Scared to start...help with questions

[theuglychick]

Also, I give a lot of mine to kids in 4-H!

 

[lazy gardener]

My advice: Before you ever plug in an incubator, read every single word in Hatching Eggs 101 and use that information to ensure a good healthy hatch. Wait. Don't touch that plug yet! Honestly answer these questions: Do you have a REALISTIC exit plan for the approximately 60% of cockerels that you will hatch? Can you cull any deformed or failure to thrive chicks that you might hatch? Do you have a place to brood all the chicks you hatch. If you plan to brood them in the house, will YOU and the REST OF YOUR FAMILY be willing to put up with the noise, the smell, and the chick dander that invades every surface? I swear it even sleeps into your pores at night, even if the chicks are down stairs in your basement, and you are sleeping upstairs at the opposite end of the house. Better to brood outside in the coop or a brooder, with a MHP set up. Finally, Do you have room enough for all the pullets you intend to keep? Do you have room to successfully integrate them? Can your budget handle the extra feed? Do you have ready buyers for all the extra eggs? Only after you have successfully answered all these questions to your satisfaction, and to the satisfaction of a loved one WHO IS NOT AN ENABLER, should you then plug in your incubator.

 

[andreanar]

My advice: Before you ever plug in an incubator, read every single word in Hatching Eggs 101 and use that information to ensure a good healthy hatch. Wait. Don't touch that plug yet! Honestly answer these questions: Do you have a REALISTIC exit plan for the approximately 60% of cockerels that you will hatch? Can you cull any deformed or failure to thrive chicks that you might hatch? Do you have a place to brood all the chicks you hatch. If you plan to brood them in the house, will YOU and the REST OF YOUR FAMILY be willing to put up with the noise, the smell, and the chick dander that invades every surface? I swear it even sleeps into your pores at night, even if the chicks are down stairs in your basement, and you are sleeping upstairs at the opposite end of the house. Better to brood outside in the coop or a brooder, with a MHP set up. Finally, Do you have room enough for all the pullets you intend to keep? Do you have room to successfully integrate them? Can your budget handle the extra feed? Do you have ready buyers for all the extra eggs? Only after you have successfully answered all these questions to your satisfaction, and to the satisfaction of a loved one WHO IS NOT AN ENABLER, should you then plug in your incubator.

Oh, that's why I haven't bought a bator yet!! I'm good with everything except......needing to know how hard is it to sell the extra pullets that I cant keep? For eggs, Ill keep a roadside stand. I already have a ton of people waiting to buy, when my girls decide to lay! Lots of people looking for cockerels for pet food or human food. I'm sad to cull, but can do it. I have a lot of acreage and my coop is big with only 9 pullets right now. I just want to know how other people sell their extra pullets.

 

[theuglychick]

There are TONS of poultry sites for each state, region, city, county, etc on social media sites like FB.

I've rehomed most of my cockerels within a few days by posting on those sites.

My pullets go quickest on sites like Craigslist... which is the creepier of them all, but very effective way to sell birds.

Always meet in a public area, our police departments allow us to make (legal) exchanges and transactions in their parking lots, too!

Oh, that's why I haven't bought a bator yet!! I'm good with everything except......needing to know how hard is it to sell the extra pullets that I cant keep? For eggs, Ill keep a roadside stand. I already have a ton of people waiting to buy, when my girls decide to lay! Lots of people looking for cockerels for pet food or human food. I'm sad to cull, but can do it. I have a lot of acreage and my coop is big with only 9 pullets right now. I just want to know how other people sell their extra pullets.

 

[bobbi-j]

Ive been wanting to get a bator and start hatching. But Ive got a few questions first...I know once I do it, I will become hooked on it! It will become an obsession. LOL. I cannot keep all the chicks that I hatch. So what do you do with them? And what to do with the little cockerels? Are there enough people out there wanting to buy chicks? I don't want you all to see me on an episode of Hoarders! With chickens running all around my house because I'm addicted to hatching! Or maybe on an episode of Intervention.

This depends on your area. Is it rural, where people can more easily keep and house chickens, or is it urban where it's a little more difficult? Where I live, anyone who wants chickens pretty much already has them. I could maybe sell a few layers, but not for much.

That the reason I've only hatched once. I'm a big softy and I know it! I can't cull based on gender alone. If he's aggressive with the girls and won't reform then he has to go.
As far as people wanting roosters... you generally can't give them away. I don't want people to take them if know they may be eaten. I feel so bad...
Again, I'm a big softy. So I've avoided hatching for just that reason.
If I could I'd have a rooster flock of all the unwanted boys around. But I think I'd need a horse barn instead of a coop.

A very responsible thing indeed! Good for you - not everyone has that kind of self-restraint.

My advice: Before you ever plug in an incubator, read every single word in Hatching Eggs 101 and use that information to ensure a good healthy hatch. Wait. Don't touch that plug yet! Honestly answer these questions: Do you have a REALISTIC exit plan for the approximately 60% of cockerels that you will hatch? Can you cull any deformed or failure to thrive chicks that you might hatch? Do you have a place to brood all the chicks you hatch. If you plan to brood them in the house, will YOU and the REST OF YOUR FAMILY be willing to put up with the noise, the smell, and the chick dander that invades every surface? I swear it even sleeps into your pores at night, even if the chicks are down stairs in your basement, and you are sleeping upstairs at the opposite end of the house. Better to brood outside in the coop or a brooder, with a MHP set up. Finally, Do you have room enough for all the pullets you intend to keep? Do you have room to successfully integrate them? Can your budget handle the extra feed? Do you have ready buyers for all the extra eggs? Only after you have successfully answered all these questions to your satisfaction, and to the satisfaction of a loved one WHO IS NOT AN ENABLER, should you then plug in your incubator.

This. This is an excellent post. Read it again!

Oh, that's why I haven't bought a bator yet!! I'm good with everything except......needing to know how hard is it to sell the extra pullets that I cant keep? For eggs, Ill keep a roadside stand. I already have a ton of people waiting to buy, when my girls decide to lay! Lots of people looking for cockerels for pet food or human food. I'm sad to cull, but can do it. I have a lot of acreage and my coop is big with only 9 pullets right now. I just want to know how other people sell their extra pullets.

Again - selling pullets depends on where you live. Breed may be a consideration, too. You may be more able to sell purebreds rather than barnyard mutts. (Personally, I like my mutts.)

Glad to see you are able to cull if need be.

 

[FlyingNunFarm]

A very responsible thing indeed! Good for you - not everyone has that kind of self-restraint.

My inability to cull gets me grief sometimes. My chickens are not livestock to me. I knew I wouldn't be able to kill and eat them before I started. I didn't know I would love them and their quirks.
I have lost some and had to have a few put out of their misery. I may one day be able to cull for mercy but I haven't found a way I'm comfortable with yet. Thank goodness I have a friend willing to help me.

 

[andreanar]

I don't plan on doing any kind of hatching until the spring, I'm just researching right now. I'm one of those people that like to know EVERYTHING about a subject before I do it! Yes, I would def be sad to have to cull a baby, but as a nurse, I see the sad part of life and death often and can do what needs to be done. The funny thing is, I don't eat bird. Not chicken or turkey. I just don't like it. I'm a beef eater! But my family eats chicken.

 

[andreanar]

Another member just said something in another post that reminded me that I do have a place for extra cockerels and chicks I cant keep or sell....We have an animal auction house near me. They do small animal sales once a month! I could take my "need to go" ones there! The next one they have is on the 21st of this month. I'm going to go and check out whats there and if it could be an option for me. OOOOh I just got so excited right now, This hatching thing may actually be something I can do!!