Yes hatcheries put in packing peanuts for warm and to fill up your order box. They are of any choice the hatcheries wants.
Not all are male. There have been a couple people on here that had some nice RIR pullets and such. They just add them for warmth.
Okay, so this comes back to my other thread on caponing! I do not especially want roosters, and we do not eat meat so that's not an option. When you order all sexed chicks, can you request no "packing peanuts??"
I think it depends on the hatchery from which you're ordering, songbird. I ordered from Ideal and they do allow you to request no packing peanuts. I don't know if all the hatcheries allow this, though. From what hatchery are you thinking about ordering?
One thing that appears to make a huge difference is WHEN you place the order. In colder weather and with a small order they pretty much feel they HAVE to add extra chicks in order for them to survive. I think 25 is pretty much the minimum to avoid the little peanuts. I recently received an order of 19 from Ideal....they included 11 peanuts making a total of 30 chicks! One was an extra Silkie, however. We think at least one of the (RIR) peanuts is a girl.
I don't suggest caponizing unless you are ready to lose some birds. Caponizing was a common practice for removing the testicles of male birds that were going to be used for meat. So...they will grow to a large proportion and won't live a good life after they gain their excess weight. You could try contacting the hatchery, but you'd have better success in giving away the packing peanuts when you receive your order.
