Remember my daughter sitting by the coop trying to discover which chicken was crowing? Well, she did. And then caught a different one crowing, too.
I decided to contact the seller and first ask if she still had hens.
CL: Yes, I have plenty. When are you able to come by?
Me: Great! I was actually wondering if I could exchange some of the hens we got from you, as they turned out to be roosters.
CL: How many roosters do you want to exchange?
Me: I’m not entirely sure yet how many are roosters. Two were caught in the act of crowing. Others look suspicious.
CL: Sometimes hens start crowing to assert their dominance.
Eh, what?
Me: Well, here are the two that crowed.
CL: Oh, yeah. Those are roosters.
Me: Do you have hens around the same age? These hatched March 1, you said.
CL: No, I only have ones born on May 14.
Me: Would you be willing to exchange two hens for each rooster considering the roosters are much older and we’ve been feeding them all this time without benefit of eggs in roughly two months?
CL: Yeah, that would be no problem.
Me: Wonderful, thank you. Can I send you pictures of the other chickens for you to help decipher what they are?
CL: Those are hens. You can bring the roosters, and I’ll exchange them for some hens.
“Some” hens?
We worked out that when we’d get there the next day, her father would be there to help us.
Me, the next day: Does your dad know about our two-for-one exchange rate?
CL: I’ll exchange the roosters you have for the small hens we have.
It made me nervous that she wasn’t acknowledging our arrangement. Nevertheless, we wrangled our two fowl beasts into a box and two of my girls carried it to the trunk of the van.
As they did so, a rooster crowed.
We froze, wide-eyed. The girls looked at me. I looked at them.
Me: Please tell me that crowing came from the box.
They shook their heads.
A coocadoodledoo sounded again. We ran to the coop.
I took a picture of the offender and again sent it to the Chicken Lady.
CL: That’s a hen.
I said nothing more to her. We packed up this third rooster and took it to her father to have a look. He agreed that it was a rooster and gave us six young chickens. I would have honestly settled for five, but I was quite grateful.
Also, phew!
To be sure there would be no ill will for this exchange, I thanked the father profusely. Then I texted the CL to let her know we’d come and gone and to thank her as well. I figured her dad could fill her in on the third rooster.
Me: Your dad is so friendly. Thank you!
CL: No problem. Hope these actually come out as hens. 🙂
Me: I hope so too! I told your dad, “I hope you don’t have to see us again until we’re ready for a new set in about two years.”
CL: Hahaha. Thank you for coming. 🙂
Me: Thank you so much for allowing us to make the exchange. Awfully decent of you. 🙂
She “hearted” that text.
Now here’s the kicker: Since we’ve been home with the new chicks, another brown rooster crowed, and we’re seriously suspicious of the big white one, too. That means 4 or 5 of the original 7 “hens” they sold us are actually roosters. Of the 6 new ones we acquired in this exchange, who knows how many are roosters. We’ll be feeding them for months before we know for sure, and chicken feed isn’t cheep. (Pun!)
So, what to do?
Try to get rid of the confirmed rooster online? I listed it days ago. No takers. Shocking!
Process and eat it ourselves? Not happening.
Keep the rooster and start our own chicken farm? We’d need a bigger coop.
Take it back and ask for another exchange? Hrmm…
Or just ask if I can bring it back and leave it there?
I’m leaning toward the last option. We may want to drop off more roosters in the future when the current chickens get bigger.
What would you do? Honestly welcoming your opinion on this. I’m beginning to think this entire chicken venture may not have been worth it, but who knows what the future will bring. Perhaps we’ll get super lucky and have all hens in this new batch, but I seriously doubt it given this man’s previous track record of picking out hens.
What a story! I had no idea that keeping hens and/or roosters could be so problematic– and humorous. I’d just give any unwanted roosters back because are they really worth keeping around? I mean, are they earning their keep? Other than keeping you guessing/entertained about who’s a hen and who’s a rooster.
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Yeah, that’s what I’ll probably do. I hope they’ll take it/them back. Hubby doesn’t want me to ask about it until we’re certain the white one isn’t also a rooster. Then again, if we raised our own chicks, we’d have a constant supply of hens coming. How to get rid of the excess is the hard part. Learn to butcher them ourselves? Eep!
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The chicken venture is totally worth it – think of all the entertainment you’ve provided us! 🙂 I like the idea of just dropping the roosters back off. Maybe take a pictures of the chicks every day as they mature and start a hen vs rooster identification chart? And then drop them?? Good luck with that!
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Keeping track of the new chicks and trying to ID them early is a good strategy.
This is a lot of work just for Blog Buddy entertainment, Wynneleon! But I suppose, at least in that, I’ve scored a win. 🙂
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I think you should copyright “Blog Buddy entertainment!” Quite a catchphrase. We had a chicken when we lived in the Philippines when I was a kid. He turned out to be a rooster too and would chase my mom all around the yard when she’d tried to feed him. I think she gave him to the cock fighters when we moved. Or that might just be family lore. 🙂
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Haha. Funny family lore then. 🙂
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Issues, I will never have! Ha ha. Glad you were able to make the exchange.
