Sooo much pooping

[jam]

Hey all,

Sorry if this is going to be a long one. I love hatching and reaising my own chicks and for ages now Ive really wanted to set up some breeding groups of my favourite breeds and perhaps sell some chicks and eggs for a bit of extra money. My parents reluctantly agreed (probably because I wore them down ) so long as I pay for everything myself. We have a big field behind my house in which the owner said I could make a big coop. So after lots of hard work I have finally saved up enough money to buy all the things I need to make it.

A now for the hiccup. Yesterday when I was talking about the hatching eggs I would like to buy over the summer, my parents told me that I'm not allowed to buy any more eggs until I prove that I can get rid of the cockerels Ive got, and therefore any unwanted cockerels in the future, by either selling them or culling them. Which is only fair on the neighbours I suppose. But seeing as the sale of my current cockerels isn't going too well, it looks like they'll be chicken pie, which means that future unsold cockerels will be dinner too. as much as I hate to say it.

So, if your still with me, I don't know how to cull a chicken, but I could always find someone to teach me. But would I be being cruel and heartless to kill eccess cockerels just to maintain a hobby? Sorry if this message sounds a bit callous, but I've wanted to do this for what seems like forever. I knew that there would be cockerels but I suppose I tried to ignore it. My morals tell me that its wrong to kill anything without good reason and I would only do it if absolutely necessary. But then breeders probably cull a lot of cockerels so am I just being a wimp? How may of you dispose of unwanted cockerels and how do you feel about it? Maybe I should just stick to quail and ducks

Any thoughts welcome,

Scarlett

[Plum]

There are 'Kill, gut and something' courses that omleteers have been on. Someone will be along soon to tell you about them, if not pm Egluntyne or Claret

[jellykelly]

You can offer any cockerels as 'Free to a good home' in other poultry type places, they sometimes get taken.

 

Culling may be the nicest option in some ways though. Not everybody that accepts a FTGH cockerel has nice plans for them. They can be used as live reptile bait, dog baiting, ferret food, cock fighting and other really nasty things.

 

There are courses outh there which can show you how to humanely despatch a chicken and also show you how to prepare them for the table.

 

Good luck with your venture.

[tara]

I would love to hatch my own eggs but l dont believe in killing the boys so for this reason my brain says dont do it.I am more then happy to rescue the hens that need home and not make more unwanted animals.Hope this helps

[Tutti Frutti]

Alison at Hook Farm has written a book about keeping meat chickens and it sounds like it has a useful section for you on Kill, Pluck, Gut & Bone. She also runs courses.

 

This is not a recommendation, just info that I'm aware of (not been on the course nor read the book).

 

Well done you for thinking this through and planning for how to deal with the inevitable - it's not easy so it's good that you are being responsible. You will find that there are others on here who take a similar approach (not one I could do which is why I also don't hatch - as much as I'd love to!).

[Olly]

For every hen quietly clucking in our gardens and snoozing in our Eglus, Cubes and Gos, there is an equivalent male chick that has long been forgotten and which probably didn't even live beyond the first day. It's the same thing for bull calves, ram lambs and so on - although they generally get to live a bit longer, their destination is somewhere in the food chain. If it were possible to raise female-only farm animals, no doubt farmers would do it - but we can't.

 

Unfortunately rehoming cockerels is very difficult - some forums allow it, we don't because amongst other reasons we'd be inundated with requests. If you take a look at those which do, I suspect that not many of them find homes, and as jellykelly says, not all the homes are good ones.

 

So - if you want to raise chicks (and you clearly do!) then I think culling the males is a realistic solution, and not an unkindness. There are quite a few people on here who raise meat birds, and no doubt they'll be along to post in due course - the 'Kill, Pluck, Gut and Bone' course has been very popular, and I would say you definitely need to learn how to do it safely and properly by having someone show you. I am guessing that it gets easier over time (not done it myself).

