Introduction

[Firsttimewithchickens]

Hello thought I'd introduce myself a little.

(1) Are you new to chickens / when did you first get chickens? yes. Got our first 7 chickens at the end of March of this year 2025. Never had chickens before so very new.
(2) How many chickens do you have right now? we have 7 chickens right now. 4 roosters and 3 hens. My daughter got them from school as a class project where they placed eggs in an incubator. So we were just given chicks not knowing the sex.
(3) What breeds do you have? not a clue what kind we have. Lol seriously know nothing about chickens been learning as we go.
(4) What are your favorite aspects of raising backyard chickens? my daughter is learning responsibility and we as a family are learning about new animals we haven't dealt with before
(5) What are some of your other hobbies? arts and crafts mostly
(6) Tell us about your family, your other pets, your occupation, or anything else you'd like to share. we have cats and a dog and a fish.
(7) Bonus: How did you find BYC, how long have you known about BYC, and what made you finally join our awesome community? google is my best friend. I got to it for everything. That's how I found the group. One of our roosters got into the neighbors fishing stuff and got a hook threw the roof of his mouth. Googled what to do. And found a post about a rooster swallowing a hook so thought I'd give the group a shot. My friend did help us figure out what to do. And Google helped us too. Thanks for letting us into the group

 

[DobieLover]

Hello and welcome to BYC! Glad you joined.
You are going to need to re home at least 3 of your cockerels. You have a seriously bad male to female ratio.

 

[Firsttimewithchickens]

Hello and welcome to BYC! Glad you joined.
You are going to need to re home at least 3 of your cockerels. You have a seriously bad male to female ratio.

Thanks. We plan on doing a enclosed chicken run for the roosters. A bachelor pad I believe is what they call it. Right now they are free range.

 

[Debbie292d]

Hiya, and welcome to BYC!

We have a Learning Center here full of helpful articles about raising chicks and chickens. You should find some that will be helpful!

When they get a few weeks old, we have a What Breed or Gender forum you can post pictures in and folks will help you figure them out.

We're glad you're here!

 

[Firsttimewithchickens]

Hiya, and welcome to BYC!

We have a Learning Center here full of helpful articles about raising chicks and chickens. You should find some that will be helpful!

When they get a few weeks old, we have a What Breed or Gender forum you can post pictures in and folks will help you figure them out.

We're glad you're here!

Thank you so much. I will for sure add pictures and see if anyone can tell us what kind of chickens we have. Thank you.

 

[llcardinale]

I am also new to chicken keeping. I have nine week old chicks: six hens and, I think, two cockerels. I used Google/Gemini (IA) to inquire about the best ratio of hens to roos and it reported: eight to twelve hens per rooster; otherwise, you will stress out your hens due to over activity from cockerels, which can also make the hens vulnerable to disease resulting from stress. I will be surrendering (for culling and food) at least the one that I'm sure is a cockerel. Because it turns out that this breed was poorly bred, I cannot use the usual tells to identify their gender. The males should be black and white, but they look exactly the same as the female with tan and white, only much larger. It's the behavior that is the dead give away with the most dominate male. Maybe someone in your daughter's class would be interested in taking on a rooster. On the other hand, in some areas there are always people interested in a well fed rooster as a food source, which is, obviously, the fate of most chickens.

 

[janiedoe]

Welcome to BYC. I have a rooster flock and I always enjoy their antics. Good luck!

 

[Firsttimewithchickens]

I am also new to chicken keeping. I have nine week old chicks: six hens and, I think, two cockerels. I used Google/Gemini (IA) to inquire about the best ratio of hens to roos and it reported: eight to twelve hens per rooster; otherwise, you will stress out your hens due to over activity from cockerels, which can also make the hens vulnerable to disease resulting from stress. I will be surrendering (for culling and food) at least the one that I'm sure is a cockerel. Because it turns out that this breed was poorly bred, I cannot use the usual tells to identify their gender. The males should be black and white, but they look exactly the same as the female with tan and white, only much larger. It's the behavior that is the dead give away with the most dominate male. Maybe someone in your daughter's class would be interested in taking on a rooster. On the other hand, in some areas there are always people interested in a well fed rooster as a food source, which is, obviously, the fate of most chickens.

The class only hatched the 7 and no one else wanted them, so they all came home with us. Most people dont want roosters only the hens for eggs. But my daughter wont give them up. So a bachelor pad is what we are planning to keep them separated. I hope it works

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Hi and welcome. By your account, your cockerels must be about five months old. A bachelor flock can work if the females are not so near that their presence "upsets the apple cart," so to speak. Good luck!

 

[Firsttimewithchickens]

Hi and welcome. By your account, your cockerels must be about five months old. A bachelor flock can work if the females are not so near that their presence "upsets the apple cart," so to speak. Good luck!

Ok thank you. Didn't think about how far apart they need to be. Maybe need to see if i can get them to my mother in laws house. Yes they were hatched on May 5th.