Jumped in feet first....

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I don't have a roo myself, but I would if I didn't live in a city neighborhood, and I could free range my girls. We have predators even in the city. Plus, fertile eggs would be good to have around for broodies. As I've found out, breaking broodies is no fun for anyone. Fertile eggs don't taste any different from regular eggs and as long as you collect everyday, you shouldn't get any weird surprises in your eggs, as they need certain conditions to develop.
 
Welcome! You certainly have jumped in feet first, and FAST!
As far as sexing chicks this young -- you can look for behavioral differences, and make some guesses. A taller stance, a chesty look, more inquisitive, hopping on the other chicks. My roo did all of this quite early. (he also crowed at 4-5 weeks!)

You can also make physical observations that might help:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/sight-sexing-barred-plymouth-rock-chicks-at-hatch.798635/

(I didn't know how to upload a thread properly, so hopefully that worked.....)

Leghorn or RIR experts, anyone want to chime in?

Have a plan for excess roosters, and just keep your favorites! They can be wonderful. We had to re-home ours (city limits, and he was super aggressive to all non-poultry creatures), and it took months of flyers and craigslist ads, but it can be done.

I'm with you, unless it was Zombie Apocalypse, and we were starving, I don't think I "personally" could *harvest* any of my animals, but I see nothing wrong with those who do this, and I admire their skills. If I couldn't have found a home for my rooster where he could live, I was prepared that he would go to someone who would use him for food. I wanted to make sure, if that was the case, it would be done by someone with experience, and done humanely.

Make sure you collect eggs every day. It's not like you're going to let an egg sit for 21 days, at the optimal temperature, then collect it, and try to eat it? Right? That would just be weird! :-) Fertilized makes absolutely no difference in taste or sight (none of my egg customers knew, or cared).

Enjoy this chicken adventure. Those stitches in your thumb have earned you serious Chicken Street Cred!
 
Killer Tomato said:
Enjoy this chicken adventure. Those stitches in your thumb have earned you serious Chicken Street Cred!
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haha my husband seems to disagree... hes more like how the heck did you manage this? these chickens are costing me an arm, a leg, and now thumbs?!!!
 
Welcome! I had one rooster and 8 hens, and you would have thought I had 50 roosters from the looks of some of my hens! They all free ranged, too. Plus, he crowed allllllllllll day long, from a few hours before dawn till they went in to roost at night. Ugh. So I rehomed him. And my girls have been MUCH happier without him. A bird that doesn't lay eggs takes space up for one who would, so unless you fall in love with one of your roos, or want to incubate your own eggs, I suggest rehoming all of 'em. Your hens will do just fine without one! I have about 40 chicks coming in a couple of days, the insanity is overwhelming!!! To think we started out with 2 FFA class hatched birds two years ago....
 
WhiteRockCrazyBird said:
Welcome! I had one rooster and 8 hens, and you would have thought I had 50 roosters from the looks of some of my hens! They all free ranged, too. Plus, he crowed allllllllllll day long, from a few hours before dawn till they went in to roost at night. Ugh. So I rehomed him. And my girls have been MUCH happier without him. A bird that doesn't lay eggs takes space up for one who would, so unless you fall in love with one of your roos, or want to incubate your own eggs, I suggest rehoming all of 'em. Your hens will do just fine without one! I have about 40 chicks coming in a couple of days, the insanity is overwhelming!!! To think we started out with 2 FFA class hatched birds two years ago....
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I dont ever seem to do anything the easy way, and i rarely go in light. I'm sure i'll figure this out one way or another haha
 

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