Asking for Breeding Advice!

[CassieReeves]

Hey there! I'm asking for your guidance and advice. We have 20 chickens, 6 are roosters. Not to worry, hens and roosters live in separate coops. Welp, we're looking to mate the chickens of the same breeds and sell the current roosters after. Then incubate the eggs, sell chicks... keep some maybe, idk yet. My husband has a favorite rooster, he's the Mosaic.i think my favorite is the black Ameracauna. None are mixed breeds. So, we'll get them all through shifts of mating and eventually, whichever rooster we keep could be the rooster of them all.... do rooster stuff and we can have barnyard mixes, maybe Easter Eggers, I'm not sure. I just can't figure which rooster will be best for giving chicks that folks would really like to buy.

Here's what we have...

Roosters (1 of each) - Mosaic, Welsummer, Blue Ameracauna, Black Ameracauna, Golden Cuckoo Marans, Swedish Flower.

Hens - Mosaic (1), Welsummer (2), Blue Ameracauna (1), Black Ameracauna (1), Golden Cuckoo Marans (2), Swedish Flower (2), Rhode Island Red (4), Dominikers (2), Black Star (1), Silver Laced Wyandotte (1), Buff Orpington (1), Easter Egger (1), Cuckoo Marans (1).

If you had to choose 1 rooster to make chicks that will sell easily, which would you pick? If I'm taking the wrong approach or not thinking of something I should be, please tell me. This is stressing me out. We'd also consider keeping 2 roosters and splitting the hens. We have 2 big coops. I just can't decide the best route. All of the girls that are currently laying are in the main coop. I'm thinking the easiest way to get this done would be to throw one of the roosters (which do y'all think?) in with those girls.

Sorry so long! Thanks for reading!

Pic for attention, she's one of our Golden Cuckoo Marans.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Black or Blue Ameraucana roo over..

Ameraucana hens.. pure bred BBS offspring.
Welsiummer hen.. OE offspring
Dominique, GCM, and CM hens.. will give sex linked offspring.. males having white spots on their head at hatch and females being solid.

All other.. like the SFH GLW, EE etc.. MIGHT be considered EE offspring.

To be clear.. I never go down to just one roo.. as accidents are bounds to happen.. predation, health, or other. I have often kept more than one roo together with a flock of hens without competitive mating issues or other major blow outs.. The individual personalities matter big time.

In order to keep peace on the stag side of things and not lock myself into a single mating.. I remove the rooster I'm planning to breed and add to the hens side during the night.. let him spend the day with the ladies.. then return to the stag pen after dark.. usually enough time has not passed for the other stags to notice the missing flock mate and set an entire new pecking order.. Off and on until my fertility reaches desired levels.. some win the ladies over quickly while other have to work at it a bit more. Also.. by keeping different colored layers and a stag pen.. I could put the rooster with the whole lot and set only eggs of the desired colored.. leaving 4 weeks between mating to clear any crossing

So that was all just basic info, to the best of my recollection and hatching experience.. which rooster would actually be the very best to keep long term may still be yet to play out.. Also it doesn't really take into account the Mosaic being hubby's fave.. but if you keep a stag pen.. then it allows room for pet fella's as well.. Usually by adding in groups of young "grow outs" before they reach maturity (5-8 weeks if your set up allows).. they can avoid being bullied too much and live happily until harvest.

Hope this give you some ideas and also that others will come along with more great adventures to suggest!

Fun options!

ETA: Actually if the Mosaic is dark skinned.. will throw sex linked offspring when bred to light skinned hens, IIRC.. verification required. Might not since they're a hybrid.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Black or Blue Ameraucana roo over..

Ameraucana hens.. pure bred BBS offspring.
Welsiummer hen.. OE offspring
Dominique, GCM, and CM hens.. will give sex linked offspring.. males having white spots on their head at hatch and females being solid.

All other.. like the SFH GLW, EE etc.. MIGHT be considered EE offspring.

To be clear.. I never go down to just one roo.. as accidents are bounds to happen.. predation, health, or other. I have often kept more than one roo together with a flock of hens without competitive mating issues or other major blow outs.. The individual personalities matter big time.

In order to keep peace on the stag side of things and not lock myself into a single mating.. I remove the rooster I'm planning to breed and add to the hens side during the night.. let him spend the day with the ladies.. then return to the stag pen after dark.. usually enough time has not passed for the other stags to notice the missing flock mate and set an entire new pecking order.. Off and on until my fertility reaches desired levels.. some win the ladies over quickly while other have to work at it a bit more. Also.. by keeping different colored layers and a stag pen.. I could put the rooster with the whole lot and set only eggs of the desired colored.. leaving 4 weeks between mating to clear any crossing

So that was all just basic info, to the best of my recollection and hatching experience.. which rooster would actually be the very best to keep long term may still be yet to play out.. Also it doesn't really take into account the Mosaic being hubby's fave.. but if you keep a stag pen.. then it allows room for pet fella's as well.. Usually by adding in groups of young "grow outs" before they reach maturity (5-8 weeks if your set up allows).. they can avoid being bullied too much and live happily until harvest.

Hope this give you some ideas and also that others will come along with more great adventures to suggest!

Fun options!

ETA: Actually if the Mosaic is dark skinned.. will through sex linked offspring when bred to light skinned hens, IIRC.. verification required. Might not since they're a hybrid.

My mosaics work for sexlinking

 

[JacinLarkwell]

The Welsummers and all three cuckoo marans can go in either pen and be useful.

I don't know, she's in the 6 week old group. Her, 1 RIR, and the silver cuckoo Marans are 7 weeks. 3 RIR and 2 Dominikers are 9 weeks. The rest are laying now.

Is the gold cuckoo laying true chocolate eggs, or just light brown?

 

[Chipmunk Chicks]

The Welsummers and all three cuckoo marans can go in either pen and be useful.

Is the gold cuckoo laying true chocolate eggs, or just light brown?View attachment 3489269View attachment 3489270

You're really one after my own heart! Lol I was thinking of doing the same thing just for funzies. But instead I'm making dinner and homeschooling my kid.

 

[CassieReeves]

My mosaics work for sexlinking

Does this mean where you can easily tell if rooster or hen at hatching?

 

[JacinLarkwell]

I can draw up the two pens I meant in a couple hours too if that would help

 

[CassieReeves]

I can draw up the two pens I meant in a couple hours too if that would help

Ohhhhh please do!!! I'd happily pay for this!!!

 

[CassieReeves]

Do you know what color yet your Easter egger lays?

I don't know, she's in the 6 week old group. Her, 1 RIR, and the silver cuckoo Marans are 7 weeks. 3 RIR and 2 Dominikers are 9 weeks. The rest are laying now.

 

[CassieReeves]

If the Easter egger ends up laying blue, absolutely put her with the Mosaic. Otherwise you won't be able to tell her eggs apart from the Ameraucana eggs. If she has muffs, I'd honestly keep her with the Mosaic no matter what she lays, since you'll probably be able to tell her chicks apart at hatch due to most/all having cheek muffs.

The darker the chocolate the eggs are, the darker the olive eggs from those daughters should be. So the Welsummers and marans are up to you on if you want olive egg daughters or sexlinks. The marans should produce sexlinks with either group though, either with dark skinned daughters and light skinned sons (Mosaic), or with solid daughters and barred sons (Ameraucana).

How cool!!!! I can't thank you enough for all of this guidance!!!