canesisters
Garden Master
How about this? Lotsa drumsticks!
Chicken math isn't supposed to work this way!!!!!
- Thread starter Smart Red
- Start date
Jared77
Garden Addicted
- Thread starter
- #83
Smart Red
Garden Master
- Joined
- Jan 10, 2012
- Messages
- 11,303
- Reaction score
- 7,405
- Points
- 417
- Location
- South-est, central-est Wisconsin
I am already smothered in eggs from last year's 16 pullets. I'm hoping these 7 (yup, down to seven now.) are all roos.
One night the family got locked outside. I couldn't find them anywhere when I remembered and started looking at midnight. I suspect Gypsy's two woodshed cats practiced their hunting skills on a few of them. I spotted one tiny carcass outside the wood shop yesterday.
Now I'm keeping the mother and babies inside. I've tried to control the cats, but others open the wood shop and let them out. I'm done trying to fight the rest of the family over two cats. Plenty of room in the garden shed.
One night the family got locked outside. I couldn't find them anywhere when I remembered and started looking at midnight. I suspect Gypsy's two woodshed cats practiced their hunting skills on a few of them. I spotted one tiny carcass outside the wood shop yesterday.
Now I'm keeping the mother and babies inside. I've tried to control the cats, but others open the wood shop and let them out. I'm done trying to fight the rest of the family over two cats. Plenty of room in the garden shed.
baymule
Garden Master
I figured it would be a half/half split or close to it. But only 12 pullets out of 50? What are the odds?
so lucky
Garden Master
Any chance the straight runs are padded? How easy would it be to sex them as well as the pullets and just throw a few extra cockerels into the box? Otherwise, the newly hatched cockerels get deep sixed, don't they?
baymule
Garden Master
Sure makes me wonder.....
Ridgerunner
Garden Master
- Joined
- Mar 20, 2009
- Messages
- 8,233
- Reaction score
- 10,074
- Points
- 397
- Location
- Southeast Louisiana Zone 9A
It probably depends on the hatchery. People tend to think one hatchery is like all the others. Not true at all. Each hatchery is a small business owned by different people. Different people run things differently. Some are more ethical than others. I could see if they failed to hatch enough Delaware to fill all the Delaware pullet and straight run orders that some would be unethical enough to use cockerels to finish the order. They are always going to have extra cockerels. But I don't think all of them would do that.
I think I said it earlier in this thread, I only ordered straight run a few times and overall, I had more pullets than cockerels. I quickly learned to just order what I wanted. I was happier that way. Straight run is a gamble.
I think I said it earlier in this thread, I only ordered straight run a few times and overall, I had more pullets than cockerels. I quickly learned to just order what I wanted. I was happier that way. Straight run is a gamble.
Beekissed
Garden Master
I agree. The money saved by buying straight run is most often not even close to the money spent feeding extra cockerels up until butchering age. Meat birds are fine ordered straight run as the females are not much smaller than the males in the end but I never order dual purpose birds straight run.
canesisters
Garden Master
I think that they fill the 'special orders' first - pullets only or only a certain number of these and those, etc. Then what is left is loaded into the boxes by count - 25 'straight run' in this box, 50 'straight run' in that box... but a larger percentage of the females are already gone.
Just my opinion..
Just my opinion..
baymule
Garden Master
I wanted some roosters to butcher and to choose a flock rooster from. I didn't think that I'd get THAT many roosters!
