Hatching eggs.... squeamish pls don't read...

Fruball

I have kept hens before, and am thinking of getting an incubator and hatching some eggs in the spring... IF I do, I will get an autosexing breed so I can tell which are male/female when they are just a day old.

Problem is.... (i'm cringing even writing this) that I can only keep hens here, not cockerals so... what would one do with the male chicks?

RAS

They will not be cockerels for a few weeks, so you can rear tham for meat if you want. As long as you kill them before they become mature, they will not fight or crow.

Fruball

What is the most humane way of... despatching them _pale_

valk_scot

Frugal wrote: »

What is the most humane way of... despatching them _pale_

I belive the good old neck wringing method is still thought to be the quickest and least distressing to the cockerel. It might not be the least distressing for you, sure, but you've got to think who's losing out most in this deal, no?

RAS

http://stonehead.wordpress.com/2007/10/11/killing-chickens/

and in pictures

http://stonehead.wordpress.com/2008/05/11/chicken-dinner/

Fruball

Thank you for your advice - its not for me! But hey, at least I looked into it before finding myself with a handful of cockerels!!!

I will see if I can find somebody locally who might take them on, for whatever purpose, but if not then I will just get point of lay hens!!

Thanks

esmf73

See if someone locally to you would like them.

Gigervamp

I'd love to have a cockerel, but neither hubby nor I would be up to dispatching the males that would be born.

Although there are lots of instructions on the net, I think it's one of those things where you really need to have someone show you as it's possible to pull the head off or not do it properly, leaving the chicken in distress.

Here's another way to do it, called the Broomstick method.

Penelope_Penguin

Frugal wrote: »

I have kept hens before, and am thinking of getting an incubator and hatching some eggs in the spring... IF I do, I will get an autosexing breed so I can tell which are male/female when they are just a day old.

Problem is.... (i'm cringing even writing this) that I can only keep hens here, not cockerals so... what would one do with the male chicks?

Only vegans need be squeamish Even if you;re a vegetarian who eats eggs, then male chicks are necessarily killed to provide you with these eggs, as they are surplus to requirements. For this reason (and a similar one relating to male dairy claves) I have no truck with people who are vegetarian because they don;t want to be responsible for animals being killed

To autosex, the regular cross is Rhode Island Red and Light Sussex (a red one and a white one).

Can you keep the coqs to maturity, then put them in the pot - that's what we did DH broke their necks, and we both then gutted and plucked them.

Do you want me to find the thread with alll the info on from when I did this?

lostinrates

I keep an autosexing breed too....but its an egg-y purebred...not a dual purpose or meat bird. I do''make my own'' hybrids with that cockeral though...and of course...the autosexing isn't reliable when another breed becomes involved got but my other birds are dual purpose birds. We only got two males this year....an kept them until very recently when they went in the freezer they'd ben crowing for a while but stayed friends...it as only hen they realised they were meat to not like each other that they had to go. (I had been considering keep one for breeding). The have great legs and thighs but are a bit light n breast meat. They had great flavour and I was very please with my own hybrid.

If you are going to hatch and it is wonderful, then you are right, there is a responsibility,but IMHO, eating unwanted males ...rather than breeding purely for meat....is a nautural and most ethical method of meat farming. My boys are familiar with me and are use to being held and fusse with, right up until the very last moment they are happy safe individuals who run up to me with joy. I'd rather eat things that have lived like that than any alternative!

I do it quickly, by hand but want a humane dispatcher....which so long as you do not lose conviction, would be a suitable method too.

quintwins

i can remeber when i was pregnant, someone in our church hatching eggs for there kids to see the process and then deciding they didn't want them at around 6/8weeks and giving them to fil cause he used to be a farmer, my hubby brought them to me thinking i'd love them, and i did but they started to fight in the night and one was gone in the morning, being preg i was very upset and oh had to come deal with it for me, by lunchtime there was another and at that point i demanded he took them away, this has put me off keeping chickens now but am i right in thinking this is just because they were male then? they weren't very big so i don't think killing them before then would have been a great idea, meatwise, i'd love to keep chickens tho as we use loads of eggs

my oh's uncle gets regected chickens from a local farmer who provides a huge factory, they get hundreds at a time and oh has been known to go help with them they ring there necks so i know he'd be ok with thats he says it's the plucking thats the worst, the main problem is i'm very squimish he shoots and i'll cook it fine if it arrives to me looking like it belongs in the butchers any feathers and i'm away gagging