Anyone with chickens?

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#21
Thanks both of you.

I am not buying from a store, but from a local hatchery that also offers ( I had NO idea) chicken rescue and placement. I'm sure they eat some too.

I have no problem eating them, or feeding them, but boy I'm not sure I can kill them so easily. :yikes: I know, I know, where do I think my chicken comes from at the store...
 

Xandra

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#22
I'd go ahead and get the chicks now if I were you!

You can try to psyche yourself up to eat them, failing that you could check out an abattoir, or try to sell them for maybe $10 on craigslist, or failing those options you could turn them over to the chicken rescue.

You've got lots of options and with chicks I think the sooner you get started the better :).

Which breed are you going for and how many are you getting?
 

Romy

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#23
I'd get the chicks now too. It's really easy to sell younger pullets if you decide to add more breeds and need to downsize your original batch to do so.

You can eyeball them and generally tell by looking what sex they are when they're a day or so old. I can tell with about 80-85% accuracy by looking.

The boys have bigger feet. Their combs are more prominent at birth too. They just look... different? lol. If you start sifting through a batch of 20+ straight run day old chicks you'll see what I mean. Any less than that and there's a good chance they've been picked through already and you're looking at a lot of roosters. My friends have had good luck just sifting through and picking the chicks with no visible comb and smallest feet compared to the others.

Of course, the sex links you won't have to worry about that. :) You should totally pick a couple of those up to start with at least. They are great, hardy laying birds and if you want to try something different later I guarantee they will be easy to sell on craigslist.

Also, you can totally use your old chicken coop. I guarantee that within an hour of giving the chickens access, there will no longer be a spider problem. ;)
 
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#24
I'd get the chicks now too. It's really easy to sell younger pullets if you decide to add more breeds and need to downsize your original batch to do so.

You can eyeball them and generally tell by looking what sex they are when they're a day or so old. I can tell with about 80-85% accuracy by looking.

The boys have bigger feet. Their combs are more prominent at birth too. They just look... different? lol. If you start sifting through a batch of 20+ straight run day old chicks you'll see what I mean. Any less than that and there's a good chance they've been picked through already and you're looking at a lot of roosters. My friends have had good luck just sifting through and picking the chicks with no visible comb and smallest feet compared to the others.

Of course, the sex links you won't have to worry about that. :) You should totally pick a couple of those up to start with at least. They are great, hardy laying birds and if you want to try something different later I guarantee they will be easy to sell on craigslist.

Also, you can totally use your old chicken coop. I guarantee that within an hour of giving the chickens access, there will no longer be a spider problem. ;)
I'm going to ask them when I pick them up to help me. Not sure how many, if it seems like they've been picked through I might come how with fewer :p.

I will pick them up tomorrow, so hope everyone wants pictures!
 

JessLough

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#25
Coq au vin, my friend, it was made for situations like this lol. Or insert recipe of you choice, everyone likes chicken. It seems even people who don't eat meat eat chicken.

Failing that, whole prey model Maliraptor food. :)
Chicken is the whole reason I went vegetarian. It's disgusting. :p


ETA: Ok, so "whole reason" is an exaggeration. Deal with it. :lol-sign:
 

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