I love BANTAMS.... I hate STRAIGHT RUNS.... What do I do??

[arwmommy]

OK, we are in a small development and, to be honest, I am totally surprised we can even HAVE chickens! But I have fallen in love with bantams, and we ordered them sexed from, supposedly, the only place that sexes bantams in the *country*, mypetchicken.com.

I have been informed that they will no longer be carrying our favorite type of bantam, that I wanted to order more of, and am STRESSED. So what do all of you Bantam lovers do with the males if you order straight runs from other hatcheries???? They are not really big enough to eat (and I could personally never eat an animal I had raised- no offense to any of you out there). Do you just cull them??? How the heck do you find homes for 12-15 bantam cockerels (out of an order of 25, assuming approx 50% males)??? Do you euthanize the males?? What do you all do?

????????????????????????????

Help!

 

[rosyposyosy]

i got 3 bantams at the feed store. 1 was deffinetly a roo, one was on the edge and very questionable, and the last was deffenetly a pullet. we returned the roo at the feedstore and got an ameraucana pullet (they werent there before) we then found at 2 months my banty roo penelope was crowing. we got rid of him around 3ish months on craigslist. i have found that you can tell at a young age with bantam cochins, and craigslist or other feedstores are great. i have a friend who had 6 roosters and then moved into the city, and just gave her roosters to the feedstore to sell. also, it makes it so you can have/explore different breeds anc varietys of chickens (replacements!)

 

[silkiechicken]

I personally eat any left over bantams. They are smaller but still taste good. Maybe you could sell them to someone as pets or at a last resort, food? You could always try giving them away too.

 

[AtRendeAcres]

I give away!!
Sign in front yard: Free Chicks!
Sign at feed store bulliton board,
FreeCycle for my area

Last roos I gave away on FreeCycle, to a woman who lives by me!! Yesterday from her 30 Barred Rocks (she had just picked up from post office) she gave me 6

 

[mdbucks]

I want her as a neighbor I have 6 roos that i would gladly trade for Rock chicks

 

[Dawn419]

We ordered our Banties from MMH. They were straight run and were expecting it to be 50% male/female ratio. Suprisingly enough, we only have 8 cockerals out of the 21...we were pretty tickled with that.

 

[playswithfowl]

You can order from mypetchicken.com they sex bantams, but it costs a little more, but better then having to get rid of chicks that you raised.

 

[arwmommy]

Thanks for the mypetchicken suggestion. I have ordered from them before and have been very happy, however, as I stated in the original post, they will no longer be carrying the breed I want.

What this means is I am left to order from other hatcheries who DO NOT sex bantams (unless there is someone out there who does, like mypetchicken????).

 

[Spring]

I'd also like to know if there is another company that will sex them. Also, I got in on the LAST order where I could PICK the ones I wanted (bantams) and I ordered
1Black Frizzle
2 red silkies
1 Ameraucana Bantam
Blue Silkie Bantam

And I'm thinking I didn't get what I ordered. I think the ONLY silkie I got is a white one. Then from what I can tell 3 cochins, a black one, but I can't see that she is a frizzle yet, and the one I thought was Ameraucana might be a sea bright? Anyway... I'm bummed.... what should I do? Shouldn't they have given me what I ordered?

Spring

 

[Frizzledhen]

Your blue silkie can be black, blue or splash (white). And not all frizzles frizzle. You may have gotten what you ordered but not what you were expecting.

Gayle
Chi lady in Michigan