Looking for Advise

[Crazy_Beautiful]

My goal for 2023 is to breed and sell Salmon Faverolles. I bought 8 hens last year and had 3 roosters. I narrowed it down to 1 rooster.. best looking one. And 4 hens that were pure colour markings. 4 were too dark for my liking.



Fast forward a few months and my rooster for some reason doesn't like little kids. He is ok with myself and 11 year old daughter but will charge at my 10 year old daughter and my 8 year old son. Now I'm not wanting this rooster. I want the coops and runs to be a safe place for my kids to go in. My son is especially heartbroken as he likes going into the coop and watching the birds. He calls the chicken run his happy place.



Sidenote: My kids are very well behaved and treat our animals with respect. We did have a summer get together with friends and unfortunately some friends children acted inappropriate with my roosters before I saw that they were in the run. I have no idea if this is why we are having issues now or not. Homestead rule now is no one but our family in with the chickens.



My question is as Salmon Faverolles are hard to find. Do I try just hatching out another rooster... buying a few hatching eggs from another breeder having them shipped to me? Keeping the rooster I have until mid summer when the new younger roo is coming into adulthood. This option allows to me hatch out a few to sell this yesr without putting my plans on hold another year.



Or do I keep looking for someone with a rooster for sale... but then I also risk disease and parasites to my existIng flock. I have been looking for a few months as it was always my plan to swap out roosters in 2023 for new genetics. All ones I have found are a 4 hour drive from me and that is just too far.

If I opt to bring in hatching eggs when is a good time to do so? I currently have 15 day olds arriving mid April. I don't want to overwhelm myself with too many chicks and not enough grow out space.



My location is Central Ontario (east of GTA).

 

[Yardmom]

Are the chicks who are arriving in April Samon Faverolles? Either way I would consider culling your current rooster. You don't want your children to start disliking the chickens due to a problem rooster. Our first rooster was a human attacker. My kids carried a rake and made it through that first year, but it was much more pleasant when he was gone. We have had many roosters since then, but no more attack issues. If the chicks you ordered are a different breed maybe you could add SF to that order. Or if you are looking for quality you might want to expand how far you are willing to drive. You will still have chicks this year . Just a few months delay on your breeding program.

 

[Crazy_Beautiful]

Are the chicks who are arriving in April Samon Faverolles? Either way I would consider culling your current rooster. You don't want your children to start disliking the chickens due to a problem rooster. Our first rooster was a human attacker. My kids carried a rake and made it through that first year, but it was much more pleasant when he was gone. We have had many roosters since then, but no more attack issues. If the chicks you ordered are a different breed maybe you could add SF to that order. Or if you are looking for quality you might want to expand how far you are willing to drive. You will still have chicks this year . Just a few months delay on your breeding program.

 

[Crazy_Beautiful]

I don't like the genetics of the Faverolles from the hatchery. I bought some last year and got rid of them all. They are a hard breed to find. Of the ones I currently have I bought them from a small homesteader a 2 hour drive from us. My husband graciously drove to get them for me.



I did find a somewhat local to me farm selling SF hatching eggs. And leaning towards ordering them and by June I'd have a rooster that is able to take care of the flock. I can't be without a rooster we have a lot of overhead predators and he does a phenomenal job at alerting

 

[Crazy_Beautiful]

Are the chicks who are arriving in April Samon Faverolles? Either way I would consider culling your current rooster. You don't want your children to start disliking the chickens due to a problem rooster. Our first rooster was a human attacker. My kids carried a rake and made it through that first year, but it was much more pleasant when he was gone. We have had many roosters since then, but no more attack issues. If the chicks you ordered are a different breed maybe you could add SF to that order. Or if you are looking for quality you might want to expand how far you are willing to drive. You will still have chicks this year . Just a few months delay on your breeding program.

 

[Crazy_Beautiful]

My chicks coming are for my other coop. To fix my mistake of breeding too many small skittish birds that like to fly even tho their wings are cut