Good luck finding a butcher to do it... just isn't worth their time. Don't know about anyone having a business selling meat, but you can always find one of us to take gratuities for meat. (If you "sell" food usually there are icky rules to go along with it... don't get me started on politics)
probably about 2 weeks. I cant believe I am praying for a couple roosters, LOL
Black and splash would be niceI said earlier a blue roo...but I got my genetics mixed up, dont know what I was thinking.
I'm at 50% hatch this morning and hope to make 75% or better. Some of the eggs were 8 days old when they hit the bator.
I hope of course for some blue, but as long as I get a splash and a black in there someplace, then I can get the blue to come out on the next generation.
If you decide to bite the bullet, Cybercat told me about Wisner Farms and they are terrific people. I still haven't actually eaten my cockerels they processed, but they couldn't have made the experience more positive. I actually even helped clean some turkeys they were processing. They make every one feel included, to their comfort level.
There are more than a few things to consider. Such as if they wind is blowing cold, it's damp...things like that. If they are not feathered out completely they will so their usual huddling to keep warm. The only downside of this, and I just experienced it twice..is if you have one that is a bit smaller it can get caught on the bottom and the others smother it without knowing. So..as a result I go ahead and put a little bit of heat in. But to be honest with the brooder of Barios you would not have to worry about that. I use a 40 watt bulb and it gives out enough heat buy not too much. I am one to typically get them off a heat lamp by the time they are 6-8 weeks. After my hatch-lings fluff out they go in the house brooder which stays around 80-85 degrees with a 100 watt bulb. So...seems I took the long way around stating that it depends a lot on your environment and conditions. Like Stang said you can usually tell if you are too cold or too hot by watching how they act. I truly do not think there is a right or wrong in how we raise our babies..we have to see what works best because we all have different factors..It is just the new "Chickie Mother" syndrome we all go thru when we first start+
!. OH...and you can usually tell the sex of D'Uccles around week 4-5. I think yours is almost 2 weeks old. Will double check my chicken bible to make sure.
@Stang..You tough love???? You are one of the gentlest people I know.I carried a chick around in my bra part of the day yesterday. Oh I have 2 chickens for you to look at and see if you can tel their sex. I change my mind on a daily basis of what they are.
Eat that bird!!!
My first home butchered bird was a Delaware and he was older where it took so long to get the nerve. Well, he was tough anyways and we made a mess of him... such a embarrassing story, but it took us 3 hours to clean it up. My mother was going on about how it wasn't even safe to eat, my father wanted to watch youtube videos for a hour before he went to taking the guts out, previously I had issues getting the head off...... so I ate him all alone. No one else had the guts, and I wasn't going to have him die for nothing. I didn't cry, though. LMAO!!!! 
Eat that bird!!!
So see, I tease you about your first bird, but my first butchering story is pretty pathetic too.
Trust me, it's hard to decide that final moment of their life. But I just sit quiet and thank them (honestly... and aloud) and I think about the horrors of how grocery store birds get there and how they lived before that. I think about how the rooster had it good here, and for the better of the whole he needs to go. Can't keep them all.
