I learned my lesson about buying straight runs and locally! (Story)

[Kusanar]

Yes, of course I do. Just knowing the eggs may be fertilized and having to take them away would be upsetting for me. Best way to prevent all that is not having a rooster. Besides, I've heard the boys can be very nasty. If I wound up with a mean one and had to get rid of it, I would feel bad, especially because he probably would end up on someone's dinner plate. Too bad there isn't a chicken birth control pill!

Lol, ok, just making sure. There are a surprising number of people that think that a hen will get pregnant if she's around a rooster... those are the same people usually that think you HAVE to have a rooster to have eggs... Also, a hen doesn't really care if an egg is fertilized or not, it's no more upsetting to the hen to take a fertilized egg than it is an unfertilized one.
As for chicken birth control, you COULD caponize the roos and keep them.

 

[jeepgrrl]

Lol, ok, just making sure. There are a surprising number of people that think that a hen will get pregnant if she's around a rooster... those are the same people usually that think you HAVE to have a rooster to have eggs... Also, a hen doesn't really care if an egg is fertilized or not, it's no more upsetting to the hen to take a fertilized egg than it is an unfertilized one.
As for chicken birth control, you COULD caponize the roos and keep them.

Yes you are correct about ppl thinking you need a rooster to have hens lay eggs! Those folks must have slept through high school biology! I have thought about getting a rooster and having it caponized. I've read this is a tricky surgery...maybe I'll ask my vet about it. What would be ideal is to find one post-op. Do they still defend the hens as good as a roo with his roohood still intact?

 

[Kusanar]

Yes you are correct about ppl thinking you need a rooster to have hens lay eggs! Those folks must have slept through high school biology! I have thought about getting a rooster and having it caponized. I've read this is a tricky surgery...maybe I'll ask my vet about it. What would be ideal is to find one post-op. Do they still defend the hens as good as a roo with his roohood still intact?

Likely your vet wouldn't be able to legally do it. They aren't allowed to do surgery without putting the animal under and using anesthesia on a bird is as risky as the surgery it's self.
They pretty much act like hens after the surgery, but they keep the pretty rooster feathering. Some will even hatch eggs and brood chicks.

 

[b.hromada]

I'm sorry you ended up with so many roosters. That does happen with straight run, as you found out. I too, only buy the sexed chicks, as I'd be in a world of crap if I had a rooster! Don't get me wrong, I'd love one, but when you live in the suburbs, not so much. Enjoy your girls, and boys too. Happy chickening!

 

[Chickylove12]

You do realize that if you collect the eggs every day that you don't have "unplanned chicks" right? And a lot of the production breeds won't brood even if you don't collect the eggs every day.

That's what I thought too...lol..but not have any chickens myself yet...i thought huh??