Excited to Join the Community Part 2

[Madhouse Pullet]

Hey! welcome to BYC! thank you for your introduction, it's a pleasure to have you with us peeps

 

[KristinJ8307]

Hello again, Kristin.
Can you find someone to process the meat birds for you? Sadly they were not developed to live long and trying to avoid processing them and raising them within a layer flock typically leads to them suffering.

Thanks for your comment Dobie!

Ive read a little bit about it and what I read said by a couple months they will be fat and lazy and even laying down to feed. Ours are quite large, especially compared to the other, but they are very active. We certainly dont want them to suffer needlessly and also they are voracious eaters!! They devour nearly the entire feeder and Im always having to refill it to make sure the layers have access to food on demand.

I will look into where we can have them processed, Im sure there is somewhere local I can take them. At what age should that be done? Will I have to wait until next spring to get more layers? The 3 meat chickens are the 3 roosters, do we have to have a rooster? How does not having a rooster effect the pecking order dynamic? How, if at all, does that effect the laying other than not having fertilized eggs?

Hello again, Kristin.
Can you find someone to process the meat birds for you? Sadly they were not developed to live long and trying to avoid processing them and raising them within a layer flock typically leads to them suffering.

 

[drumstick diva]

Dobie Lover is absolutely right.

 

[DobieLover]

At what age should that be done? Will I have to wait until next spring to get more layers? The 3 meat chickens are the 3 roosters, do we have to have a rooster? How does not having a rooster effect the pecking order dynamic? How, if at all, does that effect the laying other than not having fertilized eggs?

8 to 10 weeks.
I would wait until next spring to add new layers to the flock.
No, you do not need roosters.
It doesn't matter if you have a rooster in the flock. You're still going to have a dynamic pecking order. It's not stationary. It's always in flux.
Not having a rooster does not affect the laying.

 

[BlueHorse17]

 

[rjohns39]

Hi Kristin and welcome to BYC We're so happy you've decided to join us

Your local ag extension can point you to someone who can process them for you.

 

[cmom]

Lots of good information here on BYC. Good luck and have fun...

 

[Grandmas Coop]