h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

We lost Omelette, one of our first batch of chickens. Older, hatchery-stock chickens often have reproductive issues. Omelette was internally laying, which means that, instead of the yolks proceeding down the oviduct and on out, they drop into the abdominal cavity and eventually support bacterial growth, which progresses to periodontis. Or however you spell it.

On the other hand, 20 days ago, I got some fertile eggs from a friend of mine, because Frieda was broody (hormonal change which makes a pullet (female chicken under 1 year of age) or hen want to hatch eggs and raise chicks) and had been keeping a golf ball nice and toasty for nearly 2 weeks. The incubation period for chickens is 21 days, and I've already heard peeping coming from under Frieda

http://www.backyardchickens.com/t/25/california-northern/56330#post_14177275

The chicks in those pictures look adorable!

Chicks are adorable!

Sweet

They're growing like weeds! http://www.backyardchickens.com/t/25/california-northern/56950#post_14256275

Are these chickens turning into pets?

These chicks aren't getting named until we know which are male and which are female, which we won't know for a few weeks yet. Going by anecdotal evidence, however, I'm suspecting that both yellows and maybe the black are males, which means we can't keep them here. Various options are finding a home for them, selling them to the feedstore and letting them sell them, or growing them up large enough to butcher.

Hi, Nice to read your news. A question? Isn't raising little chicks a spring time thing? Or is it that warm where you are? You are NOT that far South . .. ...

It depends. If you have an incubator and a brooder set up, you can hatch chicks any time you can get your hands on fertilized eggs--theoretically year 'round. Some chicken breeds/individual chickens do stop laying once molt hits, and then don't start up again until the days lengthen again (most breeds need 12-14 hours of light a day to lay, though you can easily supplement the lighting--I've some fairy lights on a timer in my coop, since there's an outlet right next to the coop) though some breeds lay year 'round, regardless of light levels. Heck, my broody was hatched Christmas day! Now if, like me, you *don't* have an incubator and a brooder, you're at the mercy of waiting for a pullet or hen to go broody, which has to do with hormones and is not predictable at all--a lot of the heavy egg producing breeds have had broodiness bred out of them, because if a hen goes broody, she doesn't lay any eggs for around 7-8 weeks--21 days for hatching the chicks, and 4-5 weeks raising them (some hens stick around for up to 4 months taking care of the babies!), though some individuals of those breeds *will* go broody. Other breeds are known for their broodiness, and can go broody 4-5 times a year! And again, individuals of those breeds can buck the trend, and never go broody.

Now, if you have a brooder and just buy chicks at a feedstore instead of hatching them yourself or ordering and having them shipped, then probably springtime is the only time you can get them

"I'm suspecting that both yellows and maybe the black are males, which means we can't keep them here." [Amy]

I can think of various reasons not to have that many males in a chicken environment, but I don't know which reasons you have in mind, Amy.

Do males fight with each other if there are too many?

Would they antagonize the neighborhood by all crowing at once at daybreak? [I heard of a guy in Connecticut who decided to raise poultry, and he had several hundred eggs, half of which hatched into roosters . The neighbors were ready to lynch him.]

Would the eggs be in danger of hatching because of fertilization, meaning that your chicken population would soar if you weren't careful?

We're not zoned for roosters here, unless one of the girls joins 4H and registers a rooster with them. These chicks are mixed breeds, though, so they wouldn't be appropriate for that, even.

Okay, I did *not* see that one coming. At what point does a baby chick become old enough to be considered a rooster?

When they start crowing, usually between 12 and 24 weeks, though some young cockerals are precocious.

Do people know that there is very little need for Roosters ? (sorry Guys) The Roosters just make a lot of noise every day while the gals quietly go on about putting food on the table.

PS ~ Post 11 ~ That sure can get complicated !
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Do they have any PMS ?

Wouldn't it be nice to know *before* they start crowing, so you don't get in trouble for having them where the zoning laws don't allow them? How much trouble is it to find proper homes for illegal roosters?

An old buddy of mine has some backyard chickens and he made this video of them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_Om1XQlewM