggression. Since you don't have hens, that may help some, but roosters/cockerels can take out eyes, attack faces, and other body parts, especially on small children. I have a 4 year old, and she's still not old enough to be around roosters. Of course, we also have hens, which changes the dynamic somewhat.

I really like the previous poster's suggestion of obtaining some bantam hens. An all hen flock is safer IMO for young children and new keepers, with less likelihood of the drastic life lessons that I don't want to teach my 1 year old yet. Even at 4, the idea of eating animals for food can be a hard one, and my older child is still upset about the rooster that attacked him once (kid is fine, rooster was processed the same day - we miss him being nice, but don't miss his aggression).

 

[JChipowsky]

I'm a little late to the convention, but I'll add a bit. I work in a chain pet store, so I understand upper management not having the best interest of the animals at heart. I am in our local Tractor Supply every week and most of the employees try their best. I've seen so many chicks at this point that I was helping identify some that were miss labeled. It's rare for them to get certain breeds and I was helping id cinnamon queens(labeled as rir) and how to tell apart the cream legbars.
I know the hatchery just threw mixed chicks in the boxes. My boyfriend's parents have gotten about 1 roo for every 10 pullets, so I consider that pretty good. When they got straight runs from the other supply store 8 were roos and 2 were pullets
I breed rodents and sometimes accidents happen, I think we have about an 80% success rate when we sort young rodents, some males just are not as prominent as others.
You definitely deserve a refund, that's too bad (both gender and breeds) to be a simple accident. They are pretty though.

 

[Notgoodatchickens]

Um, if your daughter is one or two years old, be very, very cautious on her interactions with the chickens. Cockerels (which is what you have until they are over 1 year old) can change personalities on the drop of a hat due to hormones. The nice rooster today can be the nightmare attack rooster tomorrow. There are warning signs, but you have to educate yourself in order to recognize them. I'd look at threads and Articles by @Shadrach and @RoostersAreAwesome on rooster behavior and warning signs of aggression. Since you don't have hens, that may help some, but roosters/cockerels can take out eyes, attack faces, and other body parts, especially on small children. I have a 4 year old, and she's still not old enough to be around roosters. Of course, we also have hens, which changes the dynamic somewhat.

I really like the previous poster's suggestion of obtaining some bantam hens. An all hen flock is safer IMO for young children and new keepers, with less likelihood of the drastic life lessons that I don't want to teach my 1 year old yet. Even at 4, the idea of eating animals for food can be a hard one, and my older child is still upset about the rooster that attacked him once (kid is fine, rooster was processed the same day - we miss him being nice, but don't miss his aggression).

I completely agree! This is definitely not an ideal situation.

 

[NatJ]

I’m actually allergic to eggs but got chickens to teach my daughter about taking care of animals and where food comes from. The boys love her and associate her with treats and follow her like baby ducks but she’s not even two so I don’t really want to kill the roosters to teach her about where food comes from so now we basically have a bunch of loud useless pets lol

Even at 4, the idea of eating animals for food can be a hard one

If you want to teach a child about eating animals for food, starting young is sometimes better than starting when they are older. A child who is very young is more likely to accept that this is just the way things are. The older the child, the more expectations they have, and the more likely that they will get upset if you do something unexpected (like killing the "pet" chickens.)

Of course it can work well if you tell them first, then get meat chicks with the explanation that "when they get big we will eat them," then follow through with eating the chickens.

But if you have oops males, you can explain "we expected hens that will lay eggs for us to eat. But someone made a mistake and sent us roosters, who will never lay eggs. So we are going to eat the roosters, and then we will get some new chicks who will be grow up to be hens and lay eggs."

Or you can skip the reasons, and just start with, "You know how we buy chicken meat at the store to eat? Maybe we should eat some of our chickens" (then watch whether the child is interested, or upset, or doesn't care.)

Sometimes it is surprising how much a small child (yes, even age 1 or 2) can understand.

Not all children are the same-- some will not care, some will be very interested in the project and excited to eat the chicken they raised, and some will be upset. Sometimes the child's reaction will match how the parent feels (upset vs. matter-of-fact), but sometimes it will not.

If any parent wants to butcher some chickens, but is worried about how the child will react, I would strongly suggest talking about the matter with that specific child to see, rather than trying to guess based on the experience of other people's children. If the parent does not want to butcher the chickens, of course it would be better to find some other solution (bachelor flock, rehoming, give them to someone else to butcher, etc.)

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

I’m actually allergic to eggs but got chickens to teach my daughter about taking care of animals and where food comes from. The boys love her and associate her with treats and follow her like baby ducks but she’s not even two so I don’t really want to kill the roosters to teach her about where food comes from so now we basically have a bunch of loud useless pets lol

Hens are also loud useless pets if you don’t eat their eggs. Mine sure are.

Honestly I’d rather have loud useless roosters over loud useless dogs.

 

[DLA]

If you want to teach a child about eating animals for food, starting young is sometimes better than starting when they are older. A child who is very young is more likely to accept that this is just the way things are. The older the child, the more expectations they have, and the more likely that they will get upset if you do something unexpected (like killing the "pet" chickens.)

