What is a packing peanut?

[Fred's Hens]

Quote:
Not to get too far afield from the OP's question, but it is a related and an important discussion.

In the recent past, the number of rooster destroyed at hatch was somewhat lower. Most folks indeed, bought straight runs. Keep the hens, eat the roosters was the pretty common practice. What changed all this was the HUGE egg laying houses, housing tens of thousands of birds. There are almost a billion laying hens in the US alone and virtually every corresponding rooster hatched was destroyed. A simple reality. The advent of specialized meat bird played a huge part in this. Dual purpose roosters for meat virtually vanished in the advent of the CornishX and similar meat birds. It is what it is. Cannot really un-ring the bell.

Even among backyarders and homesteaders, the number of pullets ordered far and away exceeds the number of roosters ordered.

 

[jlmrazek]

Hmmm learned something new today!!!

 

[jerseygirl1]

Quote:
More like a dozen - I ordered 8 chicks once and got 15 baby roosters

 

[ChickiKat]

At least if the hatcheries send the roos out as packing peanuts they have a higher chance of survival as a BYC....

 

[Ridgerunner]

I agree that most packing peanuts are unwanted extra roosters. They are added to keep the other chicks warm during shipment. But there is another type of packing peanut. Some hatcheries will include additional chicks of what you ordered. Cackle did this in one of my orders and they were all pullets.

There are a couple of reasons. One is that chicks can die during shipment. Some are just not going to make it, even if everyone does everything right. The other is that they have a 90% guarantee on sexing. If they throw in an extra chick and one of yours turns out to be a rooster or you have a death, you still wind up with the right number of pullets.

I suspect when Cackle did that for me, they hatched out more pullets of those breeds than they needed. If they have extras, why not send them to their customers and keep them happy? But, yes, most packing are extra unwanted roosters.

On my last order, I specifically ordered red sex link males just to get my numbers up. I figured no one would want the extra RSL males and they will make good meals. That way, I chose the packing peanuts so they would specifically be good eatiing. It did not cost that much extra and I got what I wanted.

 

[ChickiKat]

Free chicks, excellent!!

 

[ladyride]

I ordered 6 chicks got 9 packing peanuts raised them till 16 weeks processed them. Made really good chicken & dumplins soup. But they were getting really bossy with my brahmas who are so gentle they had to go. Packing peanut main job to keep chicks warm to reach destination, different people do different things with the peanuts some cull in the begining, some like me raise them on up for freezer camp, others put on them craigslist, give them someone on a farm for their use.

 

[gmendoza]

We had 6 packing peanuts with our 4 turkey poults this march.

We still have 4 of them.Three came out to be production rir,two went to freezer camp,the docile roo and his 3 hens(we lucked out) are for breeding next year.

 

[Remudamom]

I got 11 packing peanuts this morning. Kinda messed with my plans. We had to make an emergency brooder.

 

[Sunny Side Up]

This IS the reality of life for roosters. If the ideal ratio is 1:10 in a mixed flock, and many flock-owners keep NO roosters, then it's the merest 10% of all roosters hatched who find a "job position" as breeder, flock husband, or pet. A good 90% of all roosters hatched have their purpose on a plate.

There are a lot of worse things that could happen to a rooster than to live a short but well cared-for life and then be humanely dispatched in order to provide nourishment for a grateful human family, or even for their carnivorous animals. Most commercially-processed chickens aren't treated as well.