All My Roosters

[Ridgerunner]

Sometimes it's hard to say what is intentional and what's not. I once got 7 Buff Orp pullets from a Cackle straight run order of 7. I still don't know if they accidentally pulled from the wrong bin or I hit the 100 to 1 shot. Actually I'd have liked to get a couple of males. One hatch last year was 14 pullets with 7 cockerels. One hatch this year was 7 cockerels and 2 pullets. Since I raise them mostly for meat I'm actually happier with the 7 & 2 than the 14 & 7.

Chicks can be hard to sex though someone with experience that actually pays attention should be able to guess well enough to tilt the odds a bit at least. Purely picking blind the odds odds with four chicks is:
4 females 1 of 16
3 females 4 or 16
2 females 6 of 16
1 female 4 of 16
0 females 1 of 16

so Cindy you hit 25%.

Cat I'm not going to do 11 out of 12, but yeah, that's a stretch. Actually I did, it's not hard. It's 12 out of 4094. That is 0.29 percent. A real stretch.

 

[Cindy Purvis]

I'll have a vid here soon...very amateur, I assure you, with my crude, but effective, methods of processing. Just need to get a minute in time to edit it. It's fast and easy and you'll never want to eat chicken from the store once you've had your own. No comparison in flavor...and it's like having a larder in your back yard. Accessible, clean, pure meats.

I've kept two males with a flock of 28 hens to keep them both in mating opportunities. There should only be one fight between them...one will win and the other will play second fiddle from there on out. After that they live very well together.

Sounds good - thanks!

 

[ninnymary]

I thought the ratio was 50/50. Guess that's not true?

Mary

 

[catjac1975]

I saw a homemade feather plucker on tube-came out looking like it does from the store-very fast too.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I thought the ratio was 50/50. Guess that's not true?

Mary

Mary, I have had hatches that are 50-50, but those are pretty rare. 2/3 or even 3/4 is more normal for me and that could go either way with males or females. But when I average all my hatches out over a two or three year period it's pretty close to 50-50.

I've had more hatches than just the two I mentioned in the last two years, but let's just look at them. 14 pullets + 2 Pullets = 16. 7 cockerels + 7 cockerels = 14. That's pretty close to 50-50.

 

[catjac1975]

I have not been paying attention to some of my birds that I hatched this season. I must have underfed my flock today. When I went in to check for eggs they were tripping me. A few started pecking at my pants. As I threw them some feed I started to notice the pecking birds were large roos.The is my first time with black copper marans and those were the birds pecking at me. I realized I had hatched 6 and now have 5 large roos. Silly birds should not have gotten noticed like that. I read that they are good for eating. ANY ONE EVER EAT THIS BREED? I THINK I WILL HAVE THEM PROCESSED.I do not plan to hatch anymore of these so no need to keep a roo. So much for the golden ratio. I also had 6 roos to 4 hens on my creme leg bars. I gave 4 of them away. I thought they were too small to eat.