THEY HAVE SHIPPED!

[Double Kindness]

It's not a mean surgery.. it's either decrowing surgery or caponizing or freezer camp for roosters... since I want to breed, decrowing one of each breed and another for back up... the vet is local and I already have a semi-quieted rooster that's had the surgery.

They get a great life with me and are very happy. I will be eating the ones I don’t breed with to feed myself and my family, but it will be done with respect and gratitude. I get sad when I think of freezer camp day. Caponizing delays freezer camp. Decrowing allows them to mate and they make regular rooster noises etc. My rooster Lenny is very happy with his flock, the roos that I have will have similar circumstances as in lots of hens to take care of and mate with.

 

[SMonroe1990]

Double Kindness, glad to see that all your chicks arrived safely I hope the little one of yours pulls through. They are absolutely adorable.

 

[Double Kindness]

They are very cute, the one died this morning. I guess it happens. After I buried it I came in and cried for 15 minutes then fed my dogs and now am watching chick tv again, they're trying to fly and hopping everywhere! #adorable

 

[SMonroe1990]

They are very cute, the one died this morning. I guess it happens. After I buried it I came in and cried for 15 minutes then fed my dogs and now am watching chick tv again, they're trying to fly and hopping everywhere! #adorable

Sorry to hear that. There is always that risk with shipping. At least the others are doing well. It is still always hard when you lose an animal.

 

[stasichick]

wow... your post on decrowing, caponizing, and freezer camp was interested... I am a newbie and had to google all three. I lost one chick in shipping too... it was heartbreaking as my first chicken experience. sorry for your baby loss.

I really wanted to order eggs and watch them hatch but in my town we cant keep roosters... the decrowing method would keep us under the radar! maybe something we will consider when chicken math takes over and the coop is bigger than our house!!

 

[Double Kindness]

Lol, I looked into no crow collars and a couple members on byc have fashioned their own collars. The de-crowing surgery is done by just 2 people in the us that I know of, 1 in Oklahoma, 1 in Colorado. Caponizing is another option available if you're up to it, as ways to keep a rooster without crowing. I'm very very urban on .5 acre and I have 54 chickens. 9 known roosters. 1 semi-quieted. 1 headed to get de-crowed soon, with hopefully another of the same breed in case things don't go well...

I feed fermented 23% protein soy free organic non gmo chick starter, electrolytes and probiotics in their water

And I don’t feed medicated chick starter, but have a dish of dirt from my garden to build up their tolerance for cocci. I have no idea what I'm really doing either, as I just started having chickens in June, and if I may be one shining example of chicken math here... I wanted 8 egg layers of blue and pink eggs.. I started with 4 ee, added 3 more older ee's when I found out how long until they start laying eggs, then I really wanted eggs and got a 12 month old wheaten ameracuna. When I met my friend with beautiful English orpingtons, dwarf olandsk and ayam cemani. Which is why I have 8 ayam cemani and 4 haffie (ayam cemani x orpington) chicks. I wanted a silkie to go broody to hatch cemani eggs, my bf vetoed that, but let me get a polish chicken instead of the 4 silkie chicks I had in my hands that day.
Then 1 of my first 4 ee's died of cocci. I cried. I treated my flock. Then I got a semi-quieted rooster because my pullets were fighting. Then it seemed like I wasn't getting enough eggs b/c my ameracuna stopped laying and we saw our chicken guy at the fair and b/c I was still so sad over losing Matilda, my bf bought me a 16 week old rose comb leghorn Nell.

Everyone in my laying flock is getting into their lay except Nell and 2 of my original ee's.

Then I wanted meat chickens. But our chicken guy didn't get back to me on cornish x. So I saw some dp chicks at the feed store, they wanted to get rid of them, so I got 27 chicks for $20. Only 5 are roos.

My friend is "egging" me on to get a trio of white bresse juveniles h/c I'm stressed about losing the 1 chick, but since I got chickens this year I have lost 4 out of 58. 1 to cocci and my own inexperience, 2 to my dog and 1 from shipping stress. Not horrible numbers..

