How do you deal with excess chicks?

[Agathe]

I currently have 12 eggs in the incubator due to hatch in about a week. Candling has shown that all of them appear to develop as they should, though of course it is hard to know how many will end up hatching. The thing I'm struggling with is what to do with the excess chicks..? I am aiming for 4 hens as that is what I have room for. The brooder will at some point become too small for 12 of them and I don't want to use a different brooder because my plan is to move the brooder into the coop eventually and a bigger brooder wouldn't fit. I live on an island with not many inhabitants, so I can't do as previously suggested in another thread, to give them away/sell them. I'm the only chicken keeper here and I don't know of anyone with reptiles! So I'll end up with any chicks I hatch and have to deal with them myself. I'll keep no roosters as we have one already, and I'm mentally prepared for culling the roosters, but I might be looking at having to take out birds before they are old enough to sex simply out of lack of space. I really struggle mentally with the idea of killing healthy chicks simply because there is no room for them or hens because I have too many. So how do you deal with this when you can't dump them on someone else? If only it was possible to predict how many would hatch and how many would be hens! Also how do you cull them at a few days old and also at a few weeks old? I prefer using bare hands or knife/axe, not scissors and not gassing them.

My original plan was to remove some of the eggs from the machine if they all were fertilised, but there's still no guarantee and I don't want to risk end up with a single hen either.

 

[TheOddOneOut]

Find a way to Sell them or butcher them.

 

[Battlepants]

I would grow them out to about 16 weeks then process them for eating.

As for the actual dispatching process, I suggest picking the method that you are most confident with. If you are 100% sure you can get a clean kill with an axe, that's the best tool to use.

Edit: You mentioned that the brooder being too small is the issue. How big is your brooder and what is the current temperature in your area? You might be able to do a quick 3-week brood then out to the coop to grow out.

 

[Hip Hillbilly Acres]

I currently have 12 eggs in the incubator due to hatch in about a week. Candling has shown that all of them appear to develop as they should, though of course it is hard to know how many will end up hatching. The thing I'm struggling with is what to do with the excess chicks..? I am aiming for 4 hens as that is what I have room for. The brooder will at some point become too small for 12 of them and I don't want to use a different brooder because my plan is to move the brooder into the coop eventually and a bigger brooder wouldn't fit. I live on an island with not many inhabitants, so I can't do as previously suggested in another thread, to give them away/sell them. I'm the only chicken keeper here and I don't know of anyone with reptiles! So I'll end up with any chicks I hatch and have to deal with them myself. I'll keep no roosters as we have one already, and I'm mentally prepared for culling the roosters, but I might be looking at having to take out birds before they are old enough to sex simply out of lack of space. I really struggle mentally with the idea of killing healthy chicks simply because there is no room for them or hens because I have too many. So how do you deal with this when you can't dump them on someone else? If only it was possible to predict how many would hatch and how many would be hens! Also how do you cull them at a few days old and also at a few weeks old? I prefer using bare hands or knife/axe, not scissors and not gassing them.

My original plan was to remove some of the eggs from the machine if they all were fertilised, but there's still no guarantee and I don't want to risk end up with a single hen either.

Hmm, hatcheries sell and ship them; why can't you?