Too many chickens and what to do with them!

cuwiar

cuwiar

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Firstly I'd just like to say 'Hello!', it's been a while! Hope you are all well :-)99

I am posting as I need some advice regarding chickens...in the right place then!

My husband works in the local high school and it was a bright idea of one of the teacher's to get a batch of unsexed chickens. The upshot is that there are now lots and lots of unsexed chickens.

There are currently three laying hens, one cockerel and about six young chickens, maybe around 10 weeks old. Two of the laying hens are on nests of around 6-10 eggs each and I have no idea how long they have been sitting.

The main question is what to do with the batches of eggs, it seems cruel and unethical to remove them now when for all we know they could hatch any day.

I am unsure how the egg laying, hatching cycle works. I know it takes 21 days for an egg to hatch but if a hen is sitting on 10 eggs does that mean the oldest egg is only 10 days old? We have only ever had females and a few incidences of broodiness.

The basic plan at the moment I think is to try and remove and hopefully rehome the cockerel, not that there is anyone lined up to take him! And then to rehome all the youngsters, some of which may be cockerels. We would take a couple of them but they are too young to mix with our girls and we need to quite a bit of prep to home them separately, and...it's the age old problem of us not wanting cockerels! I haven't a clue how to sex them.

Any ideas and suggestions would be great. I just don't know what is for the best! They have been in this situation before and rehomed a batch previously. They need to get in to a position where they don't have any breeding and as the case may be, inbreeding!

I think they are buff Sussex, if that is any help...and they are gorgeous! :)
 
if you want to drive them to hampshire ill deal with them but otherwise a tad to far im afraid
 
Ah, thanks but it's too far for me to drive to. There are a few places I could try around here but I really wanted to know at what stage is it too late to take the eggs from the nest and is there any way you can tell how far developed they are?
 
Hi Cuwiar, lovely to hear from unu again. I had been wondering how you were getting on, and had missed your posts. Once you've sorted this problem we would love to hear how your own flock are doing.

I think this poultry project is reprehensible. I do not see what of any value the children will learn about responsible poultry keeping from such indiscriminate breeding by evidently ignorant would-be chicken keepers. If the idea is to teach the basics of poultry keeping, and is begun with a batch of unsexed birds, then logically it should be pointed out that very few cockerels actually live to maturity, and that most of them are eaten. There is no lovely rest home in the country somewhere for them to live a happy bachelor life. Maybe the syllabus should include practical work on how to cull a cockerel, starting with the present occupant of that position?
And what educational value would there be in hatching chicks at the start of the summer holidays?

Sorry about the rant, it's just one of my hobby horses, we've recently had several stories on here where the basic problem was uncontrolled and unplanned breeding by people who just want chicks, not consequences!
A bird lays as many eggs as is the normal clutch size for her species, one a day usually, and only begins to incubate when the clutch has the right number of eggs. Thus the eggs don't begin to develop until this happens, and then all hatch together. The ones laid last may have a better chance than the first ones as they are fresher.
I really cannot see any ethical or other problem with removing the eggs from under the broodies, any more than eating the fertilised eggs before they started to sit on them. The alternative is for unplanned and unwanted chicks to be born, probably kept in too small a space, and under unsatisfactory conditions, then either farmed out to various homes of dubious quality (yours excepted, of course, Cuwiar.) or culled when they turn out to be males. I would get in there tomorrow and prevent this happening, treat the hens as broodies by isolating them and getting their hormones back to normal, and then deal with the cockerel.
Rant over, -it's been a long day here!
 
i cant believe the money some companys charge schools(£200) for hireing incubators with eggs, and then wont take the chicks afterwards ! ive 12 currently in my back garden taken from a local school.
 
P.S. You don't have to break the eggs,just leave them out unheated for 24 hours so there's no possibilility that they'll hatch, then wrap and bin them.
Oh dear, last nights post looks a bit strong in the cold light of morning - sorry about that. The cockerel isn't a problem in himself, of course, so long as he's not aggressive to the children,but evidently the keeper didn't collect the eggs every day or the hens wouldn't have had them to sit on, and didn't recognise or know how and why to get the hens off broody. Both interesting and educational things to teach children i would think, and the implication is that this keeper didn't know enough to look after the flock in other routine ways, perhaps.
 
I think the reality is you won't have as many chicks to deal with as you have eggs under broodies Cuwiar. The first will hatch and after 24 hours the unhatched will be abandoned. In my experience you only get 100% with 6 eggs or less. More eggs means more going cold and hatching late. With 10 you may only get 4. I read a post recently where a broody was given 17 to sit on and she abandoned the nest when she had 3. This assumes they are all fertile and there have been no bacterial infected deaths in shells.

Wouldn't have thought you would have any trouble homing Buff Sussex, if that's what they are and not a lookalike hybrid. But I appreciate your dilemma. It is better to kill them now than have them suffer when they have hatched. Simply letting them go cold will do the job as Marigold says. You could candle them, but putting all the good eggs under one broody won't work as they are probably all set at different times.

These school 'educational' exercises are a major pain. Truly irresponsible and these are the people teaching our kids! We had a school near us where one of the teachers set up a poultry yard. It all got too much for him as he was totally out of his depth -too many birds, insufficient space, bad food and poor housing. The welfare was horrendous with sick and dying chickens all over the place. They had started to go cannibal. They would have been better off in a battery cage! In the end they had to bring in a professional to sort the mess out and he had to employ an assistant.
 
