I think I realize I really want to give away 2 of our chicks. We have 6 right now, and we are only legally allowed 3. I figure 4 would be a max. Anyway- how to sneak away 2 chickens without enduring total child freak-out. Maybe wait till they are no longer as cute? My older BR (4 weeks) is so feisty and hard to catch, I can't deal with the idea of having 3 of them. (We have 2 more BR babies right now.) Any suggestions? Support? Condolenses?
Just for info- we live on less than a tenth of an acre. And we haven't told our neighbors yet. I'm sure they will be OK- or at least not call the city, but I don't want to deal with chickens running amok all over. Arg. This is so hard! I should never have over-ordered!
You know I thought my neighbor would freak out, I even bought a rooster, but anyways I told them this week and they didn't seem to mind. I was sure to mention that I would be sending some fresh eggs their way.
Make it a lesson in sharing. 3-4 hens will provide more than you need and others need hens too. I wouldn't make it a big deal and you might be suprised that your child won't either.
First - do you know for sure that none are Roosters? They'd be the first to go (BRs are pretty easy to tell apart -what other breed(s) do you have?). How old is your child? If he/she is old enough then just explain that you can't keep all of them. You can only keep three (or four if that's what you're going to do) because that's what the rules say. Tell him/her you need to decide now because it will be much harder to make this decision in the future when you are even more in love with them. Let your child help make the decision. Good luck - this is a hard one. You can do it!!
Just tell her mommy made a mistake, so you are going to fix it, and you have to find a home for 2 or 3 of them.
I would keep them all. 6 is really not that many If the neighbors have an issue, i would deal with it then. If they are all hens, i doubt anyone would mind.
I'm starting to think that my issue is just that my older BR is kind've difficult to deal with. Giving away my other BR's won't change Lucy's less-than-docile nature. Maybe I should wait and see which ones I like least, then give those away. My impulse is to give away the smallest, but maybe those will turn out to be very sweet. Anyway- with 6 there's a decent chance that 1 will b a roo. Arg. I just feel overrun. But if it wasn't for Lucy, I don't know if I'd feel that way.
Quote:I think the time has come and gone to not make it a big deal. What I think might work best is to wait a while- till the chickens have lost their shine (as all pets do to little kids- sooner than we even imagine!) When the kids have not mentioned them in a few days I'll give away my least favorite ones. I just wish Lucy wasn't so hard to catch. I want them to spend days outside, but I don't have the time to go running around. Maybe I'm picking her up wrong?