**Soo sad!! (having to get rid of roos)**

[Tripp16]

Ugh I love having chicks except for the part that you cant tell what gender they are until you get attached to them!! My parents told me I have to get rid of Paislee (my BB red bantam cockerel) I also have to get rid of Jack (my Duckwing cockerel).

I am sooo upset about this! I feel like Im betraying them!!

I have until they start crowing....... ( which wont be long....)

Jack (Duckwing bantam cockerel)

Paislee (BB Red Cockerel)

These pics were taken about 2 weeks ago...

 

[Tripp16]

Any tips??

 

[dianaross77]

Tis the price of hatching and buying straight run.

 

[Tripp16]

Quote:
I know, I know. It's just hard....

 

[catsew]

How old are they? I am new so I obviously don't know but I thought they don't crow til around 4 months-ish, with of course the occasional exceptions.
Ours are going to the freezer, so I don't know how hard it will be when its time.

 

[LisaAnnW]

They're so cute! Sorry to hear about your dilemma. I know a lot of people don't/can't keep roosters, but we have eight of them, and they're all characters. It would be hard to part with any, even when they wake me up before dawn.

Hope yours don't start crowing for a long time, and you eventually find them a great home.

 

[SunnyCalifornia]

I feel your pain!! I hatched 8 roos out of 10 eggs..... And at 4 weeks old, they are starting to crow..... OEGB, and Serama..... I love them all dearly, but I know I can't keep them all....

 

[kbunny]

I also have a cockerel I need to rehome. It's not allowed to keep roosters in Chicago. Even with sexed chicks it happens sometimes as sexing methods are not completely foolproof. I am hoping to find him a new home ASAP but I don't know exactly how to go about it. The part that sucks is we have to keep him in the house cause the neighbors are kvetchy.

 

[CinnamonQueen12]

Oh I feel your pain! I started raising chickens as a school project until the family fell in love with the chickens. We were happy with 6 laying chickens until my Agriscience teacher told me I needed a larger flock. So we ordered 4 more. Long story short: never order day old baby chicks on a holiday weekend. The package was lost in the mail and when it arrived a day late, one chick (RIR) was dead and another chick (Barred Rock) died a few hours later in my moms arms. It seemed the third chick (golden buff) was on her way out. We weren't worried at all about the other barred rock; she was too hyper! So we called the hatchery back and told them to resend us one RIR, one barred rock, and one Golden buff. Well, the golden buff made it, and even though Honey is a little smaller that her friends, she is very happy. So we now have 6 laying hens and 5 babys. Then, I decided I wanted to try to hatch eggs AGAIN!!!!!! I ordered this dinky little spaceship shaped incubator online that held 3 eggs and the humidity and temp. is impossible to control. I hatched one healthy chick from it, but the poor baby ran off, haven't seen him since, and I miss him like crazy (RIP Yoko!

)Then I hatched a completely deformed chick that died the next day (RIP Lucky

) After the next batch of eggs splattered on the carpet of my bedroom< I decided to build an incubator out of an old styrofoam incubator, some chicken wire, sponges, a dimmer switch, and a piece of glass. Ordered 6 eggs from agway. 5 were fertile. 5 pipped. 2 died before they got out of the egg. In the end I hatched 2 ameracaunas and one golden buff. Love them all, but one of the ameracaunas hatched with a deformed leg, so my mom wants to keep her, but she says that we have to get rid of the other 2, whether they are roos or hens. (Golden buff is boy for sure, not sure about ameracauna, love 'em anyway) I know exactly how you feel, and I wish we had more room in our 4x6 coop. We already have 6 chickens in it, and were planning on adding 6 more. Kind of a tight fit, but........

Anyway, this is Chestnut:

This is Cashew:

And this is poor Walnut:

I have to sya goodbye to Cashew and Chestnut in a few weeks.

 

[flowerchicks]

Scarlett, it is hard

I had to rehome both my roosters this morning. One I raised from a day old chick (he was 2 yrs old) and the other I had from about 10 weeks old (he was 1 yr old). Both of them had their favorite hens that never left their sides, who are now alone. We took them to a little farm this morning at 9am and when I got home this evening, only one of my 7 laying hens had laid. I don't know if it was coincidence or not. Tomorrow is going to be hard, not hearing them crow. Believe me, you are not alone