Uh Oh!! There's a un-ordered rooster in the bunch!!

[2 Beauts]

We ordered 15 female chicks from My Pet Chicken. They are now 9 weeks old, and there's a rooster in there! Now, he's a very nice rooster, and I know you can eat fertilized eggs, but I can not get past it mentally. I wouldn't mind keeping him if there's a good way to keep him seperate from the hens without building him his own run and house. So, I'm asking for suggestions on how to keep him separate, and keep him happy.

TIA

Beth

 

[greyfields]

1 roo for 15 hens isn't a bad ratio. I doubt anyone will suffer.

But, of course, when he's a 'teenager' and learning to do his man-work, he'll appear to be rough on the hens. But, they get better with age.

 

[arlee453]

Greyfields, it sounds like she just doesn't want fertile eggs for eating.

The only way I know to avoid fertile eggs is to separate the guy in his own pen (which you said you don't want to do) or to give him away or euthanize him.

You can have a bachelor flock of roosters, but they should be housed away from the girls so they can't see them through the fencing or there will be fights.

A single chicken is pretty lonely - they are flock animals.

Personally, I'd either work on getting over the mental block against eating fertile eggs, or get rid of the rooster. Once you eat a few that 'might' be fertile and realize there is no obvious difference in appearance or taste, etc, maybe you can work past it.

 

[greyfields]

Oh, I see. It's a non-issue to me. My hens are exposed to roosters and we eat the eggs and sell about 20 dozen a week.

As long as they're refrigerated within 48 hours of being laid, you cannot tell the difference. According to the USDA as well, there is no objective way to test if an egg is fertile or not short of incubatin. The "bullseye" is an old wife's tale.

 

[FLchook]

Just pick the eggs up each day and put them in the fridge...nothing there! Itll be fine...they taste and look the same! Keep the sweet boy! you can do it

 

[sBrickmanHouse]

Same happened to us-- we ordered 25 from MM and got an accidental rooster. Weren't planning on a rooster, didn't want one, but there he was.

Now, 20 weeks later, we don't mind having him around at all, and he is VERY good to his girls and very protective.

As far as the fertilized eggs go, we just got our first eggs last week, and have been enjoying them immensely. I can tell you, as a total non-farm girl, I couldn't tell the difference between a fertilized egg and a non-fertilized one if you held a gun to my head. Still can't, and I assume I've been cooking with and eating a mix of the two all week!

As long as you collect them regularly and store them in the fridge, you'll never know the difference.

Your only other option (besides giving him away or eating him), is to pen him 24/7 away from the girls, but seeing how my roo is with the hens, I'd never do that, especially if it were only to appease my ill-founded squeamishness.

 

[dangerouschicken]

I am still freaked out by the bullseye. But in a good way.

 

[pattee]

I ordered 11 chickens from my pet chicken and 2 of them were roosters. I just couldn't have them in my neighborhood... and there's already one here. I re homed them even tho I didn't want to.

I don't like to think about eating fertilized eggs either... just something about it.

 

[seriousbill]

Quote:
Well, old wives aren't always wrong. There're a good many in the education community that offer evidence that there's a basis for it:

http://4hembryology.psu.edu/fertile.html

http://ohioline.osu.edu/b633/b633_10.html

 

[quadcam79]

I was going to ask about fertilized eggs...I had, until yesterday two very cool roos, an aracuana and a crevacour and i didnt want to get rid of them but the neighbors dogs made that decision for me.

anyway, how long can you keep eggs when you have a roo around, i see posts about putting them in the fridge, will the embryo continue to form or will that keep that from happening?

I'm getting more chicks and I ordered another aracuana roo, that was the prettiest bird i ever seen so i want another