Texas

[janiedoe]

What is your guys experience with rehoming 1 month old chicks that are likely boys on craiglists/livestock forums etc? I got a bantam chick just near 1 month and I don't know if it's best to put a listing up now or wait until he's feathered.

I've had excellent results with the ones I've put on craigslist and on facebook "Texas Backyard Chickens" .
I get updates and pictures of 7 of them with their flocks often. I'm even getting eggs that were fertilized by some of them this spring.
There were some that ended up in the stew pot but not without provocation.
I know you have that cute little cochin guy. Don't worry, I'm sure someone will want him.

 

[electrycmonk]

I've had excellent results with the ones I've put on craigslist and on facebook "Texas Backyard Chickens" .
I get updates and pictures of 7 of them with their flocks often. I'm even getting eggs that were fertilized by some of them this spring.
There were some that ended up in the stew pot but not without provocation.
I know you have that cute little cochin guy. Don't worry, I'm sure someone will want him.

That's good to know. We are about ready to list a few Cockerels. I'm a longtime user of CL and I've been off FB for many cycles of the moon.
A feather foot, a Polish, and little white one (forgot breed). Those are the most likely. We have 2 others I'm not sure if we will need to re-home them as well.

I'd like to hope for a co-operative between The EE, big Gray & a Polish......

Once that's done then I can adjust sizes of run and potentially re-organize the run for more Silkie run, no more batchelor run and larger run for the rest.....

I still plan to avian net the small backyard off the run to really give them some space.....

 

[tacothechicken]

@rreyou I'd wait, chickens are mean at any age so it'd be hard to match a chick his size to someone who doesn't already have a potential wanted cockerel at that age, plus it's hard to know what they'll look like at adult hood do many would be hesitant most likely based on preference. I wait till around 4 months before I sell my boys off or if I have spare pullets I'll sell them younger with 2 pullets as a starter breeding flock

 

[Aggiedusty]

@Aggiedusty yes sir I sure do. At the moment I have a fairly small flock of older buff orpingtons, however my new flock got in on Thursday 25 buff orpingtons and 25 brown sexlinks 5 transylvanian naked necks ( gonna eat them ugly critters) and I am brooding 40 production reds for my dad. I also plan to place an order for 200 cornish crosses about the first part of march

You are going to be Very busy quite soon. As kids in elementary and junior high, our parents would order up to 200 straight run white Cornish x White Plymouth Rock. We would butcher the roosters and save pullets for future layers,

 

[Tommie Hockett]

@Aggiedusty yeah I'm not to worried about the day to day care and maintenance. That's the one thing about night shift that's good. I will get home just in time to move the tractors and feed and water for the day. Then when I wake up I can check on everything and my wife can take the food away at night. Wash, rinse and repeat haha. The part that worries me is the butchering. I am really good at rabbits I can do 30 rabbits a day by myself but I have never handled chicken butchering in this large of a quantity. The most we have ever done in a day is 10. And we will need to do 50 a day if we plan to get it done in 2 weekends. So if you or anyone else has any tips for this feel free to fire them at me!

 

[Aggiedusty]

@Aggiedusty yeah I'm not to worried about the day to day care and maintenance. That's the one thing about night shift that's good. I will get home just in time to move the tractors and feed and water for the day. Then when I wake up I can check on everything and my wife can take the food away at night. Wash, rinse and repeat haha. The part that worries me is the butchering. I am really good at rabbits I can do 30 rabbits a day by myself but I have never handled chicken butchering in this large of a quantity. The most we have ever done in a day is 10. And we will need to do 50 a day if we plan to get it done in 2 weekends. So if you or anyone else has any tips for this feel free to fire them at me!

There is a chicken plucker machine that Tractor Supply carries. Looks like a half barrel upright with Many protruding rubber things. The video is amazing. I tried mine just once because at the time I had a rooster pen of 37 and didn’t know what else to do. It realistically plucks a dunked bird on scalding water in 10-15 minutes. And you just drop a hot wet chicken into it and few minutes later done.. seems like I got mine on sale at just below $300.00. Your situation would be possible with it. The hardest thing you’re going to do is dress the bird and cut it up possibly. T S doesn’t sale many and so often like mine box is beat up and it’s been there awhile too long. Manager actually discounted it upon asking!

 

[Aggiedusty]

@Aggiedusty yes sir I sure do. At the moment I have a fairly small flock of older buff orpingtons, however my new flock got in on Thursday 25 buff orpingtons and 25 brown sexlinks 5 transylvanian naked necks ( gonna eat them ugly critters) and I am brooding 40 production reds for my dad. I also plan to place an order for 200 cornish crosses about the first part of march

You probably know this already but I’ll say it anyway just in case it is helpful. White chickens pluck the easiest, fastest, and much more cleaner looking.

Eekkk you are way up North.
Did you get some of that
nasty white stuff this week?

Yes we did and it’s starting today again and will go into tomorrow for some time. Part of living 2 1/2 hours from the mountains I guess. I have heat lamps in all 6 of my chick houses to keep water freezing at a minimum and try and keep chickens in at least in low 30s when it dips below 20s. Egg production really improves with those red lamps and their heat. Hoping for an accumulation this time for moisture for the pastures with spring around a couple of radical corners.

 

[Aggiedusty]

You probably know this already but I’ll say it anyway just in case it is helpful. White chickens pluck the easiest, fastest, and much more cleaner looking.

Yes we did and it’s starting today again and will go into tomorrow for some time. Part of living 2 1/2 hours from the mountains I guess. I have heat lamps in all 6 of my chick houses to keep water freezing at a minimum and try and keep chickens in at least in low 30s when it dips below 20s. Egg production really improves with those red lamps and their heat. Hoping for an accumulation this time for moisture for the pastures with spring around a couple of radical corners.

Chicken houses not chick houses. Sorry. I do have 3 Ameraucanas chicks in the potting shed/ bunk house under heat lamp in a large box. Sexed them by wing feathers at 2 days old and anxious to see if is accurate.

 

[AllenK RGV]

Well Rod got himself "rehomed" yesterday as he ran out of last last last chances. My first cull of him was unsuccessful a week and a half ago. I knocked him unconscious for about 10 minutes and left him for dead to finish my morning feeding chores. Since then I thought he would learn but he didn't.

In other news got cherry tomatoes planted today, a purple passion flower and Dill for the herb garden. My original passion flower seeds never germinated even after doing the cold stratification for them. So I had to go to the store and buy one for 7.95 a clone from a mother plant. And I'll be cloning about a 400-foot row of this stuff for one of my 6 ft tall hurricane fences in the future. Thankfully purple passion flower is a horribly invasive and fast-growing vine which suits my needs.


Lucky is still with us and we still have three 1 1/2 week old chicks with their mothers. I imagine that's because we kept interrupting the Hawks and that kestrel every time we would hear an alarm call from the flock.

 

[AllenK RGV]

What is your guys experience with rehoming 1 month old chicks that are likely boys on craiglists/livestock forums etc? I got a bantam chick just near 1 month and I don't know if it's best to put a listing up now or wait until he's feathered.

We have successfully rehomed roosters in the past using Craigslist as well. The trick is you don't ask what they intend to do with your young roosters or cockerels if you're not willing to care for them then let someone turn it into a meal or keep it for a breeder and make their own decisions.