[brigton]

Hi folks. I'm new to this so any and all advice will be welcome. Similarly any etiquette mistakes will happily be taken on board.  My story is as follows.

I recently gave in to my eleven year old daughters plea to be allowed to keep some hens. I thought, we have lots of space, a nice environment for a few hens and we like eggs so why not.
After discussing this with my wife and taking a bit of advice from neighbours who have a small holding with lots of hens but who are also relatively new to keeping them, we decided to have four hens. We have neighbours so didn't want a cockerell and my wife didn't want bantams either. I built a coop and approached a local breeder here in Angus who advertises on this site. We went along to see the hens with the instructions no cockerells and no bantams. The breeder in question let Abby see the hens and she decided she liked the Auracanas and some very pretty Cochin chicks. The breeder said that they were too young yet to tell whether they were hens or cocks so we should wait a few weeks. Three weeks later we went along again and collected the Auracanas. Three weeks after that we picked up the Cochins and I told the breeder about the Auracanas behaviour - they were always fighting - and asked if she was sure they were hens. She was sure.

These hens are about five months old now and the two Auracanas crow better than any hen I've ever seen  and one of the cochins, who were similar size when we got them, is much larger than the other and looks like he's shaping up for having a bit of a pop at either of the Auracanas.

I looked on this and other sites and clearly it is difficult to tell the sex of Auracanas when they're young. My issue is that when I spoke to the breeder about re-homing the birds ( I didn't ask for my money back or anything as controversial as that ) she's not interested at all.
The response I got was that she's moving away and still had some chicks of her own to get "rid of" and that some of them would be cockerells too.

My question is - is this standard practice with poultry breeders?
If so it's a very disappointing attitude.

I am now looking for a few point of lay birds and am about to post on the forum for anybody local who would like some pure bred Auracana cockerells - free to a good home.


G 

[GrannieAnnie]

That can be a problem with pure breeds, so hard to sex until they start to lay or crow.

I don't like breeders who have this attitude.  After all, you are not going to recommend them to anyone else are you?  I wonder if she is really moving, or was that just an excuse?

When we bred a few araucanas and silkies, I used to say to my customers.  If any turn out to be cockerels, bring them back and I will exchange, or if I don't have any of the same age, then I would give them their money back.

I made sure they brought the cockerel back though as there are unscrupulous buyers out there as well as sellers!! 

Or if people didn't mind what sex they pullets were, I sold them at a cheaper price with no returns.

If you get some POL's. why don't you go for hybrids or sex linked birds, then you will know they are hens.

[Sassy]

It is very disappointing when you get breeders like this. She has, of course, acted illegally as you made it very clear that you did not want  cockerels. You could try taking it to Trading Standards but it is up to you how far you wish to go. You could tell her that you will go to Trading Standards and see if that has the desired affect. Good luck

[brigton]

Thanks for the replies.
To be fair I believe the lady who supplied these is moving. I was just surpirised by her complete indifference, given that I had really emphasised that I didn't want cockerells and her certainty that these were not.

I think life's a bit too short for me to involve Trading Standards though I do take your point. I'm really more concerned about how upset my daughter may be if I have to  kill the poor things. I hope it wont come to that but I'm not confident.

On a positive note the Cochin cockerell sems to be a calm quiet bird so I may be able to keep him.

Thanks again.

G

[orchardlady]

A very disappointing outcome for you. Aracanas are virtually imposible to sex until they start to crow. I learn through bitter experience. Some years ago now I wanted to have some Aracanas and had 2 broody hens just waiting to incubate some eggs. I managed to find a local breeder who would sell me hatching eggs. However they warned me that I would get 75% or more boys. Pha! I thought, impossible. The broodys hatched 20 beautiful soft dove grey little Aracana chicks and I fed them and cared for them. 18 crowed 17  boys were dispatched Aracanas...never again.....

Orchardlady

[Squibbs]

We have 2 lavender araucanas at the moment - one who looks very male - and is quiet so far - but I would bet a fair amount of money he will be crowing and the other who looks like a female (we have other lavender araucaunas) and 'she' has just started crowing - My daughter is disappointed - but knows what must happen to the boys.

I think I would have to agree with the other posters that this breeder's attitude is very wrong. Moving or not the breeder should take the chicken back and reimburse the buyer particularly in view of the buyers stated need to have hens.

You could take them to the small claims court - I am sure you would win - but as you say its hardly worth it.

Things like this give us all a bad name.