Too many chicks... how do I choose?!?

[ggarratt]

So my DH and I decided we wanted to get a small flock of Wyandotte laying hens... 6 hens, no roos.

Somehow (I can't fathom how it happened

we've ended up with this:

I can tell you a little bit about the circumstances. We decided that we didn't want to buy from a big hatchery, so instead found a great person locally who breeds BLRW. The only problem is they only come straight run... so 6 chicks became 12 chicks in hopes that we'll end up with 6 hens. But, after about 5 weeks, we started to see bright red combs on all but three of the original birds. So we called the breeder back up and asked about getting some more chicks to get up to our 6 hens (that's all we wanted after all). It turns out that because of an upcoming divorce, the breeder had 8 buff wyandotte chicks that came from great stock that he had hatched for himself but needed sell (at a very discounted price) since he was no longer living at his home. And on top of that he threw in 7 more beautiful BLRW chicks he had been keeping for himself.

So now I seem to have 27 chicks!

How will I decided who to keep and who has to go? And when do I make my decision? I think I've been bitten by the bug and am planning to keep one buff roo and one splash roo. And I think my DH has convinced me that we should grow out the extra roos and put them in the freezer (it seems sad if they really are good quality birds). Is it ok to grow out all those roosters together with the hens? And how will I choose which of the hens I should keep? I think I want to keep 5 of the BLRW hens and 5 of the buffs so that there will be enough hens for the 2 roosters. And I figure too many eggs is better than not enough... right? I don't like the black laced BLRW as much as the blues or splashes so maybe I should just re-home all the dark ones now? But some of those seem to be turning more blue as they get older... and what if all the little lighter ones end up being roos? So do you think I should grow them all out and then decide? That seems like an awful lot of chickens to raise when I was originally only planning on having 6...

Decisions decisions... does anybody have any advice?

 

[SillyChicken]

LOL, just keep them... in fuzzy math you really only have 6 chickens.... really!

Besides, you'll end up wanting more anyway!

 

[redrocketrooster]

This would be a chicken math case now wouldn't it? 1 + 1 = 35


Take into consideration how many hens you have FOR your roos:

A roo and five hens thrive alright, that's a small flock like you planned. A roo and ten hens is an ideal situation for all of the chickens because the roo takes turns mounting his girls. If the count of hens is too low your girls will be beaten up and bald from the roos advances. Adding another roo to that equation probably is going to result in roo fights. Nasty bloody roo fights.

A commonly used ratio is one roo to ten hens. Base your logic on roo math first. Extra roos can be sold off on CL or frozen, just be sure that when maturity hits they are gone or housed separately.

 

[ggarratt]

Quote:
Wanting more is just the problem. When I get another batch next year (which I'm obviously going to want to do) I'm going to be totally overrun!

 

[HathawayHens]

Yeah, there are no wrong answers here... you can keep them all, then pick your favorites to keep, and freeze the rest... or you can pick now and sell or give away the rest... or anything in between! It is sad, though - we have one that we think is a roo, and it will be tough to see him go.

 

[ggarratt]

Quote:
Oh wow. I had read the 5:1 ratio and thought I could just double it. I definitely don't want any fights on my hands. If I only keep the BLRW splash roo what will chicks with the buff hens end up looking like? At what age should I separate the rest of the roos out and when do they go into the freezer?

 

[Lotsapaints]

Ahh chicken math....I kinda had the same thing I ordered 36 straight run 3 breeds well they came one breed only had 3 hens the others 5 they are all together 10 weeks now and I'm butchering the roos at 16 to 18 weeks. No fighting they just are eating like market hogs.....Worse for me I didn't like the quality so I've hatched out more but I do have people wanting hens and I figure if I end up with more hens than I want I'll just have more eggs. We have no problem with culling the roos and when they start causing problems you will not either unless you like all that crowing. The advise I've gotten off this board is to wait until they are 6 months before you really cull but I see the birds that were not that great body wise are still that way but the color shows better with age. For eating you don't want to go much past 22 weeks......

 

[EweSheep]

You can always build a bachelor pad for the young roos that you do not want to breed or want some lawn ornaments. Be mindful predators, paws or wings, they can haul them off without you knowing it.

 

[ggarratt]

Thanks everyone. I think I'm going to end up keeping whatever hens I get out of the bunch with one roo. Once they all get a little bigger I'm going to move the roos out to a chicken coop further back on the property to get them out of the way of the hens. Some of the little roos are already getting a bit mean. One of them is a downright trouble maker!

 

[nsanywhere]

AHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA! welcome to the obsession! Here's what I do:

I get 25 hens of mixed breeds. I pick out the four that I'm going to keep and plan to sell the rest. Then they arrive and I fall in love with 2 more. Then, one gets really cool markings, and I really need to keep that one. Then I have to nurse one and two, and there's no way I sell those! Then I realize that I'm very Noah's Ark and really think I need to keep at least 2 of each breed. THEN I feel badly selling only one of a breed, so I think maybe I should keep her, too.

SO, I usually end up keeping 12-15 new hens despite planning on 4!

My flock is growing exponentially every year........