I am not sure this is the right place to post this, but here goes. I have been given the opportunity to hatch some eggs. I would be borrowing an incubator. I have never hatched eggs before even though I have had chickens for 10 years. The problem with doing this is the roosters I know I will end up with. I can't keep them so what do you do with them? I see a lot of people hatching eggs and I am curious. I have so far avoided buying day old chicks from breeders or hatching eggs due to the rooster issue. Would love to try it though if I can find somewhere for the roosters to go. I checked with my local feed stores and they do not want them. Thanks.
What *I* do with roosters is name them, love them, and keep them. I haven't gotten rid of a rooster yet. That's obviously not your situation, but I just thought I'd reply since I came to read the thread. I know folks use Craigslist all the time to divest themselves of "excess" roosters. That works really well, especially if you don't mind if your roosters will be used for food. Sometimes for people, sometimes for dogs.
Before the eggs hatch, find people who are interested in having a rooster, and have the potential homes lined up by the time of the hatch!
Whenever I hatch eggs and generally get 50/50, I keep the roosters until about 3 months old and then they go to freezer camp. (My freezer).
I am not opposed to the roosters being used for food, as long as they have a good life while they are here and don't suffer at the end. So far I have not been able to find someone to prepare them for me. I am working on that this week. I absolutely cannot have roosters where I live. I barely get by with having chickens and I do not want to rock that boat. I am waiting to hear back from the feed store lady. She is checking to see if she can find someone to process the roosters for me. I don't think I could go so far as to do it myself. Craigslist is a great idea. I just don't want to bring a lot of animals into the world without a plan nor hand them off to someone who will not care for them properly or treat them humanely. Thanks.
do you eat chicken? why would you want chicken from the grocery knowing how they are mass produced and processed when you could eat all your excess cockerels ? thats what we do. we keep the best roosters for breeding. we might sell a rooster every once in a while but process the others between 16 and 20 weeks.