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Thanks, Larry!
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Hilarious! As a city chick, I’m clueless, but I’d think a person dealing in poultry could look at the anatomy and tell the difference? I guess I’d just take the rooster back and call it a day.
Suburbs around here have been battling with people who want to have coops in their backyard. I can understand why a neighbor would not appreciate the cockadoodle doo early in the mornings, but maybe you learn to ignore it?
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The crowing is so much quieter than I would have expected! No complaints from neighbors yet, and they live close. So ??
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Betsy, maybe we should call them “they” since they are gender non-specific. My daughter and her boyfriend are down to eight hens, since a hawk came for a visit. They sell the eggs for $5 a dozen to work colleagues. No roosters though. Keith
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This is our second batch of chickens. The first time, we bought four from a different seller. All were hens. No such luck this time. We, too, sold eggs for $5. Hubs and I lost money on the whole venture, but we paid our kids for doing the chicken chores, so it’s win for them!
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Good training for the kids. Well done. Keith
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Yeah, I’ve trained them to know better than to get chickens of their own as adults. 😉
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That is funny. I never thought my daughter would be raising chickens, but here she is with eight of them. Keith
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We had started this batch with 7. After the exchange we have 10! But we’ll soon be going down to 9. Then who knows how many young roosters we have that we’ll want to give away. I hope we don’t wind up with only 3 hens!
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OMG what a story! I vote for just returning the new rooster without an exchange. I have not thought about this at all – you’ve introduced me to a whole new thing here. Question though, don’t you need a rooster to get eggs? Or are you just raising the chickens for fun?
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Hens lay eggs with or without a rooster present. The rooster is helpful if we want fertilized eggs to hatch our own chickens. Not sure about doing that yet.
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Wow I’m naive 😂
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It’s okay, BCM. I’m learning as I go. Did you know cows only give milk once they’ve had a calf? It makes perfect sense, but I’d never thought about it.
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I guess that does make sense, as well as the chickens. You can tell I don’t know much about animal husbandry!
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Be glad you don’t need to! 🙂 🙂
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You need to check with my sister before you pick up any more hens/roosters. She seems to have no problems in that area. Yikes who thought that would be such a problemd!
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Can your sister distinguish hens v roosters when they’re still young?
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I sent her a text. She’s in rural Indiana and raised four new chicks who all turned out to be hens–as requested. I don’t know if that was because of her or she got lucky!
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I look forward to her sage advice!
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OK, here it is (according to Dr. Pol if you love him and others): Spread the chicks wing. If the feathers line up in a straight row, the chick is male. If they’re uneven, it’s a girl.
How simple is that! Now, tell me if it works for your chicks!
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Wow! Okay! What a neat trick. I’ll have to try that and report back. I hope we can figure that out properly. They’re kind of squiggly. They must know we’re still new at this! Thank you!!!
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Does this apply to full grown chickens too?
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Alright. We just looked at the wings of several. Most looked uneven. The one that looks the most rooster-like did indeed have even feathers! We’re going to keep an eye on them, but I’m thinking if we return the big rooster, we take that smaller probable rooster back too. Thanks for that!
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Not really sure! Here’s a video but I think it’s only talking about chicks. https://youtu.be/s8EpTlBYHpw
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Huh. Ours are much bigger than those now, but in our mini experiment, we seemed to be able to tell the difference. Of course, whether or not we were correct remains to be seen.
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You and I are probably the only two enthralled with this subject but I’d love to hear if it works!
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I should try it on our bigger chickens so I can check their feathers! Hubs and I were just discussing whether or not we think he could catch them. They’re way more skittish than the smaller ones.
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Chickens are a lot more fun than I ever gave them credit for!
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Fun, headache. Same thing, I guess. 😉
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One of the many reasons that my wife and I decided to not go into chicken raising. I suppose you have to feed them, every single day.
Still, my cats seem interested in having a few chickens around.
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I imagine you feed your cats, every single day. And actually the chicken food and water bins don’t have to be refilled daily. Only every few days, so not very strenuous–says the woman who only needs to delegate the chores. 😉
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Oh my word! The chicks and your son look adorable, though!
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Entertainment and joy mixed with the frustration. 🙂
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Very cute! How did you keep the chicken/rooster exchange straight? I would have gotten so lost!
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The roosters were full grown. The new chicks were little. They all ended up in the same box before we took our roosters out. I’m not entirely sure that man knew what we were doing. He tried to give us 7, or maybe he just wasn’t keeping track. Then he sort of milled around like maybe he was waiting to be paid. Who knows!
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Fantastic story and pictures👏 I really liked baby chicks raised by my friend’s family when I was a little girl, but never wondering if they would grow up as hens or roosters then😄
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Must’ve been nice not needing to worry about it. 🙂
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My friend’s family very likely wondered their genders. We just had great time with these baby chicks then😉
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Aww, super cute. If they had the space to raise a bunch of chicks and chickens, might as well keep roosters and have whole families of chickens!
