Texas

[magpiesing]

Are chickens cannibals? Will they kill and or eat another hen's chicks? Yesterday morning we had a new chick hatch. It looked good and healthy. We came back a couple hours later to check if their were any more and the chick was gone. We tore the brooder cage apart, searched the chicken house...nothing. No feathers or blood. The cage is chicken wire.

 

[Brookshire11]

My father made a comment and my husband said that I had to down size. I wanted to sell extra eggs, but apparently that's not good enough for my hubby. If I have to downsize though, I'd rather my ladies go to someone here that loves their birds as more than just food producers. Most of the people around here that buy/sell at animal flea markets don't care for their birds. Mine are partially tame, de-wormed regularly, and I care for any injuries they get. I also spoil them with grapes, watermelon, blackberries, corn, cucumbers, squash, and other fruits and veggies from my garden.

Totally get it.
If I were closer I'd take a few, but I'm never in the area, and the trip is so out of the way :/

 

[chickieluver26]

Well I have been told I need to down size my flock a bit. So I will be looking to re-home about 4 of my ladies. I am thinking they are going to be my RIRs, but I might get rid of my 1 SLW. Haven't decided yet. They are 21 weeks old and should be coming into lay very soon. They were all de-wormed and de-mited a month ago with Epernix pour on. I have no idea what to charge for them, newbe to this. And I live around sout San Antonio.

I also have a 15 week old male Chinese gander that is nice, and a 11 week old African goose that is somewhat skittish and aggressive. I would not recommend the goose for a first time goose owner. But if I can't find her a home that can handle her, into the stew pot she goes. The young gander too, as I don't need 2 ganders fighting in my yard over mates during breeding season.

I would take them in a heartbeat but I don't have the room right now good luck finding homes!!

 

[Starfire669]

What's funny is I am allowed to take extra Roos for the dinner pot. So if someone couldn't stomach culling Roos I can bring them home, fatten them up, and turn them into dinner. But my hubby says we have too many hens and we can never eat that many eggs. He doesn't think I would sell enough to make it worth it.

 

[magpiesing]

Need advice....checked on the broody this morning...she had 2 chicks hatch overnight. Plus one nearly out of the egg. . The hen seems to be pecking at the chicks but I can't tell if it;s because she's trying to get them under her and away from me or she's trying to reject the chicks. Then while I watched another chick got it's self clear of the shell but has a little yolks sac left attached. There is one more egg left. Up to now the hatches have been mostly normal and chicks have been out of the egg for awhile when I find them. Should I take the chicks from her? This is Belle, my best broody and chick nanny...so I'm confused by her behavior.

 

[magpiesing]

What's funny is I am allowed to take extra Roos for the dinner pot. So if someone couldn't stomach culling Roos I can bring them home, fatten them up, and turn them into dinner. But my hubby says we have too many hens and we can never eat that many eggs. He doesn't think I would sell enough to make it worth it.

That doesn;t make sense. We have 14 laying hens and I have no problem selling all the eggs I can get. I have to put folks off because I don't have enough eggs. Does hubby think they take up too much of your time and that you stress over them too much?

 

[sandiTX]

Need advice....checked on the broody this morning...she had 2 chicks hatch overnight. Plus one nearly out of the egg. . The hen seems to be pecking at the chicks but I can't tell if it;s because she's trying to get them under her and away from me or she's trying to reject the chicks. Then while I watched another chick got it's self clear of the shell but has a little yolks sac left attached. There is one more egg left. Up to now the hatches have been mostly normal and chicks have been out of the egg for awhile when I find them. Should I take the chicks from her? This is Belle, my best broody and chick nanny...so I'm confused by her behavior.

I would leave them as long as she isnt hurting thm. She may be trying to keep them under her or getting the little bits of egg shell off them.

 

[magpiesing]

I would leave them as long as she isnt hurting thm. She may be trying to keep them under her or getting the little bits of egg shell off them.

Ok...they sure do holler when she pecks at them and one has a red spot on it. I can't really tell if she is intentionally hurting them or not. What about the one with the bit of yolk sac left...will it be ok and absorb the remaing yolk ok? I'm used to normal hatches...this is very worrisome for me.

 

[Starfire669]

That doesn;t make sense.  We have 14 laying hens and I have no problem selling all the eggs I can get.  I have to put folks off because I don't have enough eggs.  Does hubby think they take up too much of your time and that you stress over them too much?

No, he knows I will stress over 5 just as much as 50. He just don't think we are in an area that will sell eggs well, and so he wants to reduce our feed bill. I told him that since we used non-medicated flock raiser our eggs can be considered organic, it's all my chicks have ever eaten here. And that health food nuts will buy organic eggs from free ranged chickens. But he don't believe me that we can sell enough eggs to cover the feed costs.

He has no problem with me raising chickens for the freezer, he don't care if it's a hen or rooster as long as it is not a permanent addition to our flock. My hubby is a city boy, all this is new to him.

I will be selling chicken, duck, and goose eggs, and hatchlings or those as well as keeping some for our freezer. But I have to teach him while I am learning and that makes things difficult.

 

[magpiesing]

We also moved her from the brooder cage to a dog crate yesterday (should have had her in there in the first place) after the chick went missing so maybe we stressed her too much that she doesn't want the chicks now, but she is still sitting the last egg and is keeping the one chick under her. Maybe this ...maybe that...IDK??? I get stressed when things go off kilter!!!