Bob Blosl's Heritage Large Fowl Thread

[Wisher1000]

Put two pullets in a larger pen and then one pullet each in two smaller pens. Breed the cock to the two pullets in the smaller pens. Don't hatch from the two in the larger pen. From the two hens in the smaller pens, hatch as many as you can raise well.

Nest generation (get rid of everything but this breed) put the original male on his best daughter from each of the two bred hens. Breed new cockerels to the two previously bred females and to the two cockerels you reserved. If you can raise enough to reserve four quality cockerels to use in this stage, all the better. A plan like this will diversify your genetics a bit more.

Okay, just so I am sure I understand. I choose the two (of the four) best hens and give them their own breeder pens. The other two hens get set aside until the next generation is breeding age. I hatch all I can from the two best hens and the cock. From the resulting chicks, I choose the best pullet and the best cockeral from each hen.
The pullets are bred back to their father (and to the original hens that hatched them?), while the cockerals are bred to the hens that were not bred from last season.

Is that right?

To keep them straight, I could call them the A line (all raised from the first trio) and B line (all raised from the second set of hens and an A cockeral. I assume this would be easier to track than giving each hen a line (A,B,C, and D) of her own. Is there some standard way of tracking parentage? I have been thinking each bird would have a designating number like Af24, indicating it is the 24th female in the A line. I would keep her records using that number. I have been trying to figure it out on my own, but I'm open to suggestion...

BTW - The other birds are my layer flock, they lay a variety of colored eggs which I sell to offset my feed bill. The Silver Campines lay white eggs which are not as popular with my customers. I plan to eventually replace the layers with better quality breeders who lay shades of brown eggs, and some blue egg layers, but for now, I have healthy, productive, homely hens.

 

[neopolitancrazy]

My goal is to hatch 100 chicks between three hatches.  I will need a 66% hatch rate to accomplish this.

How's that sound?

My only question regards your rate of lay and hatching plans. If you expect to hatch 100 chicks from 150 eggs (66% hatch rate) in three "clutches" (50 eggs/incubation) and eggs should be incubated within 10 days of age, I don't think your 4 hens will lay 1.25 eggs/day to reach your projected numbers in that time span. If you hold your eggs longer than 10 days to create a larger batch, hatch rates should diminish in the older eggs. Perhaps you should plan on hatching fewer than 33 chicks per batch, or plan on having more than 3 hatch dates next year. Perhaps weekly hatches until you reach your desired chick number would be more realistic.

I myself plan to "set" eggs (in the incubator) every 10-15 days until I have reached my chick goal this winter. My job in town has irregular hours, so my farm activities must adapt to that irregular schedule.

Best of luck next breeding season,
Angela

 

[saladin]

Alright all you experienced breeders, I would like to hear you critique my plan. I am getting a rooster and four hens from Urch the second weekend of November. I will have a separate coop for them by then where they will have no contact with my existing flock. I will have two pens (4x12), but can divide them into four pens (4x6) if needed. I was thinking I would put the best two hens in one pen and the other two in the other. Then I will rotate the cock between the pens with a rest in between. I will go ahead and get them into this arrangement as soon as I get them home. Would there be any advantage to giving each hen her own pen and rotating the cock? Or maybe giving the two best hens their own pens, the rooster a crash pad, and letting the lowest two share a pen?

I intend to keep them in these small covered pens for one month. During this time, I will worm, dust, provide 16 hours of light, and have them tested by my NPIP inspector. I will be feeding and supplementing for breeding condition. Once the month (quarantine) is over, there will be a long shallow run (8x24) on the backside that they will share, probably on alternating days. I will not allow them to free range until breeding season is over, but then they can join the layer flock until next breeding season.

My goal is to hatch 100 chicks between three hatches. I will need a 66% hatch rate to accomplish this.

How's that sound?

Why would you want to 'provide them with 16 hours of light?'

The whole point (for many of us) in keeping chickens is to get away from the 'factory' farm method. Yet that is exactly what you are doing. Besides even commercial chicken houses cut the lights off more than that!

It is nice to have a plan, but this is way over done. We are dealing with living organisms here. Life doesn't always go as expected. You have not considered broodiness, season of the year, feed, etc.

