We don't want to kill chickens

[EM Squared Farms]

Maybe we were too ambitious this year to hatch out 111 chickies. Now we are left with a lot of chickens that we thought we were going to sell.

We have sold 12. That is about 10%.

We do not want to kill all the extra cockerels my son is not going to keep for breeding/showing for food. Nor do we want to give them to a bobcat trapper to use as bait in the traps. Nor do we want to just free range them for whoever to kill them (birds of prey, our dog, our 3 cats, racoons, coyotes, bobcats...)

For now, we are going to just keep them all and try and sell them by exploring different acceptable options.

We set a limit for him of only 10 chickens per breed (he has 5 different chicken breeds). All the rest he needs to sell.

It seems we have sold mostly hens (he did sell one cockerel !).

Most of them are bantams anyways (except for the Marans). They are pets to my son and we just could not kill his pets for food (when he plays with them everyday). Some people can relate to this. Others I'm sure have no problems killing chickens.

What are some of the management strategies others of you use to manage your flocks of new chicks every year ?

We appreciate your reply and advice. Thanks !

~Lisa
EM Squared Farms
<a href="http://www.emsquaredfarms.weebly.com>www.emsquaredfarms.weebly.com</a>

 

[luvinrunnin]

Try Craigslist. Say you only have 50 and that's the end of them, none available again until next year, post pics of the cutest banties.

 

[foxypoproxy]

Quote:
I don't like to kill my chickens or eat them either. They are my pets so that would be the equivalent to eating my dog...i could never do that 0_0!
I sadly can't take any more roosters (like alot of people) because 1. some property's don't allow them because of the noise. 2. they fight and it takes more money and space to keep more then one roo.
I can't help with your roo problem, chances are if you do sell them...they may become someones dinner

but, what breeds of chickens do you have? I'm looking for some bantam hens, if you don't mind shipping them, i could buy some from you?
Hopefully some more people will have better answers then me.

 

[Duramaxgirl]

111! That's a lot! Although I'm right behind you!

as far as I know you have 3 options for unwanted birds. Eat them, sell them or give them away. I can't right now think of anything else you can do with them. I've done all three before. I'm sure you've tried cragslist. If not its a good way to unload the roos. Make a add that sells them as pairs so people have to buy roos with the hens. Or sell them as stew birds.

 

[chicmom]

Hi Lisa!

It's so hard, I know, when your children regard chickens as pets. I myself have a few "special" hens and even a rooster that I consider to be pets.

I would suggest selling your chickens as pairs or in a trio. (Meaning, male/female pairs, or a trio of two females and one male) That is one way that breeders find homes for their extra roosters.

That's really the only thing I can think of. I give away my extra roosters on Craigslist. (If I try and sell them, nobody ever calls. Give them away, and EVERYONE is calling.) When someone comes to pick them up, I ask no questions. I just help get them crated up.

I don't think I'll hatch anymore chicks because of this very reason. You just don't know how many roosters you'll end up with. I am topped out at 23 chickens and two turkeys now. I've closed my flock and that's all I'm going to keep for a few years.

Good luck to you, and take care,
Sharon

 

[sourland]

If yor son is showing, most shows have a sales area in addition to the show pens. One of the realities of hatching eggs is that you get more cockerels/roosters than you need. The harsh reality: sell, eat, give away. Good luck in resolving this situation.

 

[mandelyn]

Rule #1.... Never ever sell hens without a rooster until the roosters are gone. Pairs or trios only depending on how many hens you have. Creative pricing helps to... when I have a boy I list him as free but it's $20 if you want a girl with him. Depending on breed, sometimes it's $10 or $30 or whatever. No one has ever taken the free boy without buying the hen too. Course I never got ahead of myself and hatched a whole pile either.

The worse thing you can do is sell out the girls before the boys had a shot, if you're not prepared to eat the boys or have them eaten. The more you hatch, the more likely it is someone is going to eat something. And don't list how many you have... for example... say "Couple of pairs of such-and-such chickens for sale, from the last hatch of the year, hens will lay a white egg and the boys are super cute, sold in pairs only for $x".

 

[keesmom]

If you're going to hatch a large number of eggs you're always going to wind up with a ton of extra boys. And this time of year everyone is up to their ears in roos making them difficult even to give away. I'm not even trying to sell my extra boys this year - into the freezer they go. Given the cost of feed it's silly to give them to someone else for a free dinner! I did decide I would have to do this before I started hatching out a large number of chicks.

My problem here is selling bantam hens. People only want LF. So I'll hopefully hatch more LF pullets next year, this year I have more boys than girls.

Got lots of bantam pullets though.

 

[mysweetgypsy]

We ran into a similar problem, on a much smaller scale! I have a handful of extra roos from straight runs we bought. My husband doesn't want to kill them, I can't, but I did say I'd take them to be butchered. Still a "no" there, so I'm going to sell the lot (super cheap $5) for someone else to eat. I know you said you guys couldn't eat them, but why couldn't someone else? Your son must realize chickens were origianlly kept for eggs and meat, so it's not such a far fetched idea that some should be food. I look at it as a donation to a needy family, (the butcher only charges $2/bird). That's what I tell my 4yo daughter, even when we sit down to play with them. "They'll go to feed a family that needs fresh farm raised chicken but can't afford to buy them at the grocery store,". It has gone well so far

 

[mulewagon]

Be sure to get those extra cockerels separated from the girls - they'll kill the hens. We didn't get our first batch separated fast enough, and I barely saved my hens...

Look around for local flea markets that allow you to sell animals. Bring along citrus or potato bags for the buyers to put the birds in.