Torn over possibly culling whole flock

[tickens33]

Definitely let them go. The money and time that far apart, can be a real strain. Know, that in the future, you can have chickens again. And while you made it work, you did get lucky. It could be with the weather, you could have a disaster. That you would feel guilty about.

Mrs K

This is thoughtful, thank you..we do plan to start over in the spring.

I would consider selling your favorite hen and one more together (does she have a bestie in the flock??) if your husband is set on culling for meat, then cull the other 3. Just because I don’t like sending a single hen to a new environment. I feel like they do much better with one buddy going along with them.

This is a good idea!! She's honestly very independently curious (which is why she's our favorite, the rest are pretty dumb!) so I haven't necessarily observed her having a particular best friend. She seems to like to range alone and much further than the others. But maybe I'll try to keep a closer eye on her relationships in the coming weeks.

Also keep in mind that in all honesty, you can usually sell laying hens for more money than their meat is worth if you are processing. Some markets may be different though. If you do end up having to cull the entire flock, try not to feel too bad about it. It is part of life for many chickens.

Any money we could get from selling a single chicken would be a drop in the bucket compared to just the weekly gas money, let alone the investment cost of the coop. We are in this project to gain skills, approach food sovereignty, etc...definitely not the money! We would probably give her to a friend. Next year we want to expand significantly and start having outputs that would let us make some actual financial return. But anyways thank you for the reassurance.. It's a tough mental line between pets and livestock but I know you're correct here.

 

[tickens33]

Ugh, the sunk cost fallacy of your husband is annoying because I know a lot of people like that.

I understand his logic. The goal of this project was never to have pets, it was to produce food for ourselves..I just got quite attached to this first flock along the way.

Because you have time, what I would suggest is using this summer to start making connections to other Chicken Tenders in your area.

I think this is a great thing for us to do, regardless of the eventual outcome. I do have a couple connections we'll probably start with but then maybe branch out from there.

More likely, if you find locals who have certain pure breeds that match your's, you can ask for them to take your hens or roosters in exchange for x amount of fertilized eggs starting in whatever early spring month works for you. Then you can incubate and have some of the grandbabies running around and either next winter you're closer to being able to homestead, or you cull for meat and repeat the process with 1-2 of the best ones.

I could even conceivably see it being easier to strike a deal for overwintering pure bred roosters because of the quarantine period, and then the period it takes to introduce and get comfortable and still have time to have fertilized eggs. Then either get the rooster back, or the eggs.


I have done trades where I traded a rooster with good genetics, for an asshole who needs to be culled and I still was able to get eggs at a later date. So you could save the genetics, get a rooster (or hen) to eat, and either have rights to buy back, or have eggs at a later date. Framing it from a diversifying genetics standpoint it comes down to if other people close by either have the same breeds, or are interested in the breeds you have.

This is all fascinating—thank you so much for sharing your experience because you're clearly quite knowledgeable. I don't know if we're at the point where we have the capacity to collaborate with others like this, but I'm going to keep this advice in mind.

Conceivably, you could look into heating water with a compost pile but that's a big undertaking that you might not be ready for. But it is doable.

We're still very much compost amateurs but I LOVE this idea, imagine the heat from the composting chicken litter keeping the water warm, and the water came from rainwater collection..permaculture dream I'm going to look more into this!

Thank you again for taking the time to write such a detailed response!

 

[tickens33]

Contact your local 4H chapter, or whatever Ag youth group is in your area. That might be a good way to find them a good home.

Thank you for this suggestion!! I wish I had done that kind of thing as a kid, never too late to get connected with them though. If friends aren't able to take the one we want to rehome, this will probably be my next step.

 

[Altairsky]

Don't sell a single chicken. Always sell pairings. Single, lone chickens in a new flock easily get bullied, and sometimes bullied to death. I always sell pairings of females or trios with one male and two females. I'd cull rather than rehoming a lone hen.

 

[CatInTheHenHouse]

We're still very much compost amateurs but I LOVE this idea, imagine the heat from the composting chicken litter keeping the water warm, and the water came from rainwater collection..permaculture dream I'm going to look more into this!

There’s an article for the compost heating: link. If you’re worried about junk getting in it, maybe have more than one?

 

[Mrs. K]

I wonder where the manure composting was tried. I tried this, and did not have anywhere near the results claimed. At -20 below, the ground will freeze to the depth of the bucket, and maybe below that.

I do think it would work at 20 above 0.

Mrs K