Heck, sometimes you'll find a cock that doesn't like a particular hen (or vice versa) and they never breed.

Again, there is nothing wrong with a plan, but things like 100 chicks in three hatches and only from four hens? I set eggs every 7 days from the week before Christmas until Ascension Day. Some weeks I'll hatch 10 chicks others I'll hatch 50 chicks or more. The point is it all depends on who's laying, how much their laying and what's hatching.

 

[RedRidge]

New breeding pens are almost complete...

 

[Yard full o' rocks]

New breeding pens are almost complete...

I like it!!!

What are the overall dimensions? Are there 4 pens??

 

[RedRidge]

Quote: I designed it after Chris's pens so he gets credit for the original design.
We then modified to fit our needs...
I really "wanted" 4x6 pens, but needed four of them so since working with 12' lumber was going to be so much easier I settled for 3x6 pens.
Overall it is 6x12 with 4 pens... 4' tall in the back, 5' in the front.
The bottom half of the back will be flip down access panels to allow for egg collection.
The bottom half of the partitions are easily removable so that I can use 2, 3 or all 4 sections as one large grow out pen after breeding season is over.
Each wired section will have clear vinyl plastic which is attached with Velcro to permit the sides to be covered in the winter but still let light in... and on nice days they can be rolled up like a tent to permit air flow. I found the vinyl much cheaper than tarps and figure it would be a better wind break anyway.
The vinyl on the doors will be velcro'd to the inside of each door for the duration of winter.
Our days rarely stay below freezing here, so having the flexibility to "open and close" it was a high priority.
When we set it for the winter the back side will be facing southwest (that is where our worsts weather and winds come from during the winter.
I will rotate it during the summer so that the back will be more west and permit maximum light but have plenty of shade during the heat of the day.

 

[har]

Good job RedRidge! Very nice.

 

[lawatt]

I designed it after Chris's pens so he gets credit for the original design.
We then modified to fit our needs...
I really "wanted" 4x6 pens, but needed four of them so since working with 12' lumber was going to be so much easier I settled for 3x6 pens.
Overall it is 6x12 with 4 pens... 4' tall in the back, 5' in the front.
The bottom half of the back will be flip down access panels to allow for egg collection.
The bottom half of the partitions are easily removable so that I can use 2, 3 or all 4 sections as one large grow out pen after breeding season is over.
Each wired section will have clear vinyl plastic which is attached with Velcro to permit the sides to be covered in the winter but still let light in... and on nice days they can be rolled up like a tent to permit air flow. I found the vinyl much cheaper than tarps and figure it would be a better wind break anyway.
The vinyl on the doors will be velcro'd to the inside of each door for the duration of winter.
Our days rarely stay below freezing here, so having the flexibility to "open and close" it was a high priority.
When we set it for the winter the back side will be facing southwest (that is where our worsts weather and winds come from during the winter.
I will rotate it during the summer so that the back will be more west and permit maximum light but have plenty of shade during the heat of the day.

they look fabulous! a small breeding-pen addition to my coops was just finished yesterday:

it has two 4'x8' side-by-side pens, each with its own 4'x30" henhouse & nesting boxes -- could be used as breeding pens, or to isolate a broody with her chicks, or to grow out little chicks, or whatever! built onto the end of the two 8'x8' pens, so the whole "unit" is 8'x24', and standing next to my original 8'x12' coop. lots of flexibility with space -- i'm so pleased!!

 

[gjensen]

Alright all you experienced breeders, I would like to hear you critique my plan. I am getting a rooster and four hens from Urch the second weekend of November. I will have a separate coop for them by then where they will have no contact with my existing flock. I will have two pens (4x12), but can divide them into four pens (4x6) if needed. I was thinking I would put the best two hens in one pen and the other two in the other. Then I will rotate the cock between the pens with a rest in between. I will go ahead and get them into this arrangement as soon as I get them home. Would there be any advantage to giving each hen her own pen and rotating the cock? Or maybe giving the two best hens their own pens, the rooster a crash pad, and letting the lowest two share a pen?

