I live in a city suburb where it's lawful to raise chickens but no roos. I'd like to eventually have brooding hens that raise their own chicks in the coop. How do I go about having my hens serviced? Or do I buy fertile eggs and stick them under a broody hen?
New business idea for someone............. Let me introduce you to Foghorn (white leghorn roo), Hugoroo (New Hampshire Roo), Ned (Penedesenca Roo) and Frenchie (French Black Copper Maran Roo)
Besides the availability of hatching eggs, which are of course awesome because you can hatch whatever you want, buy whatever you want. . . The main reason people don't have roosters for stud service is because of biological security. You can pass diseases, illness, mites, etc. Plus it may be too much of a trip for the rooster, too much stress for the hen(s) and so on.
Quote:Ha! Zana's Chicken House (remember the Bert Renolds and Dolly Pardon movie?) Illia, that certainly makes sense. Thanks everyone, for the input.
Also, if someone can't have a rooster then hatching eggs will undoubtedly end up producing roosters, which they then have to get rid of.
Well I'm the only one that had hens that being serviced...... When one of my hens went broody, I would get her some baby chicks from a breeder and let her raise them. In July. By the time fall gets here, the boy chicks will try crowing but I usually cull all but one before they get to that crowing competition. My neighbors didn't know they crowed all winter long until spring when folks start opening their windows like around March or early April, then I will "Freecycle" or sell the roo and sometimes to grab their attention, I would sell a pair. CHEAP! If I can not find any buyers, then he will be sent to the zoo for gator bait or the petting zoo. Twice I had bought roos fully grown and "ready to go", in late October, shipped in from breeders and sell or give away by spring. This set up worked well for me. The city ordiance did not say roosters prohibited but there is a noise ordiances for pets. I've done this three seasons and no problems. The coop is 75 feet from the neighbors west of me, 65 ft south of me, and 60 ft east of me so it has not created any problems. If your ordiance says no roosters then you will have to get some fertile eggs. However you can send your hens to the roo's farm to be serviced however quarantine would be required when your birds come home. If they were laying at the farm, collect the eggs and incubate them yourself and once you have enough, you can bring your girls home. It would be a good idea to write up a contract with the roo's owner in case your girls got killed by predators on the farm. I've sent my BEST Orps to a friends farm and it was verbally agreed that I would get some eggs but understand there WAS a risk that my Orps could get killed. Well they did and down to a pair. At this point, I had no desire to get eggs out of the pair and I do not hold her responsible for the deaths that she didn't intentially caused. With the roos I've owned, bought or hatched out, Freecycle, craiglist or zoo.