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The hatching season is winding down, I "only" have 47 chicks from yesterday's hatch. I'm only hatching "high value" breeds now (Welsummers, Welbars, CCL's). I really should stop now, but the CCL's are doing so well, high fertility, high hatch rate, high rate of pullets. My plan now is to hatch and free range a bunch of pullet chicks, how late can I hatch and expect the chicks to have a reasonable chance of surviving when free ranging around a farm?

Do you think it's unethical to hatch chicks that might not have a very good survival rate? Part of me says this way they have a chance of growing up in a great environment and even if the chance is not real high, the best and brightest can still make it.

I wish I knew how bad this winter will be . . .
 
dheltzel said:
The hatching season is winding down, I "only" have 47 chicks from yesterday's hatch. I'm only hatching "high value" breeds now (Welsummers, Welbars, CCL's). I really should stop now, but the CCL's are doing so well, high fertility, high hatch rate, high rate of pullets. My plan now is to hatch and free range a bunch of pullet chicks, how late can I hatch and expect the chicks to have a reasonable chance of surviving when free ranging around a farm?

Do you think it's unethical to hatch chicks that might not have a very good survival rate? Part of me says this way they have a chance of growing up in a great environment and even if the chance is not real high, the best and brightest can still make it.

I wish I knew how bad this winter will be . . .
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My choice would be to only hatch chicks I can provide safe housing for. If I can't provide safe housing then they need butchered or sold, leaving them to fend for themselves against predators or weather conditions is not an option I could choose.
 
GR Chicks said:
Thanks! My concern is that my feeder and waterer hang and the new chick can't get to them. I'll probably leave the crate in the coop for 6-8 weeks, so that it can get to food and water.
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We place a fireplace brick or stack a couple of short pieces of scrap wood under/beside feeders and waterers. The littles learn to use their 'boosters' quite quickly and they really aren't in the way of the big birds. you should provide a chick feed for the first few weeks at least, if the littles are being raised in the flock then everyone would get it for a while or set up a second feed area for the broody and chick.
 
dheltzel said:
The hatching season is winding down, I "only" have 47 chicks from yesterday's hatch. I'm only hatching "high value" breeds now (Welsummers, Welbars, CCL's). I really should stop now, but the CCL's are doing so well, high fertility, high hatch rate, high rate of pullets. My plan now is to hatch and free range a bunch of pullet chicks, how late can I hatch and expect the chicks to have a reasonable chance of surviving when free ranging around a farm?

Do you think it's unethical to hatch chicks that might not have a very good survival rate? Part of me says this way they have a chance of growing up in a great environment and even if the chance is not real high, the best and brightest can still make it.

I wish I knew how bad this winter will be . . .
Click to expand...


I hope it's not as bad as last year. It was soooo cold for so long!
 
fisherlady said:
We place a fireplace brick or stack a couple of short pieces of scrap wood under/beside feeders and waterers. The littles learn to use their 'boosters' quite quickly and they really aren't in the way of the big birds.  you should provide a chick feed for the first few weeks at least, if the littles are being raised in the flock then everyone would get it for a while or set up a second feed area for the broody and chick.
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Thanks I'll give that a try.
 
Blarneyeggs said:
@speney. Release the Kraken? Bwahahahaha!

Sally!! Love your scary avatars, very cool.

Motorcyclechick, no excuses, you need to join the Halloween Hatch now.

Look who stole my ride this morning...

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OMG now stop this enabling!!!! just stop it!!!! I was going to get pigs come spring for eatin cause these will be too noisey for this house.... darn it arent they just too cute!!!! uggggggg lucas says awwwwwwwww and a head tilt too.... really??????
 
fisherlady said:
My choice would be to only hatch chicks I can provide safe housing for. If I can't provide safe housing then they need butchered or sold, leaving them to fend for themselves against predators or weather conditions is not an option I could choose.
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We already have dozens of chickens that are truly free-ranging, essentially wild, around the farm. They hatch new generations every year and are essentially our own personalized "land race" of mixed breeds. I add a lot of young roos because I can't house them or sell them, and cull the older (or otherwise less desirable) ones for eating. I seldom free-range pullets because they are salable or I want to use them for breeding. I'm changing that a bit and planning to free range a bunch in the next few weeks to shift the sex ratio more in favor of the hens. This is obviously good for the roos too, since they are happiest with a small harem rather than a gang of fellow bachelors.

I'm trying to figure out how late I can hatch and still free range them easily. Last fall I kept a group of very special ones that hatched late and gave them a heat lamp far longer than I think was really needed because they were crucial to my breeding project. I'm not doing that with these, I think they are are lot hardier than I assumed last year, especially in a fairly large group.
 
GR Chicks said:
Thanks! My concern is that my feeder and waterer hang and the new chick can't get to them. I'll probably leave the crate in the coop for 6-8 weeks, so that it can get to food and water.
Click to expand...

GR:

Just a followup on fisher's comments....I always have many feeders with food always available in different spots...sometimes the big girls push the little ones away from the food....also, for babies, I'll get the big girls eating then put a separate bowl for the babies in a different spot...I like to cut the bottoms off 2 liter bottles...my two cents
 

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