 

I don't think you would be 'heartless', as you put it - this is what farmers and poultry-keepers have been doing for thousands of years. Just make sure they have a happy short life, a good end, and go to a useful purpose. All of us keeping hens are doing exactly the same as you are planning, we just delegate the nasty side of it to the breeder and don't think about it! Good luck with it.

[jam]

Thanks a lot guys, your words have really helped. I think I will go ahead and go on a course. Having home grown chicken for dinner every now and then would perhaps be a way of paying my mum back after all the hastle I've caused her with my chicken obsession! It would be really nice to know that the meat that you're eating has had a happy life and I won't have to worry about where the cockerels will end-up.

[meezers]

I completely understand your dilema. I don't eat meat, though I've always said if I could guarantee that the animal had a good life and a humane death, I would reconsider.I have 3 chicks at the moment, a girl, a boy and a silkie ( ), I'm hoping a farmer friend will take the boy, but if he doesn't, he'll be for the pot and I'll find out if I really can eat him ! but he is a meat breed ( faverolle ) and this was my intention all along, so I don't feel too bad about theidea. The Silkie on the other hand is causing me worry. I know the Chinese eat them, but to me, they are not a meat bird ( I mean, could you eat something fluffy with black skin ? so the idea of killing it for the pot doesn't sit so well with me. I also don't like the idea of culling it and throwing it away - seems a total waste of a life.Fingers crossed it will be a girl, but if I hatch any more eggs , I'll be sure they are meat breeds so I'm not in the same situation. How do you think you'd feel if you chose just meat/utility breeeds and told yourself you were raisng them for the pot- and any hens would be a bonus ?

[jam]

That would be a good idea getting hatching the eggs of meat breeds. The trouble is the breeds I want are sebrights, dutch bantams and pekins! Not very much meat on those. Maybe I could get some light sussex's... What other breeds are good for meat?

[meezers]

Sorry, completely off topic, but just noticed 'the trampoline' in your signature, now I have a pic in my mind of chooks bouncing around how is the trampoline use for accommodation ?

 

meat breeds, well, I haven't done alot of research, but I imagine many large fowl breeds could be classed as utility breeds- ie, they could be used for eggs and meat. Alot of the old breeds like Susex and Dorking would have been kept for just that purpose. Buff Sussex are on my list and I quite like ( well, I THINK I like ) the Naked Necks, I've read that they were bred for easy plucking , so must be ok to eat. I'd like an Auracana, but would buy a POL rather than hatch as doubt the boys would be worth eating. I fancy some bantams as well, but again , wouldn't hatch as I'd be in the same position I am now with my Silkie.

Of course there are alot of modern breeds bred esp for meat, whose names I don't know ( apart from hubbard ) but not sure what the hens would be like for egg laying.

[jam]

lol. mmm, I suppose it does generate that picture. There's a big trampoline in my garden which we don't use anymore, So ive wrapped chicken wire around the legs and made a giant coop underneith for the growers

[meezers]

lol. mmm, I suppose it does generate that picture. There's a big trampoline in my garden which we don't use anymore, So ive wrapped chicken wire around the legs and made a giant coop underneith for the growers

 

Ah right, well that makes sense ( but not so much fun ). I've thought of doing something similar with our trampoline, but 14 yr old still uses it, so probably not a good idea at the moment !

[laurmurf]

well done, jam, for asking the questions and to Olly for answering lots of them!

I did Alison's course on humane dispatching and found it really helfpul. I hatched last year and did find that I just can't keep cockerels and that finding homes for cockerels is really difficult! I also hatched some utility sussex for laying and meat. I dispatched these cockerels at 22 weeks, but even at this age they weren't really anything like fully grown and 'meaty' but they were big and loud and fighting, and i didn't have the spare space and housing to separate them.

 

Your parents are right to question your intentions about cockerels: just imagine if you had an excellent hatch of 10 eggs and all 10 turned out to be male - what would you do?

 

This question - and my previuos experience - has stopped me hatching this year.