Help i'm really sad

[chixie]

wait until they are older... i kept two out of my packing peanuts and one is a pullet... now i wish that i waited before i gave my others away

 

[PortageGirl]

I'm sorry that this has been such a disappointment for you, but since your family has gone to the trouble of clearing out and fixing up the old coop and run, take good care of these till you find another home for them, and then get some all pullet chicks this spring so you can have some layers. If you don't want to process them, that's your choice and it's ok. See that they get cared for till someone who will can take them off your hands so they are happy and healthy till then, then use this as an opportunity to get what you want. It sounds like you and your dad both would like to do this and I think you should!

 

[Germaine_11.20]

Oh don't get rid of them right away. I bet you a dollar there are girls in there. And you can list some on CraigsList when you figure out for sure in oh 6 weeks or so.

Plus my roos are very friendly and they are so handsome. It would be nice to keep a few just for the beauty of them.

 

[AHappychick]

yes I would try not to be sad about it. once you can sex them put the ones you dont want up for free on craigs list and someone will take them I am sure, or you could accept the fact that your family probably does eat chicken and raise the boys up for good healthy family meals. You can find a local procesor if the thought of doing it yourself is to hard. I have all of my extra roos processed, and I also love my roos the most having 8 of them as breeders and pets.

 

[horsejody]

Quote:
Why on earth would you not take proper care of them just because they are probably roos? Honestly, if that is your attitude on animals, you probably shouldn't have any. I hope that you didn't mean it.

 

[oldjoeclark]

i didn't mean it i was just feeling bad last night. i take great care of them.. I'll take some pics and post them on here..

 

[TheMotherHen]

I can understand your disappointment but you should just wait it out. I'm sure you must have one little hen in there and roosters aren't all that bad. You may just get attached to one of the handsome little fellows. The others you can find homes for. Remember - these little friends are counting on you to take care of them - you made the commitment when you brought them home. Now quit fretting and enjoy watching them grow up.

 

[ChanceRider]

Quote:
I'm glad to hear that you DO plan on taking good care of them. I had someone give me 6 roosters last weekend and I'm really enjoying them! They're absolutely beautiful and fun to watch. Five of them are all in together, and the one lone Ameraucana is in a kennel of his own as the others picked on him. I'm planning on keeping at least one or two of them... the others will go to auction unless I'm able to find them suitable "for keeps" homes.

 

[Akane]

Not all roos are mean and not all chicks that attack your hand are roos. My 2 most agressive chicks that I had to beat off me every time I gave them food and water were hens. One we butchered because she was so mean. The other has become quite a pet. A very pushy pet and I have to knock her down when filling the water and shove her off my foot frequently so I don't fall over her but she's not actually agressive or trying to harm us. She's just always in the way and has no fear of people. I've yet to have a really agressive rooster. We had one start to get agressive and butchered before it did any injuries. Other than that I'm on probably my 50th roo to reach full maturity without being attacked by a single one. So I've had just as many overly agressive hens as I have overly agressive roos. Right now there's 4 roos in the bantam coop, another bantam one running around with the big flock, 9 standard roos (I plan on butchering 6 or 7 of those), and 3 more roos still in the brooder just finishing feathering out. The problem is even if they are friendly you don't want to keep lots of roos if you plan to only have a few hens unless you also plan to build a pen for just the roos. If you don't have enough hens for each roo then the hens will get mated too often and torn up. One of my EE hens is looking really rough from all the young standard roos going after her.

There's a chance some of the chicks could be pullets if they sexed one wrong since telling the gender of chicks is only about 95% accurate or if they had a lot of a certain breed left over they might have thrown them in straight run (not sexed). They pretty much always turn out to be roos though.

 

[canada-goose]

Quote:
I am sorry you are disappointed by the chance that your "rescued" chicks may all be males. But you have to take care of them properly. Please do change their bedding regularly and feed and water them, no matter what they turn out to be. That is the responsibility you committed to when you took them.

Should you decide not to process them, you may wish to consider selling them to someone else. Craig's List works well for that sort of thing, or find a sale barn.

I agree that you shouldn't neglect them because you're depressed. Seeing starving, filthy chickens won't make you feel better.