HELP!!!! I have 52 chicks coming in a few weeks and I'm not sure what to do!!

[iwiw60]

ok so here is an update, since making my original post I have since spoken to the hatchery they were willing to reduce my order and only send me the Americuana (sp) chicks that were ordered and give me a store credit for the difference. So, crisis averted!!! I also have found a piano crate (for free) it measures about 7'x8'x2' high. It is made of wood so it will be a little more permanent. I will be going to get some of those pumpkin boxes just in case because that set up looks very nice. Thank you all for the input it have been very helpful.

-M-

At only 2 feet tall on that piano box (great find, by the way!)...be SURE to put chicken wire over the top or you'll have fuzzy-butts all over the place!!!

 

[keesmom]

Here is the thread you need to read if you want to create your own sex links.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/261208/sex-linked-information

 

[donrae]

I know you didn't ask this, but I'd cancel that order and go with someone with a more reasonable minimum. Someone like Murray Mcmurray has a minimum of 15 total. Straight run means they're boxed as they hatch, so an average over a thousand or so birds would be 50/50. If you were getting straight run from me this year, with my hatching mojo, you'd be getting 20+ cockerels

. Those bad boys are not really going to be worth butchering until they're 5ish months old, and unless you're free ranging, they're not cost effective. You've also got to house a bunch of young cockerels that are getting hormonal before the pullets are, and they can make the girl's lives pretty miserable. Just sayin'.

Also, as mentioned, sex links are a one time cross. If you keep a black sex link cockerel and a black sex link pullet, you'll just wind up getting a bunch of birds that are black and black barred, with no regards to gender. You might be thinking of an auto sexing breed like a Rhodebar, but even then they're not always as cut and dried as they should be, due to poor breeding practices.

If you want to breed your own sex links, order some barred Rock hens and a non-barred, non-white rooster. Buff Orpingtons make nice crosses. You're first generation will be sexable at hatch, but after that, again, you lose the magic.

 

[cannoli04]

Two things for when you order in the future. Straight run doesn't automatically mean 50% males and 50% females. Secondly, the sex linked trait only works for one generation. Breeding a sex link to another sex link does NOT give you more sex links. You would have to start with the initial cross.

Thank u very much for that information. I had no idea I assumed that's why they sold them so newbies could sex them without "sexing" them. It doesn't seem like it would b worth it then if the sex link doesn't continue