Official Squatch Watchers

[Parront]

We are not supposed to have roosters, but you get time to

I am feeling very lucky. At almost 8 weeks old, I am feeling reasonable confident that I only have one oops male in my group of 14

That is very good! I am sharing with my neighbor, for her I ordered Brown Sex Links to try to avoid mistakes. She has a 5 year-old girl and has never had chickens, I do not want any sadness, since I want them to like chickens. That will make both of my neighbors chicken people! We are not allowed to have roosters, best for kids not to get attached to one. If I got an accidental cockerel, I might put him over the other neighbors hens for a week, then take care of the crowing problem in the crock pot!

 

[Redhead Rae]

Getting free roosters for the freezer isn't a bad thing.

Unless you care about what they’ve been fed. That is one of the reasons we are raising our own meat birds.

It is impossible to order all pullets and not get a rooster or 2. At Tractor Supply even worse, it seems like the ones marked female are all male! White dots on their heads when I was looking at the Black Sex Links. Not many left, either. The people who know better took the pullets! LOL!

I got 18 pullets (a couple died) I think all of them are pullets. The only cockerels I think I have are homegrown. I do need to give that batch of birds a closer inspection and turn the cockerels from my home hatched NHs and Cochin mixes into bacon.

 

[21hens-incharge]

We are not supposed to have roosters, but you get time to

That is very good! I am sharing with my neighbor, for her I ordered Brown Sex Links to try to avoid mistakes. She has a 5 year-old girl and has never had chickens, I do not want any sadness, since I want them to like chickens. That will make both of my neighbors chicken people! We are not allowed to have roosters, best for kids not to get attached to one. If I got an accidental cockerel, I might put him over the other neighbors hens for a week, then take care of the crowing problem in the crock pot!

I do have a neighbor that has a rooster. I have thought about borrowing him for a week.
He is not as loud as a dog barking.....which mine do a lot of....and so far no one is complaining.
If I were to get a roo.....I would want one who made big fat kids.

 

[CSAchook]

We are not supposed to have roosters, but you get time to

That is very good! I am sharing with my neighbor, for her I ordered Brown Sex Links to try to avoid mistakes. She has a 5 year-old girl and has never had chickens, I do not want any sadness, since I want them to like chickens. That will make both of my neighbors chicken people! We are not allowed to have roosters, best for kids not to get attached to one. If I got an accidental cockerel, I might put him over the other neighbors hens for a week, then take care of the crowing problem in the crock pot!

It is great that you have someone to spilt with. I always try to talk a family member or two into sharing with me. Safer transit for the babies and lower costs overall. Win, win!

 

[Parront]

I do have a neighbor that has a rooster. I have thought about borrowing him for a week.
He is not as loud as a dog barking.....which mine do a lot of....and so far no one is complaining.
If I were to get a roo.....I would want one who made big fat kids.

For us in AZ, I like what some are doing with their Naked Necks. Big, heat tolerant and breeding for colored eggs, too.

 

[CSAchook]

Miracles really DO happen!!!

Right?! I mean, they were all vent sexed but the accuracy guarantee was only 80%. I was expecting a lot more doodles!

Next step is to reduce the group size. Much as I love them all 14 is really pushing the limits of our set up. And it is 2 more birds than I ordered! But I just heard today from my aunt who recently moved to NM. She would love to adopt our “extras” and give them a good home.

 

[Redhead Rae]

I do have a neighbor that has a rooster. I have thought about borrowing him for a week.
He is not as loud as a dog barking.....which mine do a lot of....and so far no one is complaining.
If I were to get a roo.....I would want one who made big fat kids.

Heritage Cornish!

 

[Redhead Rae]

Well.... I either need to get a bigger tote for my phase 2 brooder or get a smaller heating plate.

My FIL usually likes going to bed between 8-9pm, so this time of year is rough on him, especially when birds don't want to be put to bed (he does most of the scheduled chores for the birds because he doesn't have kids to care for or a job). Tonight, some of the chicks in the phase 2 brooder did NOT want to go in the tote with the heater plate. So he asked us to deal with them while he went to bed. Well, I shoved them in and shut the door, while one particularly stubborn one kept trying to fly out. I came back inside and I had a crazy thought, what was making those birds not want to go in. I was thinking a snake or something like that. So a little after 10, I trudge back outside to look. I pull up the heater plate and all the chicks are panting like crazy. With it only going down to 70 at night, the chicks are getting overheated by the plate. With the plate being so big, they really have no where to go to get away from the heat. *facepalm* It worked nicely when the nights were cold, but not now. I think a larger tote or something like will be easier to get a hold of since my favorite brand of heater plates are currently out of stock. I went ahead and took the plate out for toight, since it is going to be so warm. The largest chicks are mostly feathered out, the little ones can huddle up with the bigger ones if they get cold.

 

[Chickassan]

Iv'e had a day ya'll, one of those character builders lol!
Zipper broke on a pillow I woke up covered in foam..
Made a dental hygienist drop an F-bomb.
And grabbed an egg covered in snake spit.

Im sure Hansel thinks so!

I am feeling very lucky. At almost 8 weeks old, I am feeling reasonable confident that I only have one oops male in my group of 14

 

[Redhead Rae]

I finished my article!

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/emergency-chick-brooder-for-power-outages.75738/