What are the odds?

[ariri30]

We have those, and some loose screws, but anyone hanging around here lost their marbles long time ago.

Also, watch where you step.... lots of poo around here

Did you release the OP?

 

[jeepgirl13]

Did you release the OP?

Have you heard back from him?

BWAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! *evil laugh*

 

[jeepgirl13]

Did you release the OP?

I actually had to move him from the back yard to the my side shed. Little bugger would wake up with the sun, hooting and hollering about all kinds of nonsense.... "when can I go home!" "Why do you have me here!"

Was worse than the worst rooster... i dont hear him much now.

 

[jeepgirl13]

Did anyone see where I set my coffee?

 

[MROO]

Some hatcheries grind them up. Some people sell them as frozen snake food. You can buy bags of baby chicks on eBay. I’m guessing those were the roosters of the group.

Many (I'd guess "most") cockerels are raised out for other commercial needs, too. There are chicken and chicken by-products in an awful lot of commercially sold items - from pet food (chicken & rice dog food, anyone?) to fertilizers. I'm not a big fan of commercial hatcheries (although I see their place and the need,) but I do know enough about running a business to know that you don't throw away half your inventory right at the start without making an effort to get some return on your investment. It's just speculation on my part, but I'd venture to say that a lot of those male chicks make it back into the food chain somewhere along the way.

 

[townchicks]

Some hatcheries grind them up. Some people sell them as frozen snake food. You can buy bags of baby chicks on eBay. I’m guessing those were the roosters of the group.

Yes, this I know. I've seen the videos. Pretty sure some of them end up "poultry by product" This is my thinking though, say a hatchery has 1000 chicks. Expert sexer says 420 girls, 80 maybes and 500 boys. You get LOTS of orders for girls, and you can sell them a little bit higher than for straight run. You are filling an order for straight run, are you going to pull chicks out of the girls bin? Nope. I've never been to a hatchery, so I don't really know, this is just me, applying my logic to it. Also based on the number of posts where folks have bought straight run, and got a lot of cockerels. I'm sure there are still lots of leftover boys to go "elsewhere" Not talking about silkies and other hard to sex bantam types, or sex links. Just my guess, is all.

 

[MROO]

Chameleons even will eat pinkies, little baby mice.

So will hens, if they're "lucky enough" to find a nest ... yuck!

 

[jeepgirl13]

So will hens, if they're "lucky enough" to find a nest ... yuck!

Yup, my girls have found them as I was moving stuff around my yard. Lizards too. My landlords chicken got a full grown one at one point. I have pics of it thrashing it on the ground and swallowing it whole. They're on the computer though.

 

[NatJ]

Years ago, I tried hatching sexlink chicks (Rhode Island Red rooster, white rock and barred rock hens--chicks were red sexlinks and black sexlinks.) We all got so excited as the first third or so hatched out ALL FEMALES. Then there were a few of each, and then the slow hatchers were all males.

I can easily see a breeder first setting aside the number of chicks they need, then selling the others. Keeping the first ones hatched for breeding makes sense: they're presumably more vigorous. If they're also mostly females, so much the better!

I can also easily see a hatchery having the sexers get to work on the first chicks (because they can only work so fast, thus start early). After they've sexed enough females and males, the rest would be "straight run."

But if the late-hatching chicks are mostly males, then the chicks sold as straight run might be mostly males--while the hatchery could honestly guarantee that the chicks "have not been sexed" (most hatcheries do make such a guarantee, although there's no way to check them on it.)

Has anyone else hatched sexlink chicks? Was my experience just a fluke, or is it the norm that the females hatch first?

 

[Kusanar]

Yes, this I know. I've seen the videos. Pretty sure some of them end up "poultry by product" This is my thinking though, say a hatchery has 1000 chicks. Expert sexer says 420 girls, 80 maybes and 500 boys. You get LOTS of orders for girls, and you can sell them a little bit higher than for straight run. You are filling an order for straight run, are you going to pull chicks out of the girls bin? Nope. I've never been to a hatchery, so I don't really know, this is just me, applying my logic to it. Also based on the number of posts where folks have bought straight run, and got a lot of cockerels. I'm sure there are still lots of leftover boys to go "elsewhere" Not talking about silkies and other hard to sex bantam types, or sex links. Just my guess, is all.

For straight run, the chicks are SUPPOSED to be pulled at random before the sexers get to them, then the pullets are pulled from the remainder and the males get ground.