What do y'all do with all the chicks you hatch?

[Guinea Goonie]

I have ONE barn brooder and I only let the silkies and the Guineas hatch out. the silkies usually have eggs under them that I want, not what they want and it works out for both of us.

the Guinea fowl are notorius blunderers when it comes to hatching and i have managed to get them to lay in the barn.

I do not know the hatch rate, but it is not so good. The keats go into the nursery and I only have two opeinings now in the nursery.

The wild games are in there now, I have ONE mama with 2 babies left. She had a horrid hatch and 4 of the babies have died or had to be culled. I have ONE mama with 6 babies and they seem to be doing great. This is her second attempt.

I only use the bator for turkey eggs now. The hatch we did in the fall was great. I gave away a good number of the birds to good, clean homes. I have about 10 in the barn still and I have about 4 roos that are going to be rehomed this spring.

I have decided to really tone down this year. I am not loosing near the number of birds that i thought I would and this is a wonderful thing.

So, no real hatching. It was fun, but now I feel i have a greater responsibility to my flock and the numbers are fairly constant.

 

[Southernbelle]

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Depends on why I hatched them - if it's a breed I wanted - I keep the ones I want, sell the extra roos. If I was just hatching to fill the bator or placate a broody - I either take them to a poultry swap or sell them via craigslist. I've never had a problem getting rid of extra chickens.

 

[Grampa with chickens]

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If you hatch chicks just for a sake of hatching without thinking of consequences, you are irresponsible person.

I only hatch chicken I need, if you can not raise and support chicken you hatch just DONT HATCH.

It it's your sole responsibility to provide for live creatures you bring to life, you are not a commercial hatchery which has ready orders for chicks.

I am amazed of people selfishness and irresponsibility to fulfill their whims and desires without ANY regard for a living things they are dealing with, and IRRESPONSIBLY bringing to life creatures they have no intention to support, and refusing to bear any consequences of their action.

Why do you think I'm asking about it now... a whole year in advance??? Don't you think that is a responsible thing to do? It's not like I just started incubating eggs without a thought to the end product. I don't even have an incuabator for goodness sake.

Pay him no mind.

If you want to hatch some chicks, I say hatch some chicks. I would look into local animal auctions in your area. That will be your safety net.

I sell my chicks on Craiglist and have had very good luck so far. Some chicks don't get sold right away. Don't panic. Some people like to buy older chicks. That way they don't have to wait as long for eggs.

Any that are left over can be sold at auction or you could have fresh chicken in the freezer.

Good Luck

 

[Marion]

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I agree with what you are saying pascopol, there are far too many creatures brought into the world without regard to the fact that their needs have to be met to survive, it is really shameful how some do not think ahead... BUT... georgialee is obviously not one to jump into something without thought for the creature, I wish more people would take the time to do the responsible thing just as georgialee has here!

georgialee, I wish you much success and admire your thoughtfulness!

 

[georgialee]

Thank you all!

 

[ShadyGlade]

Besides selling chicks, replacing or adding to birds in my flock, we also produce all our own meat here. It's probably not the popular answer but it means we have no unwanted or extra birds.

 

[claud]

The good thing is chickens are so useful - you can keep them to lay eggs, for pets, for breeding, or..if none of the above work out you can eat them(unlike say...an unwanted litter of puppies)!
I once hatched out a bunch of mixed breeds for fun and put them in the local "trader-type" newspaper for free. I had 40+ calls at all hours of the day and night.
My point is they will not go to "waste". Someone will make use of them.

 

[Chicken Dave]

It all depends on what you want to do with them. If you want to keep them then you put them ion a brooder until they get most of their feathers then you can put them in the coop. If you want to sell them you can put them on craigslist or even put them on a website called eggbid where people bid on hatching eggs, poultry, livestock, and hardware supplies. The website is http://www.eggbid.com/

 

[TriciaHowe]

Most pullet chicks I keep. My extra roos I list on CL (free for my mixed breed roos) and my farrier also takes some to process. He also has 1 of my roos and some hens that he got from me to keep for himself. I also list at TSC and my feed store.
I have also taken a lot to the local auction and fetch a fair price for them. Most people here like them to be old enough to not be on the light anymore so they don't have to worry about it. I also don't have any problems selling my ducks/ducklings. I had to take one CL ad down because I was finally down to the amount of ducks I wanted. I recently put it back up due to the 15 ducklings that I hatched out and already had several responces to it.

 

[DuckyBoys]

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It frustrates me when agendas rear their heads in innocent posts.