Hello! I'm new to chickens.

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peakaboobella

peakaboobella

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5 Years
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Jan 19, 2015
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Missouri
Hi all! I'm from Missouri. We bought a batch of free range chickens from a feed store about a year ago. 7 of the 8 were roosters. We didn't figure it out until 4 months later. After we have them away, I had 2 Americanas only. A hen and a Roo. About 4 months ago, a buddy of ours bought us 6 chickens from the sale barn. Just found out that all 6 were Roos.
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We are in the process of giving them away.. We have the hardest time getting some hens!!
I adore the idea of getting fresh eggs for our family and friends. And I love all my feather heads we have had! ( hubby thinks they are "just birds" and doesn't care less)
So I'm the crazy chicken wife.
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I hope I learn a bunch here!!
 
Beware of friends bearing chickens - they usually turn into roosters. Sorry you have to experience this again. Probably the best way to get hens is to buy them, or at least pullets at point of lay. If you attempt to hatch fertile eggs, you run into the same risk of getting mostly cockerels. Many hatcheries think so little of male chicks, they put them free in orders just to serve as chick warmers.
 
peakaboobella said:
Hi all! I'm from Missouri. We bought a batch of free range chickens from a feed store about a year ago. 7 of the 8 were roosters. We didn't figure it out until 4 months later. After we have them away, I had 2 Americanas only. A hen and a Roo. About 4 months ago, a buddy of ours bought us 6 chickens from the sale barn. Just found out that all 6 were Roos.
1f612.png

We are in the process of giving them away.. We have the hardest time getting some hens!!
I adore the idea of getting fresh eggs for our family and friends. And I love all my feather heads we have had! ( hubby thinks they are "just birds" and doesn't care less)
So I'm the crazy chicken wife.
1f60d.png

I hope I learn a bunch here!!
Click to expand...

Welcome to BYC.
Were the chicks from the feed store bought/sold as "straight run" or as sexed pullets? If you are wanting to have the best chances of getting females you want to buy sexed pullets (still a 5-10% chance of a surprise cockerel) or, better still, purchased sex-linked hybrids or auto-sexing pure-bred birds -- sex links being crosses that have characteristics (color difference or fast/slow feathering) that indicate male/female on sight and auto-sexing birds being pure breeds that hatch with the genders being easily differentiated on sight.
If you are buying older birds - 12 weeks or older - it is a good idea to have familiarized yourself with the differences between male and female birds that can be seen visually such as the differences in feathering, etc.
 
Welcome to the flock!

When we were new to chickens, we found a reputable chicken raiser near us through the organic / buy local initiative here. They were downsizing their flock a bit to make room for more goats. They picked out four hens they knew were easygoing and good layers. We started with four of their birds and now have eight hens from the same farm.

Yes, they were older when we got them - 2+ years old. The great thing for us has been the ease of getting into the swing of being chicken parents with a small flock of hens who already have all the kinks worked out.

We have 3 Easter Eggers, 2 Silver Laced Wyandottes, 1 Speckled Sussex, 1 Buff Orpington, and 1 Australorp. Life is good!
 
We got the first ones from the "Easter chick container" they were dyed pretty colors. We got 6 colored free run. We were told most would be EE. I wanted the colored eggs so I bought 2 out of the "sexed" Easter Eggers container. Just to be sure we would have 2 EE hens for sure!!
Well, all the colored chicks were makes, and one of the sexed EEs ended up being a male also.. My luck..
The ones from our buddy he picked up from a sale barn as free run. But they were about 4 months old. I'm sure the previous owners sold them. Because they knew they were Roos.
Lesson learned... I have watched so many videos about how to sex chickens... I might be a pro now... ( just exaggerating , but I might be able to sex one! )
I think k we are going to buy laying hens. Ones with egg production already!!!
 
peakaboobella said:
We got the first ones from the "Easter chick container" they were dyed pretty colors. We got 6 colored free run. We were told most would be EE. I wanted the colored eggs so I bought 2 out of the "sexed" Easter Eggers container. Just to be sure we would have 2 EE hens for sure!!
Well, all the colored chicks were makes, and one of the sexed EEs ended up being a male also.. My luck..
The ones from our buddy he picked up from a sale barn as free run. But they were about 4 months old. I'm sure the previous owners sold them. Because they knew they were Roos.
Lesson learned... I have watched so many videos about how to sex chickens... I might be a pro now... ( just exaggerating , but I might be able to sex one! )
I think k we are going to buy laying hens. Ones with egg production already!!!
Click to expand...

FWIW - the birds that are dyed like that are generally chicks that have hatched a solid white or yellow as they take the dye best -- most EE chicks are not going to fall into those categories so you were sadly mis-lead there. Additionally, the dyed birds are a good place for dumping cockerels and/or meat birds (cockerels, especially, as they have little to no value for the most part as they are not in demand).
The videos you have been watching - what characteristics are they teaching you to sex by? Asking as vent sexing (the process used on day old chicks at the hatchery) is quite a different story than, say, assessing various characteristics of a chick that is 6+ weeks of age.
 
The sexing videos were vent sexing but I don't think I quite get that. It seems you really need to know what you are looking for.
I like the ones that explain the tail feathers.
There also was some on 2-3 day old chicks on the feather length on the wings.
 
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