How to raise Backyard Chickens: Re: [CHICKENS-101] A few newbie questions

They'll probably be fine for quite a while, until about next spring, or maybe sooner. One will dominate the others.

Now, if you get rid of that one, the next one down the pecking order will take over, and maybe be just as bad. What you need to do, unless you want to feed them all winter, is to figure out which ones get along with YOU, probably one or two, and sell the rest. Anybody who goes after YOU is O-U-T as soon as possible.

Once they get it in their little brain to go after you, you can never trust them again, and they WILL hurt you. Some people have better luck with roosters, but I never did. Best roosters I've had are Marans and Silkies. All came from MrMurray and have had laid back personalities.

That's my experience, many years and many breeds.

Diane S.

----- Original Message -----

From: katewin56@yahoo.com

To: CHICKENS-101@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Monday, April 14, 2014 8:00 PM

Subject: [CHICKENS-101] A few newbie questions

Hello -

I am new to chickens and have a few questions for the group...

We have 7 hens (well I guess they are technically called pullets as they are now just over 5 months old). 4 of them have started laying in the last week or two. I had placed some ceramic eggs in all the nest boxes about a month ago as I read that it would "teach" them where to lay. Well, it seems to have worked as the 4 that are laying are doing so in the boxes. Should I wait until they are all laying to remove the fake eggs? Or since 4 of them are laying, will the other 3 know to lay in the nest boxes? Just wondering how long I need to leave the ceramic eggs out there....

Also, to make a long story short, we ended up with 4 males and 7 females. So we now have 4 cockerels and 7 pullets - all 5 months old. They have all been raised together. They are all doing pretty well together still (I think it helps that they have almost a whole acre to themselves all day and are really only confined at night when they put themselves to bed as I like to call it), but I know the day will come (probably soon), that 4 boys will be way too many for this flock. I would like to keep at least one of the roosters... but how do I decide which ones to eliminate?! Are there any "red flags" (or unacceptable behaviours as opposed to normal rooster behaviour) to look out for, as far as roosters go?

And also, does anyone want a Marans or Rhodebar rooster? Hehe :-)

Thanks,

Katie

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