Assorted poultry question New question, page 4

[Rebecka]

So, due to a thread here, I have recently learned I can free range my turkeys. This got me to thinking about my other poultry issues.

We recently acquired about 30 chickens with two Very Old roosters. We have lots of young roosters but the old ones are very good to 'their' girls. They , however have rather impressive spurs. We had to put down one of the hens for the gash in her side due to those spurs. Please trust I did all that I could for her. Most of these hens are not laying, appear to be older and have most of the feathers on their backs torn out constantly because of the spurs on their guys. My question is this.. if we cull the old roosters will they take to new ones? We live in northern Indiana, will their feathers grow back in time for winter? Should I just chalk this up to a learning experience and send them off to auction?

 

[Blackbird]

If you're fine with the possibility of having non-fertile eggs (depending on their ages) you can take a wire clipper and cut off a few centimeters from each spur and maybe sand it up a bit to prevent damage to your hens. But to some people that defeats the entire purpose of having roosters.

If your younger roosters are still cockerels the hens might go after them a little bit until they get the pecking order straightened out, but usually adults take on the position without many issues.

 

[Javamama]

Trimming the spurs makes them infertile? Or do I need more to process that statement? (not being sarcastic, inquiring mind truly wants to know )

 

[FarmerChick]

Why do u have roosters?

if u are breeding baby chicks I understand but if you are not and wanting hens for meat and egg production only then get rid of the roosters

trim the spurs if needed

roosters suck if ya don't need their mating lol

 

[Rebecka]

No, they are infertile because they are old. Very old. Their spurs are every bit of 5 inches long.

Farmerchick, We have roosters because they came with the hens The plan was that we would cull out all the roosters, but raising the chicks was so much fun we decided to keep one of each breed around to raise more chicks. Young roosters are Mean mean mean and I have had no problem at all giving them a time out in the crock pot.

 

[Javamama]

Thanks, I knew I was missing something! My brain was not awake yet

Wow! Those are some long spurs! I would go ahead and cull them. The young ones will take over and you can decide which ones to keep out of them, if any.

 

[Shiloh Acres]

If the hens are not laying, are you planning to keep them?

Since feed bills are much higher in winter, I might be looking to trim the flock to whoever I need for breeding and egglaying next year.

LOL the infertility due to spur-trimming gave me a double-take too. I was sitting here wondering what bit of chicken lore I'd missed!

 

[Rebecka]

See? Thats where I am stuck. I don't want to just get rid of them , but I don't really have a use for old chickens that aren't laying and may not ever again. However, I have no idea how to tell who is laying and who isn't. We counted 127 hens, more than I thought. I know at least some of the older hens are laying because their eggs are much larger and a lighter color than the RIR's.

I would really love to be able to find the chicken that is laying these HUGE eggs. I just want to snuggle her and make sure she gets lots of extra treats. Thats just gotta hurt, you know?

Any ideas on how to tell who is laying and who isn't? I mean I could stalk the nest boxes but I know some of them are just sitting on the them and they aren't their eggs.

 

[Shiloh Acres]

I'd love to hear an answer to that too. Some folks say this is Hennys egg and this is Pennys egg and so on for a dozen chickens. The few I recognize are because I SAW the silly girl lay it on the ground.

I've heard of painting the hens' vents with food coloring but that only works if you have just a few I would think. Only a few colors. And 127 is too many to cage for a day and watch.

I've always heard you can tell by the color of legs -- the yellow gets pulled out as they lay so a hen with bright yellow legs isn't laying? Also you can supposedly feel how soft the vent is. In a non-layer the bones are more rigid and closer together?

All hearsay though. I've never tried it since somehow I've pretty much been blessed with chickens that lay year-round at 90%. And I've never heated or lit a coop. In fact I got to where I had an open door coop 24/7 and other than giving them water, scraps, and a bit of feed and gathering eggs I did nothing at all. So I never bothered to check since I had few if any freeloaders (outside of silkies which I wouldn't have culled anyway).

You could always ask over at BYC. I don't visit there often cuz it just moves too fast for me these days LOL.

Good luck with them.

 

[Blackbird]

I'm sorry!!! I should have been more clear!

I meant you could stick with the old ones - trim their spurs and possibly have infertile eggs BECAUSE they are just that old OR get new ones.

Some people keep roosters around specifically to 'protect' the hens, so who knows.. I hate almost all roosters, personally.

Jee, that gave me a good laugh! Never know what I'm going to say.

Most people just cull all their hens when they reach a certain age and they start tapering off. There might be a few that still lay eggs, but they won't lay forever anyway.