8 Be prepared for the unfair sex ratio

When you hatch or buy in chicks, you have no control over the ratio of males to females. The only way you can guarantee all girls (layers) is to source them from a commercial hatchery.

The ratio of pullets to cockerels in a clutch should be 50:50, but in small batches you could get anything. You may get 100 per cent boys. Are you prepared to deal with the roosters when they start to show up?

With some breeds, it’s easier to determine the sex early due to physical characteristics, feather growth and colouring. But with many you cannot tell until the roosters start crowing aged 4-5 months.

You need a plan: keep, cull and compost (or bury), eat, or sell.

It is NOT lawful to turn them loose to fend for themselves. It is an Animal Welfare issue to abandon a domesticated animal. Dumped poultry suffer terribly before their inevitable death due to injury, illness and starvation.