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Er. I’d just drop the rooster off, Betsy, because of the successful swap, but who knows how many roosters you have. What a pain. Where I live, someone would surely take them off your hands and have themselves a fry.
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Probably what we’ll do, Peach.
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It was recently suggested to us to get chickens. 1. No. 2. No way. 3. You convinced me.
🙂 We did have pigs and rabbits and goats at different periods when the kids were growing up. But no chickens.
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So wait wait wait. I convinced you TO get them, or to DEFINITELY not get them?
Gosh, growing up with all those animals seems like a dream! Especially for your kids. And children. 😉 A little goat humor.
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Goat humor appreciated. We usually only had the animals one kind at a time. Different FFA projects and such.
And. Convinced me to NOT get them. Although I was not seriously considering it 😉
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That is how I originally took it, but then I thought, “Well, she COULD mean it the other way.” 🙂
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Always good to verify! 😉
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Yep, before you discovered a chicken in the mail. 😉
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😂🐓
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Goodness! My head is reeling from all the exchanges and ambiguous crowing and “transformations”! Better you than I, is all I can say!
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And undoubtedly the saga will continue, Ju-Lyn. 😦
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I’m the wrong one to ask…chicken keeping isn’t even vaguely in my wheelhouse
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Mine either, LA. I appear to be learning as I go–the hard way.
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Wow, what a story, Betsy! I wish I had advice but I’m clueless. You’d really think someone who raises chickens like CL and her dad would be able to tell the difference.
I loved all the photos and the new little chicks are adorable. We have a farmette across the street with an assortment of chickens, ducks, dwarf goats, turkeys, and some birds I can’t identify. I love seeing the menagerie every time I drive past. Further down the street (still can’t figure out where) someone has a rooster. I always thought they only crowed at dawn but this guy talks all day long. I love hearing him but my hubby is not so enamored! 🙂
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The dad was flipping them over and looking at them underneath. Nothing in my research indicates that you can sex chickens just by glancing at their undercarriage. Maybe he was just doing that for show?
For years a nearby neighbor has had a rooster. My reaction is the same as yours–surprised to hear it any old time, but also happy to hear it. I don’t know if Hubby has an opinion on it. But he certainly has an opinion on OUR rooster crowing.
Seeing the farmette sounds wonderful. Wish I could visit with my kids. I love animals. Someone else taking care of them is even better. 🙂
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I applaud you for taking on all those chickens (and possible roosters). I love the idea, but would be a greenhorn when it came to the hands-on care.
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This has definitely been a learn as you go situation, but I’m sure it’s good for my kids. Responsibility, and all that. 🙂
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What a … well, I don’t know. Fiasco? I’d just drop off the rooster(s). Sounds like you have plenty of chickens left.
We’ve never gotten a rooster in our batches (that we know of. Not sure about the younglings that fell victim to various predators. We always get our chicks from the local farm and fleet store when they have them in the spring. We’ve still got four hens, and I’m working from home, so no opportunity to sell there, which I did for a little while when we were getting a couple dozen eggs a week. We live in the country, so a lot of people around have chickens. Hubs keeps talking about goats (they’re great for eating weeds; a friend of mine says they love poison ivy), but I reminded him that goats need fences. And lots of food in the winter. And we have long winters …
I have to say Joe is ADORABLE with that chick! (now read that phrase and imagine ten years in the future 🙂 🙂 )
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Today is Joe’s 4th birthday. In ten years he’d better still only be with the feathered kinds of chicks!
You were lucky with no roosters! (That you knew of.) Too bad so many neighbors have coops too, or you could barter eggs for something. Jam, maybe?
I wanted a goat, but Paul wisely pointed out that they’d eat the plants we want to keep also, so no go (at) there.
Thanks to a tip from a commenter about checking the wings, we think we’ve sexed most of the young chicks and will probably take one or more of those back too. Maybe we’ll be allowed an exchange on those. We’ll see, I guess.
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I had no idea it was so hard to tell a hen apart from a rooster. Can’t you just turn them upside down and look between their legs? I’m being serious…
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Nope. Not at all that easy.
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I had no idea that grown chickens were hard to gender-identify (beyond the crowing). That was quite an adventure and it sounds like it turned out OK for you. I also vote for returning the rooster… either that or risk having a neighbor TP your house for waking them up too early in the morning.
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If this were still the height of Covid and the related empty store shelves craze, I would welcome the TP! 🙂
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I’m so sorry but I had to laugh so hard reading this! I know, it must be quite stressful for you, but it does make for excellent story material. 😉 Also totally loved the pun about chicken food not being cheep – LOL!
I’d never have guessed that it’s that hard to identify young chickens, and truly hope you’ll end up with more hens than roosters soon! As to that rooster problem – did I mention that I often say out “yummy” when seeing a healthy chicken? 😉 It does earn me weird looks but what can you do?! LOL! Though maybe it would be different if they were my own? No, strike, that, I think it would definitely be different!
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You say, “Yummy”?! Haha. That’s awesome. 😛
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Awesome!. new follower here.
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Thanks, Yossef! 🙂
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