Seriously. What am I going to do with all these chickens.

[mrbstephens]

Quote:
I've had some weird replies from Craigslist too. Can you post a sign in front of your house? "Chicks for sale"

 

[rapunzil]

Right now I have 18 grown chickens, 6 chicks, 11 more chicks on the way, and 2 dozen eggs in the incubator! Of them, 6 are Bantams, the rest standards.

What I planned on doing was keeping only 2 or 3 roosters, as long as they get along and don't become nasty. Any additonal roosters will be processed. I'm aiming to keep 35 chickens maxium, and any excess girls I'm going to raise until they are saleable as laying hens.

I also have an 8' x 8' x 8' coop and am free ranging, but what I will be doing this weekend is installing 2 more perches so that there will be a total of 24' roosting space which I hope will help with the temporary crowding. But in the end, it will all depend on how well my hatches go.....

 

[r-l-newell]

Have you looked into selling them on this web site since they have a section for chicken sales. I know it would be a pain to sell them and ship them but it would be better than sending them to the meat farm and them making money off of your chickens.

 

[r-l-newell]

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Sounds like one of thiose scams from Nigeria or other countries where they have you pay for the shipping and have you send them a money order for the shipping and then they keep the money order. Just say no unless they meet you in person to look at and buy them. I also wouldn't take anything but cash for them off of Crigslist because a lot of people have been scammed lately on Craigslist when given a fake money order for their items and then they go and cash it and the police come there and take the money order adn then the person is out of the money and the product that they sent to the person.

 

[rapunzil]

Hey Newell-

Where I live its really not a problem. I've sold laying hens before on my local Craigslist, and there is a processing house near me where they will take care of what I can't stomach, then I'll return to pick up the dressed birds for the freezer. I'm out in farmland.

And while I love watching my girls free-ranging in the yard, I also enjoy them in a nice cajun stew.....

 

[r-l-newell]

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Thats good to hear. Here in the Austin area of Texas we deal with scammers every day on Craisglist. I live out in the country too so it works out good to have them butchered and then smoked on the BBQ or in a stew or some good old chicken and dumplings. I used to work in a meat market as a butcher in training so I learned how to quarter up chickens and I usually do my own butchering of chickens and then cook them up.



Good luck in getting rid of the extra chickens.

 

[fastpat]

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Forty-one chickens will need about 160 sq. ft. of coop, a 16x10 or an 8x20, or something like that. The rule of thumb I've learned is 4 sq. ft. for every full sized chicken, 3 sq. ft. for every bantam.

 

[zrachie]

I agree totally...I am planning on keeping about 22 of them. I was just wondering at what age do they require that amount of space? How long can I keep them in about 64sq. foot before I "have" to find plans for the other ones? Thanks!

 

[mrbstephens]

I'd say maybe 16 weeks.

 

[exbiologist]

You know, you can always do what comes most naturally... eat them. I'm sure you've paid for chicken that likely lived much worse lives than yours will have lived. But chickens are still farm animals. They aren't pets, even if you name them. You'll have the satisfaction of eating something you produced. If you can't do the dirty work yourself, you can always hire out a moblie processor.