Deflating accomplishment.

[Skinny rooster]

Do you ever have that deflating feeling, like the air hissing out of a bicycle tire that's been punctured. Especially when you realize that your efforts over the last weeks were for nothing. Today I took a closer look at two hens that hatched a bunch of chicks for me. I had even put some extra eggs in the incubator to add to their broods. Everything had gone well, nobody died, nobody was sick. They each had a whole pen to themselves so I wasn't really sure how many each had. The trouble was with the first pen. I counted nine chicks, good job for a tiny hen. She jumped up on a bale of hay and as the chicks jumped up one by one also, I could clearly count roosters.

Hmmm, let's see, one rooster, two, three, four, five (uh oh) six, O_O, ssssseven, eight.... and and last, one little hen! Bicycle tire, hissssssss. There is no mistake, the little red combs are already sticking a centimeter up.

[WLLady]

Yikes!! Lol. I had broody mom hatch five. ALL Boys. Told her she was fired.....lol
5 eggs. 5 boys.
More for the freezer here....
Pssffffffffftttttttttt lol

[Skinny rooster]

At least you will get a meal out of yours, these are bantams, lots of long legs and feathers but not much else lol.

At least pen number two was better, she has ten chicks, 5 girls for sure, four boys for certain and one that looks good to be a hen also. So not a total loss there. I feel sad for the single hen chick, she will be an outcast, even worse she is the only white hen in the barn, so no blending in. I'm going to take away the mothers today and combine the two groups, hopefully at only six weeks they will form their own flock and then I will start removing boys.

[Killerbunny]

Talk to Ross about how delicious banties are deep fried!

[ross]

10-4 on the banty deep fry in turkey fryer just like quail . Fatten up in fat pen & enjoy 4- 1/2 doz at a time or just use breast meat unless theys those no meat at all ones . Luck

[Bayvistafarm]

Oh I know how you feel. I hatched a whole bunch of EO's once. Got 23 boys, and 3 girls. One girl died about 2 weeks after they hatched. One had a funky leg... and kept her alone in a dog crate for 1.5 months... then ate her. Got ONE good girl.

With EO's... you can pretty much tell within days who are boys and girls. I tried to keep them long enough for roaster birds, but they FIGHT FIGHT BAD, and I got fed up and the whole works went to Hagersville, long before they were big enough for me to be bothered with butchering them.

[G Williams]

Hatched 16. 4 pullets one of which is a cull!

[Ontario Chick]

Yup been there done that, didn't think it was possible, couple years ago, 11 roosters one hen, needed hens for an outcross

[Shnookie]

I hatched 11 EOs - 1 girl, 10 boys. I hatched 20 Ameraucanas - I'm sure that 10 are boys, don't know about the rest yet.