Chicken math isn't supposed to work this way!!!!!

Ridgerunner said:

I'm pretty much the opposite. My main purpose in having chickens is for the meat. I have 11 cockerels I'll put in the freezer later this week or maybe next week. I just finished canning 18 pints of some of the best chicken broth you'll never taste. I also like to play with the genetics, the eggs are more of a nice side product. I understand a lot of people aren't into butchering chickens, that's up to them and none of my business, but I grew up butchering chickens. To me it's just the way things are.

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20 half grown chicks in the pen - MAYBE, if I've guessed right, 6 females. I will be BUSY one day in November and I'll probably end up with 25+ qts of chicken meat plus a BUNCH of broth.
Nothing wasted.

I've got 2 blue laced red Wyandottes in my flock right now. They lay a nice egg regularly for me. A lot of the chicks from my recet hatch seem to bear their traits. I didn't really know who laid what, but selected for nice large eggs. Those girls are moody though. They are bossy and mean to the other smaller hens. Huge fluffy things too, lots of thick feathering, and probably weigh around 9 lbs I'm guessing. One is broody now and won't give up, despite the miserable heat we're having. We go out several times a day and pull her off the nest. I'll have to get a pic next time of how funny she looks, plopped out on the ground.

My trouble with chicken math is that they don't divide out evenly into the number of coops/pens/tractors I have. I'll be building a larger coop this summer once things slow down a little in the garden.

When I had hens that wanted to stay on the nest overnight, I would block the nests. If it was obviously a broody, I would put her in a cage in the coop, up off the floor. She would stay there through the day. Evenings, she would find the nests blocked but could get food and water. I might set her on the roost but the other hens didn't want her around, either. Morning, she would go back in the nestbox and I'd put her back in the cage. Two or three days, and she would quit trying to brood.

I haven't been following discussions on BYC , lately. At one time, "Golden Rangers" were available then they weren't. Some BYC people wanted those chicks. They were a hybrid and I was curious what breeds were used. Beside my chair, I have kept a printout for several years and no longer know how I got the information. Some folks who want both sexlink hens and a meat breed rooster might be interested. A Barred Rock x Rhode Island Red hen and a White Cornish rooster produce Golden Rangers. At least, that's what I've got on this paper.

The roosters aren't Cornish Cross and the White Cornish don't seem to be a common type. I'm not sure if the other Cornish breeds would do as well, maybe. There were sure plenty of people interested in having the Golden Rangers. Now, there are Red, Freedom and Rainbow Rangers ... I guess some were around 5 years ago but I disremember . Anyway, I long wanted to have my own chicks but having that rooster here at home would be a problem.

Steve

I have Barred Rocks they are large and sure can be bossy but lay like clockwork, I
did not get birds as pets it was for eggs, no rooster to mess with peeps or more
unwanted rossters. When they stop laying I will get pullets make them soup

I ordered 50 Delaware chicks, straight run. Sex of chicks is supposed to run 50/50 right?? WRONG. I think I have maybe 12 or 13 pullets and the rest are roosters. I thought I would probably have 20 pullets at the worst. Well, it is worser than that. I'm gonna have a lot of roosters to butcher.

I've only ordered straight run twice. I did get 7 pullets out of 7 chicks on one of them. The other was 4 cockerels and 2 pullets. I quickly learned to just order what I wanted.

When I hatch chicks I sometimes get 50-50 but more often it's closer to 2/3 - 1/3. Last year I hatched 14 pullets and 7 cockerels my first hatch, 7 cockerels and 2 pullets the next hatch, and 3 cockerels and 1 pullet another hatch. If you add that up that's 50-50 but not in any one hatch.

just to many roo's, I will will stick to my laying hens no roo's no questions or waking me at
dawn... by the way cute kid ridgerunner

Those 'extra' roos are a bit of a pain to raise.. but it's only a few months and ooooooh the benefits....

roasted up this fella last night, mmmmm

nice cane