Maine

[hoppy]

sadly I lost one of silkies last night. he was living with my turkey since they were both chicks and the turkey is quite large that the silkie could walk under him, i think they snuggled a bit to close last night and the silkie was crushed. poor turkey, you can tell he's really sad.

 

[Eggsitter]

They are on craigslist, on freecycle, facebook. you name it.

So in essence, we have to kill these birds who we hatched from eggs? Anyone want to tell my son that? I don't. And exactly how do we kill them?

 

[ashandvine]

Hoppy, Sorry about your turkey's loss of buddy. My son is very taken with this turkey here, even holds it. Silly kid.

Eggsitter... why do you have to kill them exactly?? I know you said they need new homes but CL didn't work for you? Did you try posting in here? Hoppy had great advice once. She told me that she 'traded' her chickens for meat at the butchers. I love that idea... but my kids are too old to believe it.

 

[Clover Run]

sadly I lost one of silkies last night. he was living with my turkey since they were both chicks and the turkey is quite large that the silkie could walk under him, i think they snuggled a bit to close last night and the silkie was crushed. poor turkey, you can tell he's really sad.

Sorry! That is sad.

 

[klf73]

They are on craigslist, on freecycle, facebook. you name it. 

So in essence, we have to kill these birds who we hatched from eggs? Anyone want to tell my son that? I don't. And exactly how do we kill them? 

It's sad but true. I have 7 kids and they help raise many of the chicks, crossing their fingers that their favorite is a girl.(we aren't farmers)

If you hatch eggs, odds are half will be cockerals, only need one rooster for dozen or so hens so that leaves the surplus of roosters.

For us, especially bantams that don't have much meat, dh takes them to a chopping block in the woods. Not something we enjoy, but necessary. I prefer to cull certain breeds because I always worry that they will be used in fighting, this way I know their fate and they are treated well up to the end.

We had bachelor pens for 2 years to house extra roosters, noise and feed were outrageous....we finally had to accept the fate of our kind pet boys

 

[Eggsitter]

I have posted here, I have begged people here for advice.

I will have to chop their heads off myself. I am a single parent. I will never, ever have chickens again.

 

[Clover Run]

I have posted here, I have begged people here for advice.

I will have to chop their heads off myself. I am a single parent. I will never, ever have chickens again.

Sorry you are going through this. I am sure if someone was able they would take them for you. There a few posts giving you advice. It is just not the answer you want to hear. Roosters are an unfortunate part of chicken life. As noted before - many towns do not allow roosters and most who are allowed already have the number of roosters they need. To avoid this in the future order only pullets. You could also buy local sex linked chix from many on this site.

 

[Clover Run]

Anyone know where I might find a decent white leghorn rooster? I am thinking of breeding white leghorns for spring chix.

 

[gracejr]

yard sales for baby stuff, cheap or even craigslist- freecycle (being free even better) 

Oh, absolutely! We won't be buying anything for a bit yet, only 10.5 weeks right now! But thinking about what we will need has me overwhelmed today. Carseat (I don't skimp on this, only buy new), new swing, pack n play, bouncer (maybe), a new breastpump, bottles, double stroller... We were "done" after #2 and sold everything! Then along came this surprise! If we have another boy I still have a TON of clothes, though I would be over the moon if I get to shop for girly things!

 

[Paulajon]

Is it me, or did the price already go up? I could have sworn we were paying $15/bag for Layena crumbles, but it was $18 when we went to pick some up this weekend!! Blue Seal laying pellets are $15/bag, I'm thinking about switching. Has anyone had good results with these? Is it hard to switch from crumble to pellet?

Any other ideas on cutting back on feed costs? We'll have 15 birds here, which of course is more than we had planned on.

Plus we have a new baby coming in March/April, and have NOTHING as far as the costly gear, so trying to find ways to cut back on all costs where we can!

Heres what I just did, the grain has already gone up, I have used Blue Seal forever and also Dumor, and layena. what I was feeding the crumbles went up 2.00 more a bag so I have switched to Blue Seal laying mash that is running around $14.00 plus for 50 lbs, some of my birds were on this before has the same ingrediants as pellet only in mash, I am getting good eggs is working for me and even tho it is mash they are not wasting as much....