who pays for my mistakes?

[blink111]

Hello fellow chicken lovers,
About 3 months ago I acquired 16, one to 2 week old chicks from a backyard chicken owner in my area. I went into this venture green and now as a result my chickens may have to suffer. During the transaction I asked for one rooster and the rest hens. Not knowing of course the ability to determine the sex of a bird was not that easy. I was never informed of this by the seller either. Anyway, now I am faced with the possibility of as high as a 1:1 ratio. I love all of my birds and I am having difficulty even entertaining the thought of killing them because of their gender. The flock gets along well right now they always want to be together. No excessive fighting even among the males. They are large breeds, colchins, wyandottes, brahma's and orpingtons. They are healthy and beautiful, with their own distinct personalities. If I had been more informed maybe I could have avoided this situation. Hind sight is 20/20. Has anyone ever heard of this situation, if so any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Don Jr]

Maybe the man you got them from might want a few of the roos.

 

[Sillystunt]

did he say they were hens? Seems like the roo's will pay for this mistake...LOL

That's why i never buy straight run cause i have NO clue how to sex that early.

best of luck

 

[rufus]

Sexing chickens at an early age is not easy. Sometimes we have to take the roosters with the hens. It is the way of life in the chickens business.

I am sure your hens will be beautiful, and your roosters very tasty.

Rufus

 

[TreeHugger]

I re-home my extra males (what the new owner does with them to out of my hands). My husband says I'm sexist because of this but I've seen flocks with to many roos & the hens are usually half bald. Unless you purchase chicks from the feed store or hatchery where the chicks are already sexed you will end up with a 50:50 ratio.

Chances are those roos you ended up would have met the dinner table regardless of who purchased them. I would ask the person you purchased them from if they wanted the roos back? Maybe they would trade 6-8 roos for 1-2 hens?

 

[farrier!]

So sorry....

My first birds came from a hatchery so I had better control over the amount of roosters.
We still have over a dozen roosters with our hens.
Ours are not having problems but they are free ranging during the day. Lots of room seems to help.

Good luck with yours.

 

[Vanessabuffsnsilkies]

I bought "pullets" from a backyard chicken owner in my area back in June thinking he knew they were pullets. Needless to say they are crowing and have pointy saddle feathers. I've been moping around about this for some time now. I bought them for 7.00 a piece thinking maybe he got them as sexed chicks from a hatchery and then sold them after he raised them for a few months. He said bring them back and get hens but honestly I really don't trust him, so now I have maybe 3 hens out of 13 chickens and you can't give them away (roosters). I'm going to keep one I think and then take the rest to a local livestock auction.

I know I sound whiney but right now I am...have been looking after these guys thinking they were hens, it's very disappointing, straight run is one thing...but when someone says they are pullets and they are not is another.

 

[rancher hicks]

This is why it's best to do you homework, "before" getting any animal.
If your going to go str you should at least have a plan as to what to do w/ extra roos.
Now is the time to post on craigs, either for sale or free.
Private breeders rarely can sex chicks and should not be trusted as to the sex of any chick.
Yes I'm sure there are exceptions but I personally don't trust anyone.

 

[Junkmanme]

You mentioned that there were "various" different breeds. IF you can separate the breeds and have a corresponding rooster for each breed, you can put them in separate pens and raise "pure" lines from these.

In this case, YOU pay for your mistakes by building a couple more small coops and installing more fencing.

just a different way to approach your "problem".

????

-Junkmanme-

 

[patandchickens]

There's no point in feeling too bad about it, as most or all of those roos were undoubtedly going into someone's freezer ANYhow.

Something to understand about chicken ownership is that there just are not, will never be, *can* never be, lifelong homes for all the male chicks that hatch (and it is impossible to sex eggs so that only female eggs are incubated). Some roos get lucky and are kept as flock 'sires', eye candy, pets, etc... but the great majority of all male chicks that are hatched are going to end up killed pretty young.

As the previous poster mentions, you could get more pullets of each breed and keep separate pens of each breed -- but that does not change the basic arithmetic of chickens. Buying (accurately <g>) sexed pullets still means that, to get those pullets, an approximately equal number of male chicks had to be hatched as well, and the majority will be euthanized or eaten.

So, you could not really have avoided the situation -- although better luck in obtaining just pullets would have enabled you to simply not *notice* it, perhaps.

Good luck,

Pat