Please talk me out of buying more chicks

[hughes homested]

oh my, thats a lot of chickens!....but u desperately need some colored eggs!!! how about selling a few of the ones that are about to come into lay...and buy the colored egg layer chicks to take their place? u get to fix that itch to have babies and not increase ur chicken population. also, u always have a few hens that are in their "prime" of laying instead of all the same age with a dramatic drop off in eggs all at one time. selling the eggs will definitely help enable u to justify ur chicken math

 

[17 chickens]

I have colored eggs too but for some reason a few of my customers only like normal brown ones. They think the egg shell colors taste funny and feel that my white eggs are not fresh. Even though all of these girls are on the same food and live together I just smile and give them brown eggs!
Then I also have a customer who loves the colored eggs, They have young children and they like to see the different shades of colors.

 

[Flufferes]

What? No Easter Eggers? You need more chicks.

This is exactly what i am trying to tell my family

 

[h2oratt]

The only way I would get more is if you process your boys.

 

[FlyWheel]

The only way I would get more is if you process your boys.

I agree. The recommended ratio is 1 roo for every 10-12 hens. You are way over that.

 

[Redhead Rae]

What? No Easter Eggers? You need more chicks.

LOL, actually one of my Leghorn crosses is part EE and lays pretty mint green eggs. I have one pullet out of her that I'm hoping lays colored eggs too. I want get get some EEs, and some Wellsummers or Marans next year

I too live out in the sticks from people, but you would be amazed at the people who will drive for those eggs!
I too like to keep my nesting boxes clean and yes its a lot of work with that many hens!
In our state we can have up to but not over 3000 laying hens without a license for poultry. I follow the poultry laws when cleaning eggs though, I will use sand paper or water then a one paper towel dry per egg use. I use our fridge in our house to store eggs cause I don't keep them as long. I will be getting a fridge for the garage next spring though with the extra girls coming.
If you feed organic or non gmo you can charge more per dozen.
As for chicks or hatching eggs I don't do any of them as I don't have roosters and it cuts into profit to feed them. I know there is a market for them but I choose to have a closed flock here. That means I don't let anyone go near my flock who has chickens or any kind of birds, I have put so much time and money into my flock I don't want them to get sick or die. They are my pets so I don't eat them and they are happy that I am a vegetarian!
I do save on cost buy growing them a garden and when I weed and mow they get that too.

Yeah, I should check my county/state poultry laws before pursuing anything. I do feed organic/non-gmo. I can sell hatching eggs, although my Buffs aren't the best. My Delawares are from a good breeder, my New Hampshires are pretty nice too. I got those two breeds so I can hatch out "Indian River Broilers" of my own. We aren't vegetarians, so we usually get straight runs and process the excess roosters for meat.

The only way I would get more is if you process your boys.

I'm temperament assessing the 4 Delaware and 3 New Hampshire Roos for fittness as breeding roosters. I will be thinning the group soon.

 

[Redhead Rae]

Well it looks like I do indeed have a broody hen. If she stays broody tomorrow. I'll be giving her some of my Cochin/Dominique eggs tomorrow night.

 

[Redhead Rae]

Welp, I gave her a dozen eggs from my Black Cochin roo and my Dominique and Dom/cross hens. Wish me luck!

 

[FrankHomestead]

I don't need to buy more chicks.

I don't need to buy more chicks.

I do not need to buy more chickens this year.

I currently have 59 chickens.

• 1 Black Cochin Rooster
• 2 Buff Orpington Roosters
• 9 Buff Orpington Hens
• 9 Leghorn Cross Hens
• 3 Dominique Hens
• 2 Dominique/Buff Cross Hens
• 1 Dominique/RIR Cross Hens
• 3 New Hampshire Cockerels (18-19 weeks)
• 10 New Hampshire Pullets (18-19 weeks)
• 4 Delaware Cockerhers (18-19 weeks)
• 8 Delaware Pullets (18-19 weeks)
• 7 Leghorn mutt chicks (14-15 weeks) (not yet sexed, but I think I have 4 pullets and 3 cockerels)

I have 24 hens that are now laying 20ish eggs a day. That is more than keeping up with our need for eggs. However I have 18 pullets that should be laying very soon as well. I have one buff hen (7 months old) that seems to be broody and I have hatching eggs from my Cochin roo and Dominique/Dom cross hens to put under her once I confirm that she is, indeed, broody and not just playing at being broody.

I have plans for getting some colored and dark egg layers next year and I'm contemplating getting a hatchery surprise box from cackle for fun. But I want new chicks now. Thankfully the season is almost over for most hatcheries and I won't be tempted to buy more chicks until January/February.

I really just hope my hen is broody so I get my chick fix without having to put in all that extra work of caring for hatchery chicks.

Well the fact that you have THAT MANY chickens and know exactly what you have in such a diverse flock...I'd say you're the crazy chicken chicken lady who can have as many chickens as your property will hold without neglecting a single one of them. live your life

 

[TominWa]

Ive only been on this site six months....but I'm telling you the people here are horrible at math. Horrible. 6 means 12, 12 means 18......they don't know! Its like there is a disease out there that only affects chicken owners. You have 59 chickens? Have you counted them recently? You need more. 59 is 95 backward which is too close to rounding up to 100 to ignore! My advise is don't count them anymore. Take a general sense of the landscape and fill in empty spots that way. Don't trust any math people give you here...they are all infected with Chicken Math Disease. I picked it up from one of them. Although I'm not sure I have it. I have to go count.