New member from Georgia!

[momiphouph]

Hello I just wanted to introduce myself and my crew. I am Heidi and I have 5 kids, 9 chickens and LOTS of questions.

We have never owned chickens before so this is all new to us. My 13 yr old son begged for the chicks and since we are now in a home with lots of yard space we jumped on board. Whats funny is after making him research chickens and learning about them with him… IM hooked!

Lol He does a great job of caring for them and is eager to learn. We recently realized that 5 of our 9 chickens are roosters! Which has really left us with a lot of questions and scrambling to figure out what to do with them, as the kids are now very attached. The chicks are all between 2 1/2 to 3 months old. We have 1 barred rock roo, 1 barred rock hen, 2 EE roos, a Mille Fleur d’Uccle roo and hen, 1 silver sebright hen, and 1 hen and 1 roo that I have not exactly figured out their breed. But I do think one is a “buff rock?” and another a Buff orpington. My husband is in the military and we have lived overseas for a 7 years, these chickens have made such a difference in helping our kids adjust to so many changes. Its really hard to explain but in a way they have become the friends my kids havnt made yet. Its hard to think of getting rid of any of them BUT the Roo’s have already started bulling our younger roo, so we have been talking about what to do. We have got some serious chicken drama going on in the back yard.

Is it to late in the year to get more chicks and what are the odds we will have more boys? Anyone out there want some Roo’s with visitation rights?

LOL Like I said LOTS of questions! Im looking foward to getting to know you all!

 

[hen-thusiast]

from UT! Sounds like you've got your hands full! Good luck finding homes for the roos.

 

[lux_interior]

 

[ibpboo]

Oh yes, that is too many roos. And roos can turn very mean. Not always, but a lot of the time. They also will start tearing up the hens when starting to breed them. It is not necessary to have roos to get eggs. Only if you want fertile eggs do you need a roo.
It may be hard, but it would be best probably to rehome the roos. Especially if any of your children are young. My opinion anyway.
How big is your yard? Usually about 10 hens per roo is a good ratio, so I've learned on BYC. Personally, I do not have a rooster, they are very pretty and all, but found roosters and small children do not go too well together, never wanted to risk attacked children as I like to free range my chickens. I had a gorgeous EE rooster, but once he started attacking, I did not want to try any of the taming stuff, as he probably would of gone after the small children while they were playing outside. And I didn't like my hens torn up. He had his favorites.
Good luck.
You'll find lots of info and friendly folk here!

 

[briana1975]

from Michigan.

 

[chsfairy2007]

"Hi!", from a fellow Georgian!

Nice to meet you, and welcome to BYC! You'll love it. As to your chicken problem, you could get rid of enough roos, so that there is no fighting over girls (since you have only 4 ladies, you really could only keep one), or you could separate them by pairs. Of course, separating them means more wire and work - and it's getting hot now! XD I also agree with the earlier post by ibpboo. You might want to rehome all the roos, because roos and children don't always mix. Still, I must vouch for the D'uccles, since the majority of the roos are not aggressive.

I have no idea whether feed stores are still carrying chicks, but I think it may be too late. If your local feed store is still carrying them, ask whoever is running the place whether the chicks are St. R - Straight Run, meaning: they haven't been sexed, and only God knows what you'll get, LOL. If they have been sexed, get pullets, which will become hens. However, you can always check out hatcheries online, and order chicks straight from them. You can pick out which breed and sex you want. The only downfall with that is you must meet minimum order requirements. Some hatcheries may require that you buy 25 or more chicks, so watch for that! Lastly, hatcheries may not sex all of the birds right, there is still about a 5-10% chance you could wind up with a roo.

I hope I helped, and good luck with your addiction!

Edited for spelling....

 

[momiphouph]

Thanks for the warm welcome! So great to meet you all!

Hello neighbor

we are in southern GA and Wow! is it HOT!

I do have my hands full but loving every minute of it! My kids are 3, 9, 13, 15, and 19... so having roo issues with my 3yo could be a problem. I live on an acre... which after spending 7 years with almost no yard... IS AWESOME!

2 of my roos were bought from a pullet so Im really worried that we could end up with more. At the same time I do want more hens and 2 of the hens I have are bantams (which could really get ugly with all these roos!) I am thinking if I tried online I might have better luck at actually getting pullets.

I know there is a risk regaurdless but have watched some posts and looks like people have done well with my pet chicken and the min order is 3 chicks... I might give them a try.

Any ideas on how to go about rehoming our roos? And if I were to keep 1 roo how would I choose? Any characteristics I should look for? Im fairly convinced I will keep at least the d'Uccle.. he is really mellow and is hardly a threat... LOL But out of the 4 other boys we really struggle with which one we should keep... especially since the chickens kinda run in 2 flocks.

We got them about 2 weeks apart from eachother and they have stayed seperated since, even though we have tried to get them all together. We have divided our little mobile coop up so they sleep seperate because 3 out of 4 in one flock are the bantams. The 4th is a Buff Orpington and is very protective of his flock but gets picked on by the 3 boys in the other group. He doesnt defend himself... just the bantams. Is that normal? And one of the bantams litterally cries if he is away from her. She will squawk and squawk until she finds him. I guess because he is bigger its like he is her mommy.

Any suggestions you have would be great!!!

Here are some pics of our 2 groups

The first flock with the 3 boys

The second flock

So that is the story and now I am wondering should I post all of these questions under another topic... Ive never been on a forum before??? Im new to all of this!

 

[Cats Critters]

 

[buck-wild-chick]

Welcome, from North FLA

 

[b.hromada]

and

from S. Florida.