Hello Marigold and Chris! It's nice to chat again!

To be fair, the chickens are in a good place. There is plenty of space and shelter and they are well protected from predators. I was slightly concerned that they didn't seem to be on layers pellets, I'm not sure what the food was, kind of a mixed grain. There are trees and grass and dust areas so they have got quite a nice life. I'm not sure how well maintained they are in terms of regular worming and mite dusting though :/

I need to be sure how old the young birds are. At what age can they be removed from the flock? Also, at what age are they likely to think about breeding, potentially with their father!?!!?

I couldn't say if they are look a likes but the youngsters have beautiful yellow legs! :)
 
Hi Cuwiar, glad all is apparently OK. The young birds should have been raised separately from the adults from the start because they should have had chick crumb followed by growers pellets at 8weeks, then on to layers pellets by 20 weeks normally. A feed which is high enough in calcium for laying hens will have too much calcium for non-laying youngsters and may affect their development. Also the growing chicks need a higher protein mix with the correct mineral and vitamin supplements to fuel their growth. Whether this is so if they are fed a properly balanced grain mix, I don't know. Some enthusiast do feed agrain mix, but this involves buying sacks of different kinds of grain and pulses and mixing them yourself, not for the faint hearted. If the mixed grain is just what's commonly sold as chicken corn, ie a mixture of low-protein wheat and fattening cracked maize, this is unsuitable for both groups as a main feed. It can be fed in very small sprinkled amounts as a training treat, or added to late-afternoon warm mashes in winter when they have to roost unfed for many hours of darkness, but it just doesn't contain the balance of nutrients that chickens need as they grow, or when they are in lay.
Young birds can be removed at any time, provided their needs are met, ie warmth if they are very young chicks not yet feathered. If raised by a broody, she will usually be fed up with them by 6weeks and glad to return to the flock, but they could go to suitable homes by 4-5 weeks if well feathers and used to living outside, or into a brooder in the very early stages.
The girls will get mated by the cockerel from about 16 weeks, too soon really, another reason for keeping them apart until they're fully grown at POL. They're unlikely to go broody in their first year, and indeed the potential chicks being brooded as eggs at present wouldn't even come into lay until the New Year when they're +6 months old. As its normal for hens to lay eggs, whether or not they get to sit when broody depends on the keeper. Usually a keeper will notice the signs of broodiness and sin bin the bird back to normal, or else provide a separate small run and coop for the sitting hen and her chicks so they can incubate and grow in peace and have the correct food. If the eggs are removed daily for selling or eating, the question of them just starting to sit for an 'unplanned pregnancy' simply shouldn't ever arise.
 
Hi Marigold, I'm 90% certain the food won't be a balanced grain mix. It probably is a corn mix to be honest :( There is plenty of foraging opportunity though so hopefully they are fending for themselves quite well too.

The youngsters are fully feathered and very mobile. Catching them will be a task in itself.

I initially thought they might be 10 weeks but I'm pretty sure they are younger than that now.

I need to go again tonight and check it all out again. I only popped by yesterday and my husband is trying to make sure the teacher who started it all takes responsibility for them but I'm worried that no one is really looking out for them. I've told Sted he needs to put his foot down and intervene!
 
What arrangements are in place for their well being over the summer holidays, especially for water? If they're being fed totally the wrong stuff, I bet they've never been wormed, and free ranging over ground with lots of birds on it will have produced a heavy worm burden for poorly nourished chickens.
Perhaps you could go and make a list of what needs to happen by way of feeding suitable food, collecting eggs, preventing future flock increases, treating and preventing worms and redmite, lice etc, daily checking and cleaning of housing - you know all these things I'm quite sure. 6 weeks with nobody around is not a good idea I feel.
 
I like the sound of making a list to try and get some order into the keeping. I'm pretty sure they want to still have a few but they need to be managed more appropriately!
 
Just a quick update.

It seems the teacher who started the project is going to take all of the youngsters and the chicks when/if they hatch. Apparently she has plenty of space and keeps chickens already.

They want to keep the cockerel but are removing any secret nesting sites and have promised to make sure the eggs are collected daily.

I'm a little sad as they really are lovely and I would have liked to have a couple of the youngsters but I'm not sure we will have the right space for them in time. They aren't vaccinated so I also worry about a) bringing in disease and b) their immunity level when mixed with our girls.
 
This has really annoyed me, I would have been furious if my children were in this class and complete irresponsibility is being demonstrated. This teacher needs a serious talking to!

I've recently hatched some chicks in my childrens' class. As the person who would be taking the chicks home I took control of it. I went in the day the eggs were set and gave a talk to the children about the responsibility being put on them to look after the eggs, and how males would either be put to sleep or rehomed (they are 10 yo).

At 6 days in they saw the first embryos moving and they were all hooked. We had 5 of 6 ebay eggs hatch (pretty amazing for a classroom of clumsy children imo) and the chicks left 2 days after hatch due to summer holidays but will be taken back for a visit when they go back.

What is the point in these exercises if the children arent taught responsibility?

Well done for stepping in.
 
I've just read through your original post, Cuwiar, and thought it might be interesting to 'bump' it back on here, for those who weren't reading it last year.
 
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