Is a sanctuary of battered hens inevitable?

I find that making sure you have a variety of all your colors in each hatch group so they are used to all of the colors from hatch. I’ve noticed that the tuxes and silvers tend to pick on the scarlets and Italians, they don’t like gingers I guess, but if I have reds in their hatch group, they usually end up ok. I was culling and eating my males, and selling them as snake food, but I’ve found my snake food customers are terrible about being on time and not showing at all, now I take them 90 minutes away to an auction every few weeks. I make less this way, but it’s nice to dump 100 birds/chicks of various ages and genders, all at once, and getting 80-90+ bux.
I sold a full hatch once. It was a quick & easy transition. Not sure why I don't do it more often. There's definitely a shortage of quail available to the average buyer here. You have to know who breeds them to get them.

I'm sure after I recuperate from this last set I'll start up the incubator again. The going rate here for chicks can range from $5 to $20 each, so I guess I'm just not ambitious enough.
 
I find that making sure you have a variety of all your colors in each hatch group so they are used to all of the colors from hatch. I’ve noticed that the tuxes and silvers tend to pick on the scarlets and Italians, they don’t like gingers I guess, but if I have reds in their hatch group, they usually end up ok. I was culling and eating my males, and selling them as snake food, but I’ve found my snake food customers are terrible about being on time and not showing at all, now I take them 90 minutes away to an auction every few weeks. I make less this way, but it’s nice to dump 100 birds/chicks of various ages and genders, all at once, and getting 80-90+ bux.
Yeah my most recent issue is with two silver celadon Roos that turned on my celadon Tibetan roo. They are hatch mates and have always been fine together and then bam, he’s missing half his head feathers. I figured they’d be okay :-( and that “emotional attachment” thing now puts me in a situation because I want to keep at least one if not both of the silver celadon Roos but I like the Tibetan roo best 😩😩 he’s a very sweet boy and the silvers are a bit lame and unfriendly. They’re beautiful and carry the Celadon gene though. Sighhh. Tough choices to be made soon!
 
I sold a full hatch once. It was a quick & easy transition. Not sure why I don't do it more often. There's definitely a shortage of quail available to the average buyer here. You have to know who breeds them to get them.

I'm sure after I recuperate from this last set I'll start up the incubator again. The going rate here for chicks can range from $5 to $20 each, so I guess I'm just not ambitious enough.
How do you go about selling a full hatch? Do you find someone who wants a certain number of birds before you start incubating, or do you set eggs and then find a buyer? I’m only asking because I love hatching, but I have a feeling my new set of cages is going to fill up quickly :oops:😅
 
I set more eggs than chicks I planned to keep, so I put out a preorder waitlist on Craigslist The buyer wanted all of them so I sold them and started a new hatch. Part of me said "wow that was easy" and the other part of me was grateful that he already raised poultry so he knew what he was getting into.
 
How do you go about selling a full hatch? Do you find someone who wants a certain number of birds before you start incubating, or do you set eggs and then find a buyer? I’m only asking because I love hatching, but I have a feeling my new set of cages is going to fill up quickly :oops:😅
Normally I will make a post on craigslist, just after the chicks hatch and I know how many I have. The ad for a set of chicks usually brings more replies than available chicks, so I kept a list of people wanting chicks, but it was a lot to keep up with, people are always trying to bargain with you etc. Once I discovered the auction, I decided that making less was worth it to save the hassle.
 
Good news on crazy hen. A few moments of seeing her nemesis and she decided to chill out a bit with her current roommates. The roo in her pen already knows she's crazy and has no interest in pursuing her and the other hens ignore her and go around. They're like psychoanalyst housemates.

Every once in a while she'll peck one in the head and the victim will look at her like "what you do that for?!" and walk away. Hoping that in a matter of time she'll learn to trust and get along.

If not, I'm now emotionally ready to say goodbye if I need to, thanks to encouragement on this forum.
 
I set more eggs than chicks I planned to keep, so I put out a preorder waitlist on Craigslist The buyer wanted all of them so I sold them and started a new hatch. Part of me said "wow that was easy" and the other part of me was grateful that he already raised poultry so he knew what he was getting into.

Normally I will make a post on craigslist, just after the chicks hatch and I know how many I have. The ad for a set of chicks usually brings more replies than available chicks, so I kept a list of people wanting chicks, but it was a lot to keep up with, people are always trying to bargain with you etc. Once I discovered the auction, I decided that making less was worth it to save the hassle.
Thanks for the info, I had always wondered what would be the best way to sell the extras. I think I may go the Craigslist route for now. I’ll have to see what auctions are in my area, the closest one that I know of is across state lines. I sold 10 or so from my last batch to someone on Craigslist, but I still had a few too many when winter came. I think I ended up with 6-7 different pens because even with plenty of room nobody wanted to get along 😅. My roo at the time, Spencer, decided one day he didn’t like tuxedos, and he actually killed my only 2 tux hens overnight:hit I have 7 different colors in the incubator now, so I’m hoping to avoid color issues with this batch:fl.
 
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Good news on crazy hen. A few moments of seeing her nemesis and she decided to chill out a bit with her current roommates. The roo in her pen already knows she's crazy and has no interest in pursuing her and the other hens ignore her and go around. They're like psychoanalyst housemates.

Every once in a while she'll peck one in the head and the victim will look at her like "what you do that for?!" and walk away. Hoping that in a matter of time she'll learn to trust and get along.

If not, I'm now emotionally ready to say goodbye if I need to, thanks to encouragement on this forum.
I’m glad she’s playing nice for a while at least! Hopefully she decides to chill out and accept her new housemates. You never know, I have one hen, Bee, that would go after every other bird I owned until she found her gang, and now she’s completely fine :idunno
 

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