Please Help

[Arsone4179]

Please help: I am new to raising chickens and this is my first attempt. I ordered 15 chicks from one of those hatchery selected flocks that was sold as a straight run only. I was really excited when they came cause I could finally harvest my own eggs. 5 months later and I think something is very wrong. After identifying their sex it turns out that I got 12 roosters and only 3 hens. I don't know what to do because it seems like the roosters keep on fighting each other for dominance and the hens hardly come out of the coop anymore. I would hate to see what happens to my hens if all the roosters grew to maturity. I'm afraid for my hens' lives. Any info on what I can would be much appreciated.

 

[NatJ]

Option one: butcher and eat 12 roosters.
Option two: eat 11 roosters, keep one.
Option three: make a bachelor coop and move all the roosters into it (or all but one.)
Option four: find other homes for the roosters.

If you want chickens just for the eggs, I strongly recommend option one. If you want to raise chicks from the eggs of your own hens, try option two.

Options three and four are for those who cannot stand to eat birds they raised. Either is much more work and usually more expensive than eating the roosters.

 

[TooCheep]

I'm afraid that the answer is very simple, but not comforting. You need to cull (kill) the roosters. It is very hard to find new homes for roosters except by giving them to others who are likely to cull and eat them.

Roosters are good for meat production, breeding (not the same as laying eggs) and protecting hens when they are free ranging. If you are just looking for eggs and have them in a well-protected coop/run, then they really serve no purpose.

If you do want any roosters, then the commonly quoted ratio is one rooster per 10-12 hens. Also, please learn from this. "Straight runs" are unsexed chickens. You will get a mix of males/females. Generally, it is worth getting them pre-sexed if you are more interested in egg than meat production.

 

[50-45-1]

sorry this happened to you. normally straight run should be 50/50.
i only order pullets from hatcheries.
you can end up with unwanted roosters anyway. even in the pullet bins at the farm stores are unreliable.
one hen hatched out 9 chicks for me this year. 7 of those 9 ended up to be roosters!
i culled them after trying to rehome them free on craigslist for 2 months. no takers.

 

[wamtazlady]

You have learned a hard lesson. Now you know why people pay extra to have sexed chicks. Even with sexed chicks there is a 10% chance of getting cockerels. When my hens have hatched chicks I have also gotten skewed numbers as to sex. One time 9 pullets and 1 cockerel. The next time 7 cockerels and 3 pullets. You take your chance and you never know what you will get. Averaged over the 2 hatches my hatches were much closer to 50/50. Have to agree with the choices NatJ gave you.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Roosters, or rather, cockerels, are good to eat. I ordered 18 pullets last spring and still ended up with 3 cockerels I didn't need. Sexing chicks is not an exact science. It was hard to decide which one to keep as they were all beautiful and none seemed more aggressive (or hormonal) than the others, but I finally did make the hard choice. Lucky for me, there is a lady in my area who butchers for $1 a head. This works well for me. They were delicious!

 

[chickitychickity]

Eat roosters. Keep one. If you don’t have the heart to cull them yourself, then see if you have a butcher near you who will do it. Or you can give them away to people who would eat them. I highly doubt you can find eleven people to take a rooster. Order pullets next time, that way you’ll end up with less roosters.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

I just want to add, I'm sorry your first experience with chickens has turned out to be a challenging one. Please don't be discouraged!
Chickens are very fun and rewarding. It's a learning endeavor and we all had to learn stuff the hard way. Since I've been on this site I've decided I built my coop all wrong and I should gut it and start over! I won't, though... but people here have all kinds of wonderful ideas and suggestions, and they're very willing to help a beginner and share their knowledge. Eat your roosters and chalk it up to experience. Welcome to the wonderful world of chickens and to BYC!

 

[MROO]

Please help: I am new to raising chickens and this is my first attempt. I ordered 15 chicks from one of those hatchery selected flocks that was sold as a straight run only. I was really excited when they came cause I could finally harvest my own eggs. 5 months later and I think something is very wrong. After identifying their sex it turns out that I got 12 roosters and only 3 hens. I don't know what to do because it seems like the roosters keep on fighting each other for dominance and the hens hardly come out of the coop anymore. I would hate to see what happens to my hens if all the roosters grew to maturity. I'm afraid for my hens' lives. Any info on what I can would be much appreciated.

OUCH! That's a rough ratio, to be sure! What breed(s) are your youngsters? Some of them can be confusing to sex, so it's possible (fingers crossed!) that you have more pullets (ladies under a year) than you think. If you post some pictures with good side profiles and some of combs and wattles, I'm sure someone here can help verify their genders.

 

[50-45-1]

one of the most surprising orders of chicks i ever received was from Sunnyside hatchery in Wisconsin, around 15 years ago. i ordered 25 of their hatchery choice at a price of .19 cents a chick.
i expected most or all to be roosters and since they ship ground and it was march i expected i would loose some in shipping.
what i got was 27 chicks, All girls, lost 0 in shipping.
it was the best, cheapest and most healthy chicks i have ever ordered.
they only offered 3 sexlink breeds a white leghorn variety and a meat Cornish.
i received all the sexlink type and one Cornish hen.
i was very happy with them.