Of course it can work well if you tell them first, then get meat chicks with the explanation that "when they get big we will eat them," then follow through with eating the chickens.

But if you have oops males, you can explain "we expected hens that will lay eggs for us to eat. But someone made a mistake and sent us roosters, who will never lay eggs. So we are going to eat the roosters, and then we will get some new chicks who will be grow up to be hens and lay eggs."

Or you can skip the reasons, and just start with, "You know how we buy chicken meat at the store to eat? Maybe we should eat some of our chickens" (then watch whether the child is interested, or upset, or doesn't care.)

Sometimes it is surprising how much a small child (yes, even age 1 or 2) can understand.

Not all children are the same-- some will not care, some will be very interested in the project and excited to eat the chicken they raised, and some will be upset. Sometimes the child's reaction will match how the parent feels (upset vs. matter-of-fact), but sometimes it will not.

If any parent wants to butcher some chickens, but is worried about how the child will react, I would strongly suggest talking about the matter with that specific child to see, rather than trying to guess based on the experience of other people's children. If the parent does not want to butcher the chickens, of course it would be better to find some other solution (bachelor flock, rehoming, give them to someone else to butcher, etc.)

I completely agree @NatJ . I grew up near and spent most of my time on my grandpa's farm and he had beef cattle and lots of chickens for eggs he sold. It was explained to me they weren't pets at a very young age and I just accepted it as that was just the way of things. I will add to all the good advice you gave and say that I think it's important to clarify for children the difference between pets and food and that they understand not to make pets out of the food animals. Once they've treated them as pets it might be harder to undo that and explain why you're going to eat them.

 

[NatJ]

I think it's important to clarify for children the difference between pets and food and that they understand not to make pets out of the food animals. Once they've treated them as pets it might be harder to undo that and explain why you're going to eat them.

I think that depends on the child. Some children just don't become fond of the chickens anyway, so they never are a "pet" to that child. Some children are fond of the chickens, but the idea of eating something they raised is exciting enough that they want to do that. And yes, some children do have a much harder time if the chickens were pets and will now be eaten-- they can switch, especially if you talk about it over weeks or longer before butchering day, but it is definitely harder. Getting excited about new pullets can sometimes help a person become less attached to the older cockerels (this seems to work with both children and adults. It's about the same as getting a new toy or a new video game, and over time finding that you care less about the old one.)

 

[FunClucks]

We have a flock of pet eggers. They have names and personalities, and we tell each other funny things they did and stuff. I promised that each person in the family can pick a "favorite" chicken that will stay with us till it lives out its natural life. The rest of them may be rehomed as mom chooses to maintain peace in the flock and productivity.

We have a second flock of eggers that have numbers instead of names. Once we pick which to keep and which to sell, they'll get names, and/or be sold.

Our meat bird flock doesn't have names, but may get numbers if I have to treat them for something so I can tell them apart. I've explained to the kids those are "dinner chickens". They are for eating. We give them a good life, but don't get attached, because they're not pets, they're food that will go to freezer camp soon. It helps if all the meat birds look the same and it's hard to tell individuals.

We've done a batch of CX and a number of problem roosters. Occasionally one child will be a bit squeamish and say she doesn't like chicken today, but then will forget because the chicken is tasty. I do occasionally buy store bought chicken, so in theory I could have cooked either, which helps when they're deciding to eat it.

When they're old enough to understand, educating them about how chickens are raised and cared for commercially, and how we're raising and caring for ours, and how much happier ours must be to be outside with bugs and insects, and dirt to scratch in, and not too many flockmates can help kids be more okay with eating home grown chickens, as they know they had a great life, especially compared to the ones we'd otherwise buy in the grocery store.

 

[RoyalChick]

We have a flock of pet eggers. They have names and personalities, and we tell each other funny things they did and stuff. I promised that each person in the family can pick a "favorite" chicken that will stay with us till it lives out its natural life. The rest of them may be rehomed as mom chooses to maintain peace in the flock and productivity.

We have a second flock of eggers that have numbers instead of names. Once we pick which to keep and which to sell, they'll get names, and/or be sold.

Our meat bird flock doesn't have names, but may get numbers if I have to treat them for something so I can tell them apart. I've explained to the kids those are "dinner chickens". They are for eating. We give them a good life, but don't get attached, because they're not pets, they're food that will go to freezer camp soon. It helps if all the meat birds look the same and it's hard to tell individuals.

We've done a batch of CX and a number of problem roosters. Occasionally one child will be a bit squeamish and say she doesn't like chicken today, but then will forget because the chicken is tasty. I do occasionally buy store bought chicken, so in theory I could have cooked either, which helps when they're deciding to eat it.

When they're old enough to understand, educating them about how chickens are raised and cared for commercially, and how we're raising and caring for ours, and how much happier ours must be to be outside with bugs and insects, and dirt to scratch in, and not too many flockmates can help kids be more okay with eating home grown chickens, as they know they had a great life, especially compared to the ones we'd otherwise buy in the grocery store.

Love this approach.