I accidentally sold someone 7 male chicks

[fat brown hen]

I swear it was unintentional. I was selling barnyard mix chicks for cheep ($3 each). Someone bought 8, and I kept the other 4. Turns out the buyer got 7 males and 1 female, and the 4 I kept turned out to be female.

At the time, they were 2 weeks old and hopping around, so I grabbed the ones that were slowest to run away from my hand. When the buyer told me she only got one pullet, I immediately knew which one it was (the last one was particularly hard to catch).

I feel bad. Really bad. Not bad enough to take her 7 roosters back, but dang, I feel like an accidental scammer.

I recently sold another 10 chicks (kept 9) and I think I did the same thing again: Grabbed the males, left the females behind.

Is this common? I have never bought straight-run chicks from a private seller, and now I definitely don't want to.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Are you selling them as straight run? Does the buyer understand what the term means? If so, there's no issue.

 

[ShrekDawg]

Maybe next time try grabbing the fast ones no but in all seriousness, I think as long as they understand what straight run means, it’s fine.

 

[SueT]

I read this on another BYC thread, that when choosing chicks, the males will be more curious, outgoing, upright, look right at you, even come up to your hand, and the females will be the opposite.
So you might find the boys easier to catch.

 

[fat brown hen]

Are you selling them as straight run? Does the buyer understand what the term means? If so, there's no issue.

If I *know* that the grabbable ones are male, and I only sell the grabbable ones, would you want to buy straight run chicks from me?

I read this on another BYC thread, that when choosing chicks, the males will be more curious, outgoing, upright, look right at you, even come up to your hand, and the females will be the opposite.
So you might find the boys easier to catch.

Yes! After having hatched and raised several batches of chicks, I can pretty much identify the males by their attitude. I assume that most breeders can do the same.

 

[RojoMarz]

If I *know* that the grabbable ones are male, and I only sell the grabbable ones, would you want to buy straight run chicks from me?


Yes! After having hatched and raised several batches of chicks, I can pretty much identify the males by their attitude. I assume that most breeders can do the same.

I don't understand. If you know which are males (identified as grabbable and attitude) and you are giving those to buyers in a straight run sale, are you now feeling guilty for purposely stacking their "male" deck instead of randomly picking chicks? Or am I misunderstanding what you are meaning?

 

[fat brown hen]

I don't understand. If you know which are males (identified as grabbable and attitude) and you are giving those to buyers in a straight run sale, are you now feeling guilty for purposely stacking their "male" deck instead of randomly picking chicks? Or am I misunderstanding what you are meaning?

I feel guilty because the buyer is unhappy. It was not on purpose, but it wasn't exactly random either.

I wonder how other private sellers sell "straight run". Try to grab an even number of fast and slow ones? Or just grab the males first? I don't believe "straight run" can truly be random unless the chicks are machine-sorted at a hatchery.

 

[Sussex19]

If it were me, next time I would just make sure to grab both some of the grabbable ones, and the skittish ones.
As what has already happened, I would just not worry about, as it was not intentional, and at the time it sounds like you didn't know.

 

[rosemarythyme]

If I *know* that the grabbable ones are male, and I only sell the grabbable ones, would you want to buy straight run chicks from me?

Yes! After having hatched and raised several batches of chicks, I can pretty much identify the males by their attitude. I assume that most breeders can do the same.

I don't buy straight run but I also feel I can improve my odds by watching chick behavior, so if I were to buy straight run chicks I would specify which ones I wanted and which ones to put back.

I do this at pullet-only bins too, because figure there's roughly 1 in 10 in the bin that aren't female.

Now if the breeder refused to let me pick and choose, then no I wouldn't buy from them.

 

[RojoMarz]

I'd let the buyer pick and choose. If you meet them someplace, what about taking all chicks for them to choose from.