Giving up chick rearing - sold all my incubators!

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Helenaj

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Giving up chick rearing - sold all my incubators!
« on: August 22, 2011, 08:11 »
Hi folks, decided to give up rearing chicks as I can't face culling any more cockerels so I've sold all of my incubators and broody units.
The last batch of 12 eggs (Barnevelders, Vorwerks, Brahmas), turned out 7 cockerels. I managed to rehome two, but the rest I couldn't and can't keep any more cockerels where I am so raising for meat wasn't an option. I know it has to be done, but it seems such a waste of a life, so I decided that was the last and got rid of all my incys.
I'll just be buying pullets in future, it's less heartbreaking.
 :(

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joyfull

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Re: Giving up chick rearing - sold all my incubators!
« Reply #1 on: August 22, 2011, 09:05 »
I applaud you for taking the courage to do this. I always do try to warn people that whilst hatching chick is wonderful the majority of those that hatch will be boys and you only have to look at our swap pages to see that boys are hard to re-home.
Perhaps in the future you could buy day olds and raise them in a brooder box - obviously buying colour sexed chicks so you would be sure of getting girls. You will still get cute little ones but not have to do the culling (which I agree is heart breaking). xxx
Staffies are softer than you think.

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min200

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Re: Giving up chick rearing - sold all my incubators!
« Reply #2 on: August 22, 2011, 09:17 »
Culling is the worst bit of chick rearing.  It always saddens me when it comes to it but it is a necersary evil. 

I have to admit the only chicks I will be hatching next year will be my own, and just once at that, to check the fertility rates of my birds.

Well done you for having the courage to put an end to it.  Day olds are a really good way forward though to keep raising chicks!

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Kytie

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Re: Giving up chick rearing - sold all my incubators!
« Reply #3 on: August 22, 2011, 09:40 »
Oh I can't blame you for giving up, I know I couldn't raise chicks for exactly this reason. It must be the only species where you wouldn't want to be male. So sad really.  :(

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JaK

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Re: Giving up chick rearing - sold all my incubators!
« Reply #4 on: August 22, 2011, 09:41 »
I think that buying in day olds or even at just off heat is a good way forward as you should get just girls.
I am just learning how hard dispatching is but I don't think it will put me off putting fertile eggs under a broody again. Having said that I will only be hatching very small numbers.

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Helenaj

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Re: Giving up chick rearing - sold all my incubators!
« Reply #5 on: August 22, 2011, 13:05 »
I hatched over 50 chicks this year alone, so you can imagine how many I've had to cull, without last year's total as well. Culling just seems a complete waste and I can't do it any more. I feel like a murderer.
I shall cherish my last batch of chicks and stick with ready made females in future.

Thanks everyone!

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storme37

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Re: Giving up chick rearing - sold all my incubators!
« Reply #6 on: August 22, 2011, 23:59 »
good move day olds is the way to go. where would u get them from as i have thought about doing day olds.
1 Salmon Faverolle cross, 1 dorking cockerel, 2 orpingtons, 1 speckle rock, 1 legbar, 1 croad langshan,2 brown lohmann

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Helenaj

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Re: Giving up chick rearing - sold all my incubators!
« Reply #7 on: August 23, 2011, 07:36 »
Luckily, I have recently found a very good breeder just 18 miles away from me and in March picked up 8 two-day old Copper Black Maran hybrids. You can order them from him and he'll let you have them from day 2 after they have been vaccinated. They are all thriving and are gorgeous and have just started to come into lay - fabulously dark eggs!

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wapello

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Re: Giving up chick rearing - sold all my incubators!
« Reply #8 on: April 10, 2016, 11:05 »
But you must of know there would be culling involved before started, chick rearing,, :nowink:
Colin

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madcat

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Re: Giving up chick rearing - sold all my incubators!
« Reply #9 on: April 10, 2016, 18:16 »
Oh I can't blame you for giving up, I know I couldn't raise chicks for exactly this reason. It must be the only species where you wouldn't want to be male. So sad really.  :(

Same for milking cattle - there is no future for the bull calves born into a dairy herd.   :(  Male lambs last longer I suppose .... 
All we need to make us really happy is something to be enthusiastic about (Charles Kingsley)

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Yorkie

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Re: Giving up chick rearing - sold all my incubators!
« Reply #10 on: April 10, 2016, 19:53 »
Had you spotted that this thread is nearly 5 years old before you posted, Wapello?  ::) :D
I try to take one day at a time, but sometimes several days all attack me at once...

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Helenaj

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Re: Giving up chick rearing - sold all my incubators!
« Reply #11 on: April 12, 2016, 19:35 »
Had you spotted that this thread is nearly 5 years old before you posted, Wapello?  ::) :D

Thank you Yorkie!

And wapello - yes I did know that I would have to cull cockerels and have hatched in excess of 100 chicks but after my last hatch where 7 out of 12 eggs were male, at that time I couldn't face culling healthy birds any more. I have started hatching again this year and already have had to cull one cockerel.

I really don't appreciate your emoji and if I'm over-reacting then so be it.
« Last Edit: April 12, 2016, 19:52 by Helenaj »

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joyfull

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Re: Giving up chick rearing - sold all my incubators!
« Reply #12 on: April 13, 2016, 06:27 »
the day I had to cull 13 lovely little little boys was the day I stopped hatching my own eggs. I do have a little bantie boy that came with my Pekins but no eggs will be hatched here again, he is here just to help keep the girls in line and to hear him crow in the early hours (well that is when he can be bothered to call out lol).

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New shoot

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Re: Giving up chick rearing - sold all my incubators!
« Reply #13 on: April 13, 2016, 08:34 »
My two Serama lads - Foghorn and Alphie - came free from a breeder.  I grabbed them up to just before they were due to be shipped out to someone who took all the surplus males for culling and feeding to birds of prey.  The breeder hated doing it, which is why males were free to a good home if anyone else wanted them.

They are coming up to 6 years old this summer and live every day to the full, oblivious to the fact that they are very, very lucky boys to have escaped their fate  :)



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