I love all my chickens, even the ones headed specifically for freezer camp. They make me laugh and smile. I don't need to set my alarm, I spring out of bed every morning with one thought in my mind- gotta tend my chickens!

After I got the 27 dp meaties, I realized oh no, I love them! So to distract me from their future demise, I got 6 of the ayam cemani & haffies. So I can dote on the ayam cemani, haffies and white bresse chicks and console myself with these 19 chicks when we send 25 of my chickens to freezer camp in the next 6 weeks or less. I might be adding more to freezer camp from my laying flock, my ameracuna hasn't layed an egg in almost 4 months, and idk about 1 of my ee's who doesn't lay very well, so it looks like 27 might go to freezer camp. I'm waiting for caponizing equipment now, but tomorrow my bf wants to take our 5 roos out of our dp meaties and try to sell them at the chicken swap along with Wobbles my little formally injured slw pullet that I can't integrate back in b/c she's so sweet and shy the others pick on her relentlessly. I might put her with my first batch of cemani/haffies that are approximately 7 week old. And we're picking up 6 or so muscovy ducks this weekend too, but all the drakes but one will be going to freezer camp in 4 weeks. Lol awful I know.

To reinforce the fact some are headed to freezer camp I got cook's illustrated best chicken recipes recently and I browse it while looking at my dp meaties pen. These are food I keep reinforcing to myself. But freezer camp day will be a very sad day indeed.

 

[nayeli]

Lol, I looked into no crow collars and a couple members on byc have fashioned their own collars. The de-crowing surgery is done by just 2 people in the us that I know of, 1 in Oklahoma, 1 in Colorado. Caponizing is another option available if you're up to it, as ways to keep a rooster without crowing. I'm very very urban on .5 acre and I have 54 chickens. 9 known roosters. 1 semi-quieted. 1 headed to get de-crowed soon, with hopefully another of the same breed in case things don't go well...

I feed fermented 23% protein soy free organic non gmo chick starter, electrolytes and probiotics in their water


And I don’t feed medicated chick starter, but have a dish of dirt from my garden to build up their tolerance for cocci. I have no idea what I'm really doing either, as I just started having chickens in June, and if I may be one shining example of chicken math here... I wanted 8 egg layers of blue and pink eggs.. I started with 4 ee, added 3 more older ee's when I found out how long until they start laying eggs, then I really wanted eggs and got a 12 month old wheaten ameracuna. When I met my friend with beautiful English orpingtons, dwarf olandsk and ayam cemani. Which is why I have 8 ayam cemani and 4 haffie (ayam cemani x orpington) chicks. I wanted a silkie to go broody to hatch cemani eggs, my bf vetoed that, but let me get a polish chicken instead of the 4 silkie chicks I had in my hands that day.
Then 1 of my first 4 ee's died of cocci. I cried. I treated my flock. Then I got a semi-quieted rooster because my pullets were fighting. Then it seemed like I wasn't getting enough eggs b/c my ameracuna stopped laying and we saw our chicken guy at the fair and b/c I was still so sad over losing Matilda, my bf bought me a 16 week old rose comb leghorn Nell.

Everyone in my laying flock is getting into their lay except Nell and 2 of my original ee's.

Then I wanted meat chickens. But our chicken guy didn't get back to me on cornish x. So I saw some dp chicks at the feed store, they wanted to get rid of them, so I got 27 chicks for $20. Only 5 are roos.

My friend is "egging" me on to get a trio of white bresse juveniles h/c I'm stressed about losing the 1 chick, but since I got chickens this year I have lost 4 out of 58. 1 to cocci and my own inexperience, 2 to my dog and 1 from shipping stress. Not horrible numbers..

I love all my chickens, even the ones headed specifically for freezer camp. They make me laugh and smile. I don't need to set my alarm, I spring out of bed every morning with one thought in my mind- gotta tend my chickens!

