How do you get rid of unwanted male chicks

[Sally PB]

Or if you really can't bring yourself to eat them, some folks "plant" them in the yard under a rose bush or something, as they still serve a purpose as fertilizer.

My two problems cockerels are buried in my garden. I thank them for their contribution to the soil.

 

[Folly's place]

I've got twenty straight run chicks coming in mid-April. Some cockerels will be sold, auction perhaps, some will go in my freezer, and a couple will stay for the flock. I do always hope for lots of pullets!
Mary

 

[bellium]

Put the word out as much as possible, because help can come from surprising places. I had 3 unwanted cockerels a few years back, and my then 7-year old was chatting with his bus driver about them. Turns out she had a friend in need of a rooster, and she liked the first one I gave her so much she came back for the second! A couple saw my Craigslist post for my third roo and drove from a neighboring state to pick him up. I was all prepared for them to end up on a dinner table but they all got non-eating homes (well, i suppose they could be eaten by something by now).

 

[Coops Dad]

I pen them separately and we eat them when they size up.

 

[parvani]

If you really don't want the trouble and expense of feeding birds you don't want and can't process for meat later on, then by all means cull them. Yes they're cute little chicks... but they're going to be culled sooner or later, whether now or in someone's soup pot.

I've had to cull chicks because of illness or deformity. It's not fun... but the most merciful way I've found is to wrap them up in paper towels to keep them warm and feeling secure, then put the bundle into a plastic ziplock baggie and press most of the air out of it before sealing it.

It's a relatively humane, non-scary, bloodless method of culling. As the oxygen runs out, the chick simply falls asleep. They usually don't even peep much unless they get cold.

 

[Kikkup1]

How do you giveaway unwanted male chicks? I want to incubate 12 or 18 eggs, so I’ll have a good amount of cockerels on hand when the hatch is over. So far, I haven’t contacted anyone who is interested in those possible cockerels, and I’m concerned I may have to cull them which to be quite honest I do NOT want to have to do.

I have a hard time finding roosters, I have been looking for A Leghorn , A welsummer, And now a Buff orphinton that I mistakenly fed Dumour later pellets and killed...

 

[jher77]

I have a hard time finding roosters, I have been looking for A Leghorn , A welsummer, And now a Buff orphinton that I mistakenly fed Dumour later pellets and killed...

Nobody knows where you are located, might be the problem. I had some White Leghorn roosters but not now. Might have some more in the fall or next spring.

 

[CHlCKEN]

I have a hard time finding roosters, I have been looking for A Leghorn , A welsummer, And now a Buff orphinton that I mistakenly fed Dumour later pellets and killed...

Layer pellets shouldn’t kill a bird.

 

[CHlCKEN]

I’ve had a rooster on layer feed. Even ducks. All fine.

 

[Kikkup1]

Nobody knows where you are located, might be the problem. I had some White Leghorn roosters but not now. Might have some more in the fall or next spring.

I am in North Georgia on the South Carolina line..