What Do I Do? Cancel Reshipment?

[paceysgl5]

I keep swaying back and forth between cancelling my replacement shipment from Ideal this week. Currently we have 16 healthy, lively chickens. 7 Died and 2 were sent incorrectly (supposed to be columbian wyandottes, we were sent GLW).

Ideal offered to ship new babies out THIS WEEK - ie poor little things are hatching tomorrow. Nice weather around the country to be shipping them, thankfully (last friday we picked them up at 2 degrees outside, this friday it's supposed to get up to 55!). However, do we REALLY need more?

The new shipment includes:

2 RIR (our only one we ordered before died, so we added 1)
1 Barred Rock
2 Columbian Wyandottes
2 White Silkies (main reason I'm reordering - really want those white silkies and both died last time)
2 SLW (might be able to sell these to the same guy that ordered some with us last time)
2 Golden Laced Cochins (LF) - added these for fun bc I love our partridge cochins
1 golden campine - added this one as a friend to our sole GC Gwen
1 Easter Egger to replace the 1 that died unexpectedly sunday night

Plus about 10 male packing peanuts we're going to have to find homes for. So far, no bites on Craigslist and I don't know what to do bc we will be setting up a 2nd brooder just for these males so they don't get mixed up w/ our others.

IF all survive - we'll be at 29 - TWENTY NINE!!! - chickens. Now that's chicken math for ya. I guess we could sell the ones we don't want to keep, but we are first-timers too and it just seems like a lot. But, it'd save us the trouble of starting a new group of babies in late spring/summer when we can find a few local white silkies and RIR's since those are the breeds we really want.

Plus, I worry about getting homes for the male chicks.

Thoughts??

 

[sonjab314]

You could always sell the extra chick that you do not want.

 

[tennesseeckn]

Do you have a local TSC or co op that sells chicks? It might be easier to buy just a few from a place like that. I know that getting rid of adult roosters is really, really hard.

 

[paceysgl5]

We do, but not for a few weeks, and I doubt they'll have the silkies I want. By the time TSC has baby chicks it may be too late to put them in with the older ones, and by the time local breeders have silkies the older ones will be heading out to the coop and we'll have to start all over with the brooder....my main reason for accepting this reshipment is that the chicks will only be 1 week difference in age...so shouldn't be too hard to acclimate them all.

 

[Lil_Miss_Farmer_Chick]

I have found that if I put my roosters on the freecycle website, I get rid of them really quick. I don't receive any money for them, but then I don't have to feed them or watch them become aggressive, etc. I usually over order in the spring, then come late summer/early fall, I sell any pullets that I don't want/ don't like, then re-home the roosters on freecycle. Although this year, any roosters here will be re-homed immediately. It just makes life easier for us. Good luck!

My order from Ideal this year is Ideal's assorted LF Cochin pullet pack (16 day old chicks), then I have 2 dozen silkie eggs and 8 BLRW, 2 French Black Copper Marans, and 2 Blue Copper Maran eggs coming (Private Lines). Plus I have 34 barnyard mix hatching eggs in the bator as a test batch.

In the coop outside now, I have 4 roosters, 9 hens, and 6 - 3 week old babies.

The coop we have now is 10x12 with an attached 10x12 run. My husband is building me a 140sq. ft. Silkie coop this spring as soon as we loose the snow pack and next year we are extending our fence line so I can have another 10x12 coop for my BLRW.

Chicken math is a wonderful thing. These little gems put a smile on my face everyday.

 

[onthespot]

same amount of work for a while, for one batch or two. I'd take the order and cherry pick the best, sell the rest.

 

[Cass]

Quote:
29 isn't that many....really....

I don't live that far away, I'll come get a few once I BUILD A COOP...and if you haven't already joined your local "freecycle" group, do so. Someone on there will take the extra roos, cuz thems gooooood eattin'...

 

[knboulay]

I ordred twenty nine as well and it really isn't bad, come another two or three weeks it will start warming up and you will find more people looking to restock their coops, plus alot of people don't like having to start with chicks so once your pullets are a little older more people will want them

 

[paceysgl5]

Thanks for all the replies...DH had ne cancel the reshipment...tear tear...now I'm sad.

 

[onthespot]

Tell him he's "chicken"