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

I wish I had a black Maran. He would be great to use on my 11 Amauracanas for some lovely Olive Eggers. Maybe next year. I don't suppose you live in NE WA? :-)

Denise M

NE WA

On Mon, Apr 14, 2014 at 5:00 PM, <katewin56@yahoo.com> wrote:

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