"Unlucky in hatching"

Bawk2theFuture

Songster
Mar 31, 2016
156
24
101
Galveston, TX
So, I was talking our situation over with my son yesterday about our adventures in hatching...originally I set nine Salmon Faverolles eggs that i got in the mail from someone here on BYC. Six hatched- four were roosters, two hens. I thought to myself. Ok, that's fine, i can either eat these roosters or find them homes, they're nice enough and good looking too. Besides, i wanted other kinds of hens. So i also set four BCMs- only one hatched that i was certain was a hen...grew very attached to and became my "favorite". (More on that later)
So then i got six more eggs to set from Meyer. This time white Cochins. Only two hatched...one was a hen.
At this point I'm desperate for some hens. So i got some blue splash Marans from eBay and set them.
At first i thought, awesome it seems as though I've five hens and one roo but around seven weeks four of them very obviously have bright red combs.

This morning i went to go let everyone out to forage in the run.
My "favorite" who I've named "Ebony" jumped up on a roost and crowed twice as i walked away.

Ssshhhh! Don't do that! I hushed at herrrumnnhim?:barnie... im not allowed roosters here.
At this point I've a total of ten cockerels and five hens.

I've currently got six Easter eggers in the incubator please be girls please be girls...

My 11 year laughs and tells me "mom, you're unlucky in hatching" adding "you know, you can buy chicks that they already know if they're boys or girls?"

I don't know what to do.
I can't bare to eat these guys, i can't keep them...

Does anyone here want them? I'm in NE Ohio... PM me if you want one or pics or whatever.:/
 
I had a hard time coming to terms with eating my roosters as well.

Here are a couple reasons why I was able to accept that eating them was the best option;

They will start ganging up on hens and take turns jumping on the same hen repeatedly

Knowing that the only way I can get rid of them is by advertising them as 'free' and then someone else will just eat them and reap the rewards of my loving care

If I buy store bought chicken, I have no idea what has gone into their body

Store bought chickens are raised in deplorable conditions, every one of my birds I eat is one less that has to live through that kind of life

My own roosters will have a lifetime of good days and one bad day



If you really can't eat them and you really can't keep them, your son is right, you should just buy sexed chicks next time. Until then, you can always advertise them on craigslist. If you want them to go to a home that will keep them alive, advertise them for about $15. Nobody will pay that much for a chicken dinner they have to process themselves but someone who wants to have a flock rooster would pay that. Good luck!
 
Just wanted to share our rooster journey so far. We started out with 7 chickens and all were killed by puppies and dogs so we started over. I got 21 mixed breeds as chicks and out of those 12 were roosters. Like you I just wanted more hens so I incubated. Out of 16 that's hatched 13 were roosters
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not only that every time I've had a broody hen hatch eggs they have been roosters. I ordered 12 more and 10 were roosters. Got 6 from tractor supply and 4 were roosters. Anyway it one point I had over 30 that were all 6 months and younger. I could always tell early bc they would get red combs at a few weeks old. I let my husband kill them at first and didn't want to see any of it! After about a year of this I finally started helping. A few months ago we killed about 20 at one time and processes them all. It took almost awhile day. We rotisserie them, boil them, grill them. I can chicken broth and make bone broth. Rooster neat can get tough so the younger the better as far as that goes. Anyway I know it's not for everyone and it is hard. But to us it's the best way. We raise them free range and feed them organic feed and fruit etc so we know what we are eating and I feel good about that. But I totally feel you!! I currently have 24 chicks I hatched and I'm already seeing some roosters! Lol
 
Yeah, i gotta "mam up" and help my husband...in the past few weeks he's had to "dispatch" three possums, four raccoons and had to euthanize one chick.

I feel bad for him because he has a gentle disposition but he doesn't want me to do it not because I'm fragile but because I'm not...i don't entirely understand his view on my personality but anyhow. (It's not like I'm a cold blooded killer, i just don't cry when life leaves an organism, i come from 3 generations of German-Cuban farmers, we don't cry.)

Anyhow, i see a lot of the points being made here and am coming around to the idea of homegrown rooster meat. They're 14 weeks and 10 weeks old this week. I'm going to wait until about 18 and get one if those humane bolt shooter things to cull them. Anyone have any links to how I'm to dress them?
 
Sounds just like my boyfriend! He handles all the dispatching even though I can tell it makes him sad. I've offered to do it but he refuses because he doesn't want me to have to do that sort of thing.

I personally wouldn't waste the money on the bolt gun (not sure if they even make them for chickens). I don't think they always work and with such a small target (chickens head) it might actually be dangerous. Even if it worked, you would still need to bleed them. A sharp hatchet would accomplish both a quick, humane death, and bleeding them out.

It's a little weird the first time you process any but you will feel much better knowing where your food comes from! The second time will be much easier.

I don't have any links but if you do a search on here, I know there is tons of information...
 
So, I was talking our situation over with my son yesterday about our adventures in hatching...originally I set nine Salmon Faverolles eggs that i got in the mail from someone here on BYC. Six hatched- four were roosters, two hens. I thought to myself. Ok, that's fine, i can either eat these roosters or find them homes, they're nice enough and good looking too. Besides, i wanted other kinds of hens. So i also set four BCMs- only one hatched that i was certain was a hen...grew very attached to and became my "favorite". (More on that later)
So then i got six more eggs to set from Meyer. This time white Cochins. Only two hatched...one was a hen.
At this point I'm desperate for some hens. So i got some blue splash Marans from eBay and set them.
At first i thought, awesome it seems as though I've five hens and one roo but around seven weeks four of them very obviously have bright red combs.

This morning i went to go let everyone out to forage in the run.
My "favorite" who I've named "Ebony" jumped up on a roost and crowed twice as i walked away.

Ssshhhh! Don't do that! I hushed at herrrumnnhim?:barnie... im not allowed roosters here.
At this point I've a total of ten cockerels and five hens.

I've currently got six Easter eggers in the incubator please be girls please be girls...

My 11 year laughs and tells me "mom, you're unlucky in hatching" adding "you know, you can buy chicks that they already know if they're boys or girls?"

I don't know what to do.
I can't bare to eat these guys, i can't keep them...

Does anyone here want them? I'm in NE Ohio... PM me if you want one or pics or whatever.:/


I had to eat my roos just this past February. I tried rehoming them, but everyone either wanted to eat them or fight them. There were also a few animal hoarders in that mix. So the most humane thing was to fill them up with their favorite junk foods and then send them to the cone.

I had a favorite roo in there, but my hen chose his brother. I still get a little weepy when I think about him. But I hatched 19 birds and only got 4,yes, FOUR hens.

I feel your pain.
 
Maybe it's not the best way- but for us the fastest way to kill them it a very sharp knife and cutting off their heads fast. We tried the twisting of the necks but it didn't seem to work fast enough and I don't want them to suffer. They still move after it happens as in the term a chicken with its head cut off which is hard to watch. Our son who is 6 helps us and he cried the first few times but after explaining it all to him and how much he loves his chicken nuggets he understood. We did have to get a de plucker though bc that takes all day to pluck! We put them in just starting to boil water for a few minutes and it helps the feathers cone off easier. We got this hand one on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Chicken-Plucker-Fingers-Professional-Feather/dp/B00MQLFD80
 

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