After I got the 27 dp meaties, I realized oh no, I love them! So to distract me from their future demise, I got 6 of the ayam cemani & haffies. So I can dote on the ayam cemani, haffies and white bresse chicks and console myself with these 19 chicks when we send 25 of my chickens to freezer camp in the next 6 weeks or less. I might be adding more to freezer camp from my laying flock, my ameracuna hasn't layed an egg in almost 4 months, and idk about 1 of my ee's who doesn't lay very well, so it looks like 27 might go to freezer camp. I'm waiting for caponizing equipment now, but tomorrow my bf wants to take our 5 roos out of our dp meaties and try to sell them at the chicken swap along with Wobbles my little formally injured slw pullet that I can't integrate back in b/c she's so sweet and shy the others pick on her relentlessly. I might put her with my first batch of cemani/haffies that are approximately 7 week old. And we're picking up 6 or so muscovy ducks this weekend too, but all the drakes but one will be going to freezer camp in 4 weeks. Lol awful I know.

To reinforce the fact some are headed to freezer camp I got cook's illustrated best chicken recipes recently and I browse it while looking at my dp meaties pen. These are food I keep reinforcing to myself. But freezer camp day will be a very sad day indeed.

Kudos to you! We can't do freezer camp. We just don't have the heart to kill them, even if we don't like them. I agree with sending bad layers to freezer camp though, they don't provide many eggs and their offspring will probably be bad layers too!

 

[stasichick]

Lol, I looked into no crow collars and a couple members on byc have fashioned their own collars. The de-crowing surgery is done by just 2 people in the us that I know of, 1 in Oklahoma, 1 in Colorado. Caponizing is another option available if you're up to it, as ways to keep a rooster without crowing. I'm very very urban on .5 acre and I have 54 chickens. 9 known roosters. 1 semi-quieted. 1 headed to get de-crowed soon, with hopefully another of the same breed in case things don't go well...

I feed fermented 23% protein soy free organic non gmo chick starter, electrolytes and probiotics in their water


And I don’t feed medicated chick starter, but have a dish of dirt from my garden to build up their tolerance for cocci. I have no idea what I'm really doing either, as I just started having chickens in June, and if I may be one shining example of chicken math here... I wanted 8 egg layers of blue and pink eggs.. I started with 4 ee, added 3 more older ee's when I found out how long until they start laying eggs, then I really wanted eggs and got a 12 month old wheaten ameracuna. When I met my friend with beautiful English orpingtons, dwarf olandsk and ayam cemani. Which is why I have 8 ayam cemani and 4 haffie (ayam cemani x orpington) chicks. I wanted a silkie to go broody to hatch cemani eggs, my bf vetoed that, but let me get a polish chicken instead of the 4 silkie chicks I had in my hands that day.
Then 1 of my first 4 ee's died of cocci. I cried. I treated my flock. Then I got a semi-quieted rooster because my pullets were fighting. Then it seemed like I wasn't getting enough eggs b/c my ameracuna stopped laying and we saw our chicken guy at the fair and b/c I was still so sad over losing Matilda, my bf bought me a 16 week old rose comb leghorn Nell.

Everyone in my laying flock is getting into their lay except Nell and 2 of my original ee's.

Then I wanted meat chickens. But our chicken guy didn't get back to me on cornish x. So I saw some dp chicks at the feed store, they wanted to get rid of them, so I got 27 chicks for $20. Only 5 are roos.

My friend is "egging" me on to get a trio of white bresse juveniles h/c I'm stressed about losing the 1 chick, but since I got chickens this year I have lost 4 out of 58. 1 to cocci and my own inexperience, 2 to my dog and 1 from shipping stress. Not horrible numbers..

I love all my chickens, even the ones headed specifically for freezer camp. They make me laugh and smile. I don't need to set my alarm, I spring out of bed every morning with one thought in my mind- gotta tend my chickens!

