Rotating the male as alternative to polyamory?

[ForTozs]

Then u also won't know which hen u want to reproduce, in this instance where ur keeping small groups u can easily mark the eggs more on the male ... say u have a particularly docile and happy male tht ud like to emulate across ur operation ... for ease of management .. u mentioned ud like to have some for meat as well as the eggs, most will raise males separately and cull them at maturity for this purpose and it would be easier if u didn't breed any aggressive males etc. So u could in theory keep track of the eggs according to ur males rather than ur females ... then it wouldn't matter which hen they came from xx

I'm not sure I follow. The female should be at least 50% of the genetic equation when it comes to egg-laying as far as I understand things. Maybe I can get a baby monitor and watch for females laying, and then I'll know both parents. I'll probably just hatch some chicks and experiment with things until I figure out what works.

 

[ButtonNomies]

I'm not sure I follow. The female should be at least 50% of the genetic equation when it comes to egg-laying as far as I understand things. Maybe I can get a baby monitor and watch for females laying, and then I'll know both parents. I'll probably just hatch some chicks and experiment with things until I figure out what works.

Say u have 3 groups...

Group A has an abundant egg production.

Group B has an average egg production

Group C has a lower than average egg production.

You would obviously not breed from Group C. And would hatch out eggs from Group A and B, with Group B ud probably want the males from them and Group A the hens. Does this make sense? Xx

 

[ForTozs]

Thanks Button, yes that does help. And it might be the most realistic approach for me. I guess I was hoping for a finer grained control over things. Say for example, group A's abundant egg production is mostly attributable to one highly productive hen. While your suggested approach would keep her in the breeding mix, ideally I'd like to pick only the very best performers at the individual level. But the housing requirements for quail may make that too complicated.

 

[ButtonNomies]

Thanks Button, yes that does help. And it might be the most realistic approach for me. I guess I was hoping for a finer grained control over things. Say for example, group A's abundant egg production is mostly attributable to one highly productive hen. While your suggested approach would keep her in the breeding mix, ideally I'd like to pick only the very best performers at the individual level. But the housing requirements for quail may make that too complicated.

U could refine it further ... ur only keeping them in groups of 3:1, so realistically u could get acquainted with the most productive group and learn which one is the one producing the most n best eggs but u wouldn't have to do tht until uve established which group is ur best group xx

 

[ButtonNomies]

To do this could be as simple as removing 1 hen a day from the group and noting down what type of egg (colour, hue, splodges etc) then after 3 days u then note which type of egg is laid the most regular and that's the hen u want to reproduce? Xx

 

[ForTozs]

Yes Button! I think that might do the trick!

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Thanks for the advise everyone. No males may be the way to go provided I can find some good layers. I was thinking along the lines of hatching eggs from the best layers to keep production up, or maybe even increase it. I have a bit of concern that the females won't be in peak laying condition for very long, so I was thinking it would be best to keep a steady supply of replacements. But hatching eggs shouldn't be much of a hassle really. I'm not gonna be strictly eggs. I was planning on at least growing out extra males for meat. And I guess I'll be eating hens when they retire too. Still kind of wide open for me at the moment though.

Mine laid pretty solid for about 2 years each