I intend to keep them in these small covered pens for one month. During this time, I will worm, dust, provide 16 hours of light, and have them tested by my NPIP inspector. I will be feeding and supplementing for breeding condition. Once the month (quarantine) is over, there will be a long shallow run (8x24) on the backside that they will share, probably on alternating days. I will not allow them to free range until breeding season is over, but then they can join the layer flock until next breeding season.

My goal is to hatch 100 chicks between three hatches. I will need a 66% hatch rate to accomplish this.

How's that sound?

I would try not to make any breeding decisions before I have even seen the birds. I am bad about getting idealistic fanciful ideas in my head, but I tend to change my mind when I know better.
I would recommend just getting them, enjoying them, and getting to know them. The rest will come.

 

[Wisher1000]

My only question regards your rate of lay and hatching plans. If you expect to hatch 100 chicks from 150 eggs (66% hatch rate) in three "clutches" (50 eggs/incubation) and eggs should be incubated within 10 days of age, I don't think your 4 hens will lay 1.25 eggs/day to reach your projected numbers in that time span. If you hold your eggs longer than 10 days to create a larger batch, hatch rates should diminish in the older eggs. Perhaps you should plan on hatching fewer than 33 chicks per batch, or plan on having more than 3 hatch dates next year. Perhaps weekly hatches until you reach your desired chick number would be more realistic.

I myself plan to "set" eggs (in the incubator) every 10-15 days until I have reached my chick goal this winter. My job in town has irregular hours, so my farm activities must adapt to that irregular schedule.

Best of luck next breeding season,
Angela

You are spot on with your math (not my strong suit!) and I just didn't think that far into the equation. I was just trying to get a general idea of how I might go about starting my breeder program and those were my thoughts. Thank you for taking the time to work it on out, that was most helpful. I have never done staggered hatches, but it appears I will need to, at least until I have more, quality, hens.

Why would you want to 'provide them with 16 hours of light?'

I didn't look it up, although I would have, is it 14 hours? I should have said, "Will provide supplemental light during November, December and January to promote laying at that time of the year."

The whole point (for many of us) in keeping chickens is to get away from the 'factory' farm method. Yet that is exactly what you are doing. Besides even commercial chicken houses cut the lights off more than that!

My "whole point" is not to get away from factory farm methods, I have never even been close to factory farm methods, therefore I have no need to get away from it. In fact, I have never, in many years of keeping chickens for eggs and pleasure, supplemented light for increased egg production. I am only planning to do that in the winter so that I can try to get as many chicks as possible, with a goal of 100. Once I am a bit further along in my program, perhaps I will be able to get enough eggs without supplementing with light.

It is nice to have a plan, but this is way over done. We are dealing with living organisms here. Life doesn't always go as expected. You have not considered broodiness, season of the year, feed, etc.

Oh, trust me, I am quite experienced at "things not always going as planned"! I am a poster child for that. I am just trying to learn and to proceed with a direction. I know I will adapt and adjust as I go along. I also know that a plan often sounds better and more logical in one's head than it dones in someone else's ears. That is why I am putting my thoughts out here, so that you, the one's that have "been there" can tell me where to expect the bumps in my path. For that, I am thankful.

I set eggs every 7 days from the week before Christmas until Ascension Day. Some weeks I'll hatch 10 chicks others I'll hatch 50 chicks or more. The point is it all depends on who's laying, how much their laying and what's hatching.

This is one of the adjustments I intend to make, thanks to you and Angela. I will start reading up on staggered hatches and use my stryro-bator for a hatcher. Remember, I am a backyarder-transitioning-to-breeder and have a lot to learn. I know the best teacher is experience, and that why I am here, to learn from you all.

YHF - Am I correct in my understanding of your advice?

Do any of you other regulars on this thread have any thoughts or advice?

RedRidge and Lawatt - very nice set ups! I would love to have either (or BOTH) at my place to use for my birds.
Thanks for the pics, I will get some of my new breeder coop and post them as soon as there is something to look at!

Right now it is just newly cleared land, a huge burn pile, stakes, string, and lumber laying on the ground.

Gjenson - Thanks for the "snap out of it!"

I needed that.... I'm just so darned excited!