So I seem to have bad luck with my chickens. I started last year with 10 straight run chicks. I was prepared for a 50/50 roo/pullet split. I got 7 roos. Then (we were still working out coop security issues) a predator got in and got one of them. At 7 to 3 odds were good it'd take one of my extra roos. Nope!
I was able to get rid of a couple of the roos but they still had my pullets outnumbered so I bought a few more hens to balance things out. I got hens that were already laying just to be on the safe side, but then I saw some silky pullets on CL who seemed like they should be old enough to be relatively sure. I met their showgirl brother who was crowing already. I had them for a couple months actually before they started getting into fights and one of them started crowing. Then several more weeks later, the other two followed suit. I am so ticked at them.
Anyway, the long and short of it is that I have about 4 too many roosters give or take some chicks who will not surprise me at all when they start to crow, and so far I've not had luck finding homes for them. I want to hold out for a while with the silkies because they are handsome fellows and not from hatchery stock and when they aren't all crowing in unison they're relatively quiet. But something's gotta give here. The thing is, they are all bantams, and despite their diet of feed and kitchen scraps and whatever they get from the yard they are all pretty scrawny. I kind of think that once I remove feathers, guts and bones there's not going to be any meat to speak of left.
Any suggestions or encouragement in either direction is appreciated. Roos are legal in my neighborhood and my guys aren't the only ones around, but there's only so much crowing the neighbors can be expected to put up with.
I was able to get rid of a couple of the roos but they still had my pullets outnumbered so I bought a few more hens to balance things out. I got hens that were already laying just to be on the safe side, but then I saw some silky pullets on CL who seemed like they should be old enough to be relatively sure. I met their showgirl brother who was crowing already. I had them for a couple months actually before they started getting into fights and one of them started crowing. Then several more weeks later, the other two followed suit. I am so ticked at them.
Anyway, the long and short of it is that I have about 4 too many roosters give or take some chicks who will not surprise me at all when they start to crow, and so far I've not had luck finding homes for them. I want to hold out for a while with the silkies because they are handsome fellows and not from hatchery stock and when they aren't all crowing in unison they're relatively quiet. But something's gotta give here. The thing is, they are all bantams, and despite their diet of feed and kitchen scraps and whatever they get from the yard they are all pretty scrawny. I kind of think that once I remove feathers, guts and bones there's not going to be any meat to speak of left.
Any suggestions or encouragement in either direction is appreciated. Roos are legal in my neighborhood and my guys aren't the only ones around, but there's only so much crowing the neighbors can be expected to put up with.