Last Friday, I drove down to Salinas to meet up with an animal control officer and 18 roosters. Yes, eighteen. The roosters had been living in rabbit cages for the past 1.5 years. It was a hard sell, but I found homes for all the roosters including at Animal Place.
Roosters are one of the hardest animals to place. It is easier to place full-sized production pigs than it is a 2lb bantam rooster. Which is sad, because I happen to think chickens and roosters, specifically, are some of the coolest animals. They are tough to place because they are talkative and often prohibited in urban areas. People buy these cute day-old chicks thinking that they are getting hens, that somehow the folks at Hatchery R'Us knows how to properly sex their birds.
The truth is that sexing baby chicks is an art, not a science. Estimates on accuracy range from a measly 30% to 85%*Those aren't the best of odds. We suggest that, if you want chickens, to please adopt them from your local shelter or sanctuary. If that is not possible, consider asking people who have chickens if they have any available for adoption or if they know of anyone who is rehoming their birds.
*With a caveat that professional sexers in the egg-laying industry, with months-years of experience, can have an accuracy of up to 95%.
2 comments:
Good post--as usual. And thanks for the fact about sexing chicks. I wasn't sure how accurate that was. Where did you get the info?
What a cutie! A heart-shaped Rooster with a lotta heart! I wish I had a backyard or some land - I would adopt a rooster and some chickens.
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