Comments on: Pros & Cons of Raising Chicks

By: Laura

Laura — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 21:54:49 +0000

I raise canaries, but when my son’s kindergarten class brooded chicks and it was time to “send them home” with someone, I couldn’t resist! We started with two. They are about 3 weeks old now. One has rather large beefy legs and feet, so it may be a rooster. Oh boy. Can’t keep a loud rooster here at our house. Luckily we have friends that will likely take him. My husband and I went to our local feed-store today and came home with 3 sexed female chicks. I just can’t come home empty handed! We educated ourselves on the better choices for egg layers. I would love fresh eggs. Can’t kill them for meat. These sweeties are pets, too! My canaries are now indoors, so I have a huge walk-in aviary the chickens will live in outside. Need to build a coop inside it. We will be adding a little door that will lead to a large contained run for them to peck and scratch in. So far the older 2 chicks love being outside in the aviary on nice days. They sunbathe too! Haven’t experienced the “smell” yet. Maybe having fewer chicks helps that…Loving chickens:>

By: hippygirl

hippygirl — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 13:27:24 +0000

I’ve been meaning to comment on this for a while and just haven’t done it! I have a brooder of 20 chicks that are now 7 weeks old. It was fun to brood the chicks, but I am not sure I want to do it again. I think I will let the chickens do it themselves from now on. If I lived somewhere that I could not keep a rooster, I might consider brooding chicks again, but I’m really hoping to not have to do that.

I will say that I am also glad we started out small. Brooding 6 chicks was pretty easy (and less smelly). The 20 chicks eat way more, haven’t been handled as much, and do make more smell. They are outside now in the brooder, but they need way more space so I have to figure something out to get us from brooder to free ranging as they are too small to free range with the big chickens.

By: emily

emily — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 19:34:08 +0000

We can’t keep him because I am sure that our neighbors would not be very happy to hear a rooster crowing (if they could even hear it over the loud traffic noise and lawnmowers!) But if we could, I would definitely keep him because he is just so lovable. Even though he is only six weeks, it is glaringly obvious that he is a little roo. He has a big red comb and little wattles, huge feet, an iridescent sheen to his feathers, and he has a sort of bulldog stance. He’s sweet though, and does not bully the other chicks at all.

We are so ready to have them outside but our hen house is not yet finished (yikes) but I have been taking them out on nice days to free range which they love. They are so much fun, I am so glad we got them. It just seems “right”, you know? (Except when guests needs to use the bathroom, I have to say “Oh, sorry, please excuse the chickens”)

By: Erin

Erin — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 17:01:21 +0000

Oooh…I DO want a rooster! But I don’t know about the noise or how well he would be accepted by the girls…they are a close-knit group Why can’t you keep him? & how can you tell he is a rooster already? We have one that we’re still wondering about at 11 weeks!

That’s fabulous that you are keeping chickens in Northside! You shouldn’t have to keep them in too much longer. I think we put our chickens outside between 6 and 8 weeks? I’d have to look back to see exactly. We had to keep them in longer than expected b/c it was still so cold at night. They LOVE being outside now.

By: emily

emily — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 16:32:22 +0000

I know exactly what you mean. My chicks are 6 weeks old and they are getting BIG (and a bit stinky for our bathroom!) and it will still be a long time before we get any eggs! I had the same thought that the next time around, I will probably opt for grown pullets. We bought six “day-old” pullets from Mount Healthy Hatchery and one turned out to be a rooster. He is a Partridge Rock and very tame and sweet, just like a cat. I love him, but we can’t keep him. He is available for adoption if you are interested! I’m in Northside.

By: m

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 16:53:55 +0000

Aren’t the girls lovely, though! It seems so long ago when they were those cute fuzzy things, now that they are old enough to gather at the gate whenever a human approaches, knowing that they will be fed some nice greens or fat, wriggly protein! Well worth the work and attention.