I am the cliche. My kindergardener hatched eggs in his class last spring. I caught this chicken fever thing hard. I'm completely in love with the two chickens we have. Apparently they're "meat chickens" and I don't care that they won't produce eggs. But "Ginger" started crowing last week (at around 10 weeks). His name is now Basil and he can't stay in our neighborhood and I am at a loss. I've been calling local farms and they don't want him-- worried about diseases and such and I don't blame them. But I am distressed. I want to keep him. But short of selling my house and moving somewhere where he can crow to his heart's content I can't. I don't mind him being "processed" I just can't do it myself. And here's the rub: we live in an area (Chapel Hill, NC) where there are tons of farms and I can't find one person to take him. Anyone here just happen to be in my area and want a totally non-producing breed of rooster? He's *super* friendly. He lets me pet him and he'll sit in my lap and he has a rather wonderful personality-- my neighbors must think I'm nuts but I swear he's a loving rooster. We're also Ok with someone taking him with more tasty plans. But we just can't do it ourselves. brokenhearted in chapel hill, Sarah
I wish that I was closer by so that I could take him. Hopefully someone will be able to help you. Kristyne
If this helps.... (I hope it does!) We don't know if we can have roosters or not. Maybe we can. BUT our coop is within 15 feet of our bedroom, so who cares. To help keep your rooster from crowing and waking you up: Find a box just a wee bit larger than him. Put him inside the box just before YOU go to bed. Put a brick on top. And make sure that there are no holes that let light into the box. When you feed your chickens in the morning, let him out. This has actually worked wonders for us. Yes, sometimes he crows inside the box. It is muffled, and we can still sleep. The time that he has managed to get out of the box he is too loud and does wake us. I hope that this works for you.
Try placing an ad in your local classifieds... And when you say meat chicken, do you mean a Cornish X? Then he does need to be culled, and so will the hen. Are they very large? Do you have pics?
ML, You don't seal up the box with tape! You just leave it upside down on top of the opening flaps. We're in So Calif. It gets hot too, but probably not as hot as some places. It stays about 70 degrees at night in the summer. How hot are you? I mean, you can try airholes, just don't make so big that light gets in. We also keep it inside the hen house, which is partially/mostly closed up, so not as much light gets in. Our box eventually gets where it is just barely holding together, we use it so much, so there is plenty of air. Fam of Chick - you sound as if you are licking your lips! In my opinion, she can keep anything as a pet if she wants to!
Quote:No, I said that because Cornish X's get so big to where they CANNOT survive any more past a certain point. I've never had them, because I couldn't eat anything I've raised. It will be the humane thing to do to both of them if they are indeed Cornish X's.
You could take the box Idea and seal it up real good and in the morning when nothing is moving your problem of having a roo is solved