New chicken owner here....Please help!

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Rfournier

Rfournier

In the Brooder
5 Years
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Hi everyone. What a great website! I need all the help I can get right now. I live in Livonia, MI (S.E. MI). My husband & I rescued 4 Roosters & 1 hen last night from a local park. We decided to keep then hen but I am re-homing the Rooster immediatley. We are trying to find another hen to go with the one we rescued. She is a very healthy Buff Bahma. She laid a medium brown egg last night. Right now weve got them in dog crates in our temperature controlled garage until we can get them to a new place. We are starting the coop tomoroow for the hen. I am a total rookie at this. Learning as I go. BackYard Chickens has been so informational. Can anyone PLEASE give me some pointers. We just want a cpl hens for pets & eggs. Thanks in advance for any/all advice!!!
 
You don't need a rooster in order to get eggs. You ONLY need a rooster if you want "fertile" eggs that can be hatched into chicks.

One rooster can handle 10 hens, any less than that and the hens will be severely overbred, and possibly die. A second hen still would not be enough to please one rooster, let alone 5. The roosters would also be fighting among themselves and possibly killed off.
 
Oh no no no....We are getting rid of the Roosters completely. As soon as we find a home for them. We are keeping the hen & I am searching my butt off to find another laying hen to go live with her. I just want 2 hens to begin with then maybe work another one in there. I do NOT want any baby chicks. The way I figure it is 3 hens should yield about 2 eggs a day.,,hopefully. This will give my husband & I plenty of eggs plus I will have extra to give to close friends. I just wish I knew where I could go buy a good healthy laying hen to go with the Buff Bahma hen Ive got. We rescued them all from a park last night. One had been eaten so severly we couldnt tell if it were male or female. These poor Roosters & chicken were freezing to death. We could tell they were handled their entire lives. OUr dogs ran right up to them & they didnt do anything. Not even try to peck them. Thats when I knew they souldnt have been out there. Either someone let them go or they got out. The police, Sheriffs Dept. & county parks & rec. said their wasnt anything they could do but that we could save them if we wanted to,. So we did
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. Now, I own a hen & my thoughts & dreams of owning chickens have come true. Im a complete rookie though & need some advice from you experts. Im soaking up every word you guys share with me. Thank you so much!
 
You might be able to find another hen through a local "chicken swap" - Tractor Supply does it in a lot of localities. Maybe your feed and seed store can connect to someone looking to sell their chickens, too. Those chickens were so lucky for you to find them!! Good luck with them. I am presently fighting to keep the 17 hens I have due to an ordinance I was just informed of...if you were closer, I'd gladly give you one of my gals! :)
 
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You can try to rehome the roosters in our Buy Sell and Trade section here on BYC. You will need 20 posts to place an ad. So you can welcome in new members in this section to get your post count up....

https://www.backyardchickens.com/f/67/buy-sell-trade

Good luck finding them homes and welcome to BYC!
 
Hello & thank you very much. You guys are great. Well, I am officially hooked. Drove a little over an hr to buy 2 pretty little 1 yr old Leghorn hens to go with my Brahma hen so she wont get lonely. Coop will be finished tomorrow
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& the Roosters are hopefully going to a friend of mine that has a farm tomorrow. I pray she comes & gets them. I cannot keep them after tomorrow. Id hate to have to do it but I would have no choice but to let them go back down at the park we found them in & let nature take its course. That just sounds so awful
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. I dont know what else to do. My hands are tied. No one wants them & I cant keep them for how ever long it would take to place an add & wait for a response. I would if I could but the city I live in dont permit chickens at all. Im secretly going to keep my hens because they are quiet & docile. Thank god for privacy fences..lol. Anyways, thanks for the warm welcome & trust me when I say...You will be seeing me on here quite often. Serious rookie here & I really do need all of your advice. Be & stay blessed!
 
You guys ready for a good laugh. This is proof that I am a complete chicken rookie. I have 3 cages. 3 hens in one, 1 rooster in another one & the other 3 roosters in the other one. I put the one rooster by itself because it was so mean. Woke up this morning & headed out to feed them & see if my hens gave me any eggs. You can imagine my surprise when the one "rooster" was sitting there with a brown egg...lol. Shes a hen. Now, remember, there are 3 other roosters in a cage. I fed & watered my little chicken clan Ive got here & went back into the house. Came out about an hr later. Now imagine my face when I seen a pretty brown egg laying there in the "Roosters" cage. One of them isnt a rooster. Im so confused & a bit overwhelmed. Someone told me to check there bones on each side of their vents. 2 fingers wide means they are laying hens. Im really freaking out because ALL of them had 2 finger gaps. I dont get it you guys. Is there any other way to tell if its a boy or a girl? Thank you for all your help. You can stop laughing now..lmao
 

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