How many birds for a project?

[LuvinMyPeeps]

I've been lurking for a while on this thread and wondering.....

If you are working on a certain project and are crossing one breed with another to get the babies, what do you do with the leftovers? I doubt you'd keep them all for breeding if they aren't meeting the trait you're looking for, right? I imagine you would have many many babies in each hatch so....

the killer question.... Are you always successful at selling the mutt culls? If not, how do you keep from getting overrun with chickens?

How many birds do you keep for the project for the next mating? As many as meet the traits you're looking for? 4? 100?

 

[Mahonri]

Folks do various things with culls, some I disagree with.

Some eat them, some sell them, some give them away. Unfortunately, some just destroy them young if they don't conform to their standard.

As for how many folks keep... it can be from 1 to 100 depending upon how the birds look and how much room and resources a person has.

 

[Krys109uk]

It probably depends upon the type of breeds used.
My culls are a useful sort of size (Orpingtons & Marans) so I sell them as farmyard crosses for $2 on Craigslist or give them away to people who just want chickens to have some fresh eggs.

I don't know what people would do with the smaller fancier breeds.

 

[KinderKorner]

I live close to a large large animal fair that is monthly. So I can hatch as many mutts as I want. No matter how many or what breed they are I can get $7 for pullets that are 2 months old. Or $10 for hens. $5 for each rooster no matter what age is an easy sell too.

I think it depends on the room you have to keep chickens, and also the market for selling them.

I have lots of room and a good place to get rid of them, so I could have a gazillion chickens. But perhaps someone in a city could only have a few, and getting rid of them would be hard.

You need to decide how many you can keep. And figure out how you will get rid of them. It is different for every person.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

There are lots of folks who have chickens for eggs or pets and dont care whether the are mutts or not.

 

[Rabidity]

I know maybe i'm in the minority cos my only chicken is a house pet LOL. I wish ppl understood how affectionate and what wonderful little pets they can be if handled from a young age. People look at me like i'm crazy when i try to explain, but when they see how he loves to be snuggled and see his entertaining antics they're usually won over ; )

So yeah, maybe would be good to push them as pets cos they really are great.

 

[Goose and Fig]

I know maybe i'm in the minority cos my only chicken is a house pet LOL. I wish ppl understood how affectionate and what wonderful little pets they can be if handled from a young age. People look at me like i'm crazy when i try to explain, but when they see how he loves to be snuggled and see his entertaining antics they're usually won over ; )

So yeah, maybe would be good to push them as pets cos they really are great.

Pets with benefits! Ha ha- I don't mean that in a "dirty" way. I am fond of ALL of my birds (& other creatures)- but the eggs are what I use to justify having so many. I'd like to start a "project" but the problem with hatching is you end up with way to many roos. Rehoming is turning out to be EXTREMELY difficult, and I can't bring myself to cull any.......

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Rehoming IS culling. Culling does not mean killing---it means removing from the breeding pen.

 

[Goose and Fig]

Rehoming IS culling. Culling does not mean killing---it means removing from the breeding pen.

See- I learn something new every day!

 

[flyingmonkeypoop]

It all depends. When I had extras from certain projects there were many things I did with them. Culls from the crele phoenix project for example. The males were sold on eggbid and the others were sold on craigslist or given to other breeders. That is just for the males. For females we can always find buyers on craigslist for females.
The others that we couldnt sell for one reason or another or that we didnt want people knowing those birds came from us go to a trader, he gives $2 for bantam males, $3 for large males, $3 for bantam pullets, and $4 for large females. He takes any bird with anything wrong with it like a crooked toe, 1 eyed, twisted feathers, anything.