After I got the 27 dp meaties, I realized oh no, I love them! So to distract me from their future demise, I got 6 of the ayam cemani & haffies. So I can dote on the ayam cemani, haffies and white bresse chicks and console myself with these 19 chicks when we send 25 of my chickens to freezer camp in the next 6 weeks or less. I might be adding more to freezer camp from my laying flock, my ameracuna hasn't layed an egg in almost 4 months, and idk about 1 of my ee's who doesn't lay very well, so it looks like 27 might go to freezer camp. I'm waiting for caponizing equipment now, but tomorrow my bf wants to take our 5 roos out of our dp meaties and try to sell them at the chicken swap along with Wobbles my little formally injured slw pullet that I can't integrate back in b/c she's so sweet and shy the others pick on her relentlessly. I might put her with my first batch of cemani/haffies that are approximately 7 week old. And we're picking up 6 or so muscovy ducks this weekend too, but all the drakes but one will be going to freezer camp in 4 weeks. Lol awful I know.

To reinforce the fact some are headed to freezer camp I got cook's illustrated best chicken recipes recently and I browse it while looking at my dp meaties pen. These are food I keep reinforcing to myself. But freezer camp day will be a very sad day indeed.

Wow!!! You sure do have a collection of chickens!!! Seriously I don't know if I will be able to send my babes to freezer camp.... its a nice thought to eat them and live off the land.... but at the end of the day while eating Etta I will think of the time she got poop stuck in her feathers and I had to give her a bath. lol. I am sure its a bit easier to swallow with the amount of chickens you have... being that I only have three they are all very specifically my little babies. Don't get me wrong, if I could have 100 I would! but our town only allows 6 per home. / if we ever move I will certainly make sure its where I can have a lot!!! It would be a lot easier if I just have a huge flock and my husband fills the freezer and all the sudden I have a bunch more babies.

I am a bit worried about my little (huge) Buffy (buff orpington) it looks like she is growing spurs / I have to do a bit more research on it but I am pretty sure that is a sign of a cock!

 

[Double Kindness]

You can keep roos, there are options such as no crow collars, caponizing or decrowing surgery. I have a semi-quieted rooster that's not nearly as loud or incessantly going off like our neighbors basset hound.

The 5 dp roos escaped being sold today, we had a business event. Phew.

It's easy enough for us I hope to send over half my flock to freezer camp in less than 2 months because I have more other chickens. My bf is very understanding and knows what I want is what's happening and SOON!!

We're planning out the next coop we're building. I want 3 nesting boxes on each side with 2 brooder boxes under the nesting boxes to house different roos I'm rotating out for breeding, 1 ayam cemani, 1 white bresse. But adding svart honas, and more better cemani and bresse in the spring. So maybe 4 nesting boxes each side with 3 brooders underneath. Yeah.

Tomorrow we pick up muscovy ducks, probably 6, and keeping 3 for sustainable duck meat/egg flock, and adding 2 dozen cortunix quails in the spring too. I also have 2 meat does, and we'll add 3-5 beehives in the spring and 3 more bunny grow out areas and maybe a quick cornish x tractor in our front yard in the spring hidden with tarps. Idk

 

[stasichick]

You can keep roos, there are options such as no crow collars, caponizing or decrowing surgery. I have a semi-quieted rooster that's not nearly as loud or incessantly going off like our neighbors basset hound.

The 5 dp roos escaped being sold today, we had a business event. Phew.

It's easy enough for us I hope to send over half my flock to freezer camp in less than 2 months because I have more other chickens. My bf is very understanding and knows what I want is what's happening and SOON!!

We're planning out the next coop we're building. I want 3 nesting boxes on each side with 2 brooder boxes under the nesting boxes to house different roos I'm rotating out for breeding, 1 ayam cemani, 1 white bresse. But adding svart honas, and more better cemani and bresse in the spring. So maybe 4 nesting boxes each side with 3 brooders underneath. Yeah.

Tomorrow we pick up muscovy ducks, probably 6, and keeping 3 for sustainable duck meat/egg flock, and adding 2 dozen cortunix quails in the spring too. I also have 2 meat does, and we'll add 3-5 beehives in the spring and 3 more bunny grow out areas and maybe a quick cornish x tractor in our front yard in the spring hidden with tarps. Idk

I love that you are doing beehives!!! I really wanted to do that!!! but my husband doesn't "like" bees... his response was.. "what if spiders had wings?" to which I cringed and responded "touche" but maybe I can convince him with all that delicious golden honey. Its worth a shot!