Downsizing Our Flock

Chickens, Reflections

Remember back in March when our new chicks arrived and I realized that we had 29 new chicks instead of the 18 that I thought I had ordered?

Over the spring and summer as we’ve watched them grow it became apparent that, coupled with the 9 old hens that we already had and even though we lost two of the young chicks, our flock had become too large. During the day, when the chickens were outside, we didn’t have problems, but at night when they were all going into the coop issues would arise. Old hens squawking and pecking at young ones and blocking their way into the coop, then the young ones began pecking at each other. 36 chickens are just too many for our coop. We also discovered, as the chicks grew, that instead of just three roosters that we ordered, we had four roosters. 4 roosters were also too many.

We decided to try to rehome some of our flock. I remembered when we were expecting our chicks that my sister said she and her husband were considering getting chicks again. I knew that they hadn’t acquired any yet, so I decided to offer her some of ours. After some consideration they decided to take six hens and a rooster.

My husband, who was still concerned about having too many roosters. was in the farm store one day and mentioned our abundance of roosters to another customer. The man said he would be happy to take any extra roosters off our hands. Come to find out he lived just down the road from us so last Tuesday morning my husband packed up two of the roosters and delivered them to their new home.

Then on Sunday my sister and brother-in-law were ready for their new flock, so my husband selected six hens and a rooster and took them to their new home, where my sister told me that they were settling in nicely.

I am happy to report that peace has been restored to our coop. There is no more pecking and squawking when they are going into the coop and as the saying goes “Happy flock – happy farmer”. (Okay. I just made that up :))

I hope you have a great weekend.

Thanks for visiting!

27 thoughts on “Downsizing Our Flock”

  4. So apparently seniority rules, even with chickens – sigh. Were all four roosters crowing at the same time in the morning … do they crow when they are young, or is that the mature rooster? Wondering because would “crowing privileges” be a thing?

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    1. The one rooster that we kept, we call him Rex, was crowing so much and loud that we weren’t sure if the others were crowing or not. My sister did say that her husband heard their crow the first day they had them. I don’t know if I would call it crowing privileges, but they will definitely compete sometimes even with other roosters in the neighborhood.

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      1. I couldn’t come back too soon, but I have been living vicariously when I hear your weather reports. As always, send pictures and descriptions. 😉

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  6. So far everyone seems to be doing well in their new home. The grandkids are enjoying them and giving them names. I am hoping that they love to eat mosquitoes as much as they love table scraps because we certainly have a mosquito surplus right now. Thanks again 🐣

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    1. Hi Mitzy. I know sometimes your comments don’t post completely and this seems to be one of them. I am sure however whatever you were going to say was encouraging. 🙂 Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

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