How Many Chicks to Buy / Question

[dominiker]

most of the time to males will fight

 

[barred-rocks-rock]

The only thing is, you need to keep you rooster to hen ratio about 1/8

 

[Diavolicchio]

Quote:
My primary goal is to sell eating eggs locally (farrmers markets, mostly). That being said though, I'm also interested in ultimately breeding my own birds to produce future generations of my own chickens, which is why I want to start with the best stock I can get and to cull out anything that doesn't meet the standard for the breed, including the occasional bad disposition.

I'm a little confused by your response though; am I to assume that any and all chicks coming from a hatchery are inferior to those coming from a breeder? That's a pretty huge (and potentially controversial) statement. One would assume there are terrific hatcheries who actually produce top quality chicks, as well as the occasional breeder who produces inferior stock, no?


John

Yes they are most often inferior to what you will get from a breeder. Hatcheries hatch for quantity and not quality. They very rarely come close to the standard for the breed. If you are planning on just hatching your own birds they'll probably be fine, but if you eventually want to sell hatching eggs for whatever breeds you chose, you would be better off to get your start with eggs, chicks or adult birds from breeders. I can only think of 2 hatcheries that seem to even come close to having birds that may be good of examples of the breeds....Superior Farms & Sandhill Preservation. This is a subject that has been discussed at length on here.

All great information, Katy. Thanks so much for clarifying things. I guess I'll start doing my research now to start identifying the best individual breeders.

John

P.S. How in the HECK did NOOBS like me learn this stuff before the advent of the Internet? Books can only go so far . . .

 

[Katy]

Quote:
Yes they are most often inferior to what you will get from a breeder. Hatcheries hatch for quantity and not quality. They very rarely come close to the standard for the breed. If you are planning on just hatching your own birds they'll probably be fine, but if you eventually want to sell hatching eggs for whatever breeds you chose, you would be better off to get your start with eggs, chicks or adult birds from breeders. I can only think of 2 hatcheries that seem to even come close to having birds that may be good of examples of the breeds....Superior Farms & Sandhill Preservation. This is a subject that has been discussed at length on here.

All great information, Katy. Thanks so much for clarifying things. I guess I'll start doing my research now to start identifying the best individual breeders.

John

P.S. How in the HECK did NOOBS like me learn this stuff before the advent of the Internet? Books can only go so far . . .

You are right also in that some people who call themselves breeders have birds no better than the hatcheries. That is why it's important to do your homework and ask a zillion questions of the breeders. There are a lot of people here on BYC who have good stock. A lot of them (me included) only sell hatching eggs, but there are some who also sell & ship chicks.

 

[bibliophile birds]

hey there John! glad you found your way over here to BYC.

you might get lucky and find breeders who sell day-olds but they will rarely, if ever, be sexed... especially for the kinds of breeds you are looking at. vent sexing is notoriously difficult and pretty much the only people who do it work for hatcheries. of course, you'll find people on this site that can do it, but they never seem to be the people that sell chicks. other ways of sexing day-olds are mostly found in breeds you aren't interested in, like sex-links and other production type birds.

like Katy said, Sandhill Preservation might be a good place to start for quality birds with hatchery convenience. i've not ordered from them, but i hear mostly[/] good things about them. i think i'm going to order some of their ducks (they have an excellent selection).

when i ordered, i went the straight run route. i knew i wanted to put another order in this spring since many of the breeds i wanted weren't available late in the year, but i wanted fall chicks that would be laying while i was brooding my spring batch. i ordered 22 chicks and i ended up with: brahmas (2 cockerels, 3 pullets), orps (2 cockerels, 3 pullets), EEs (1 cockerel, 4 pullets), wyandottes (2 cockerels, 3 pullets), and silkies (1 cockerel, 1 pullet). out of these i'm processing 1 brahma cockerel, 1 orp cockerel, 1 EE cockerel, 2 EE pullets (they are really small birds, not good breeding stock), and 2 wyandotte cockerels (because i don't like the variety so i won't be breeding them). so that's 15 keepers (3 cockerels, 12 pullets) and 7 chicken dinners.

for me, this was a really simple way of ordering that ensured a got some layers and some meaties, but i knew i would be ordering again soon. if you don't think you will order again, straight runs can be more problematic.

 

[smith2]

Quote:
Thanks for the feedback.

I'm curious how long you kept the second roo of each breed before deciding which of the two you wanted to keep. It's great to hear from someone who did what it is that I'm attempting to do, specifically begin with a number of breeds, partition them separately withing the coop, order a few more roos and pullets of each, and cull out the ones you ultimately decide you don't want. My thoughts are to err on the side of conservatism and to order 3 roos and a dozen pullets of each of the six breeds, and to eventually cull them back to one roo and 9 pullets of each, for a total of 60 birds. If I'm going to build a coop with the intentions of holding 60 mature chickens, 10 of each breed in 6 separate pens, how large would you suggest making each pen, and how large should I make the actual coop?

Thanks for the advice!


John

I kept the second roos of each group about 1 year so I could tell for sure what was going to be the best. I built my coop to be about 3 sq. ft. per bird and 5 sq ft. per roo per section, but I tend to build large because we do it ourselves and lumber is fairly reasonable around here. I went to the lumber mill and bought seconds, irregulars, etc. and built out of that. We have a huge chicken house but we are pleased with the outcome. I have never regretted building that big. Sometime wish I had even more room.

 

[Katy]

Quote:
Thanks for the feedback.

I'm curious how long you kept the second roo of each breed before deciding which of the two you wanted to keep. It's great to hear from someone who did what it is that I'm attempting to do, specifically begin with a number of breeds, partition them separately withing the coop, order a few more roos and pullets of each, and cull out the ones you ultimately decide you don't want. My thoughts are to err on the side of conservatism and to order 3 roos and a dozen pullets of each of the six breeds, and to eventually cull them back to one roo and 9 pullets of each, for a total of 60 birds. If I'm going to build a coop with the intentions of holding 60 mature chickens, 10 of each breed in 6 separate pens, how large would you suggest making each pen, and how large should I make the actual coop?

Thanks for the advice!


John

I kept the second roos of each group about 1 year so I could tell for sure what was going to be the best. I built my coop to be about 3 sq. ft. per bird and 5 sq ft. per roo per section, but I tend to build large because we do it ourselves and lumber is fairly reasonable around here. I went to the lumber mill and bought seconds, irregulars, etc. and built out of that. We have a huge chicken house but we are pleased with the outcome. I have never regretted building that big. Sometime wish I had even more room.

How long to keep the roos also can depend on what breeds you end up chosing. Some mature faster than others. I think it takes my wyandottes a year to really mature....the orps take awhile too.

 

[Happy Chooks]

You can look at all the posts in the hatching eggs section. It will give you a good idea of who has really nice birds by seeing the pictures they post of their birds and eggs.

Of course, I have no idea about if they meet the standards, true to breed, yadda yadda. (still too new for all that) But you can still tell a well bred bird.