What do I do now? 3 cockerels (confirmed by BYC members) in a flock of 11 "hens"

[pdirt]

Yes, they do look like pullets. You do not need to separate the rooster. Unless a fertilized egg is incubated, there will be no chicks. An egg must be kept at a constant 100* for at least 48 hours to start development. If you leave the eggs out on the counter, they will not spontaneously start developing. When you want eggs to hatch, collect the eggs that you want. To make sure you collect the correct eggs, you can mark their vents with gel food coloring after they go to roost. In the morning, the eggs that have streaks of color are the ones you want to hatch. Males will have silver/white based down. The female chicks will have a golden based down. They won't look like typical red sexlinks, but the basic rules still apply. Red/gold colored birds will be female. Silver/white colored birds will be male.

This is brilliant! Hadn't heard of this before! We're not currently hatching any chicks, but this will come in handy in the future.

 

[ejdgoris]

Yes, such a great idea! I'm growing the love the BYC community.
Thank you for being generous with your time and answering my questions!

 

[junebuggena]

Just be sure to use the gel kind. The liquid food coloring doesn't work very well.

 

[donrae]

I agree to keep the Wyandotte. He's a nicer built bird, even taking a young age into account the barred bird looks kind of weedy to me.

I'm all over the sex link breeding, and agree being able to have sexable chicks would be wonderful. Just keep the rooster with everyone, pull and eat eggs every day. When you're ready to incubate, you can separate the hens you want to collect from if you want to make it easier, they'll stay fertile up to 2 weeks after being pulled off the rooster. Pullets will be gold based, cockerels will be silver.

 

[MrsBachbach]

Just be sure to use the gel kind. The liquid food coloring doesn't work very well.

I have found that out myself, but I have never seen gel food coloring. Does walmart carry it?

 

[junebuggena]

It's usually available at places that specialise in baking supplies. I think Micheal's might have it in their section for cake decorating. You can also order it. The gel is prefered for cake decorating, so try the specialized chef supply stores rather than Walmart.

 

[ejdgoris]

The Wilton brand makes a good line of gel food coloring. I've used it for baking.

 

[MrsBachbach]

It's usually available at places that specialise in baking supplies. I think Micheal's might have it in their section for cake decorating. You can also order it. The gel is prefered for cake decorating, so try the specialized chef supply stores rather than Walmart.

You're not talking about the gel cake writing icing are you? I've seen that stuff in the cake decorating aisle. But I don't think that is considered food coloring.

I've never heard of Micheals. All we have around here are a few chains of grocery stores and bakeries, but not bakery supply stores.

 

[junebuggena]

No, I'm not talking about the gel icing. Ask the bakeries where they get their's.

 

[ejdgoris]

Amazon has everything....

http://www.amazon.com/Wilton-601-55...8315&sr=1-1&keywords=wilton+gel+food+coloring