Self sustaining flock Questions

[JanetMarie]

If you have any predator problems 6 hens will not be enough, unless you plan to keep them penned.

 

[lazy gardener]

An other reason to have an incubator, even if you do end up with a broody who cooperates with your plan: Any number of things can interfere with her successfully completing her hatch. She could be disturbed off the nest. She could be wiped out by a predator. She could quit before eggs hatch. She could leave nest before all eggs have hatched, even if you set them all on the same day. Or she could have a dismal, or even a failed hatch. Having an incubator handy gives you the option to step in and salvage all of these situations. It also gives you the option of giving her 6 eggs to brood, while setting an other dozen or so in the bator on the same day. (Kind of going on the theory of not putting all of your eggs in the same basket.) After hatch day, you can sneak the extras under her. Hens can't count. A very good incubator can be made for around $25.oo.

 

[centrarchid]

Hi All
 I am considering starting a self sustaining flock with Barred Rock chickens. I'm interested in eggs and fairly good size meat birds. I understand the Barred rock are pretty good layers, and, grow fairly quickly to about 7 to 9 lbs.

If I buy RTL pullets and purchase an older rooster this spring would the pullets reproduce this first summer, as in;
Do young pullets ever go broody thier first year?
If so would thier age contribute to them being successful mothers?

Any thoughts, ideas, other options that anyone might recommend?

Thanks

I do the self-sustaining flock thing with games and trying to do the same with American Dominiques. The games are very easy. The American Dominiques are likely only slightly easier than your desired Barred Plymouth Rocks. The regularity of broodiness will be an issue for sure. On average for every hen I get to go broody I shoot for eight offpspring that reach harvestable age / size. Then I have the issue of how many of those offspring must be set aside for replacing losses of broodfowl. When you get down to averages with respect to the female side you are going to likely replace the the average hen by the time she is two years of age. Many you will be culling because they either do not lay well or fail a broodies. This does not take into account losses from disease, depredation and age. If you put pencil to paper you will the potential for holes in my math. Assumptions hidden that you need to vet with your line of birds and management approach.


Bigger challenges will be how you manage flock to get those broods off. Then you will need to consider having some of your birds effectively backed up at all times. Backing up means having additional roosters in hens always kept separately / confined in another location.

I would use game hens as broodies keeping the BR broodfowl largely confined in a Fort Knox of some sort. Games will match any on broodiness and are second to none at rearing chicks. To keep sustainable you can replace game hens with hybrid offspring that make good broodies as well.

 

[donrae]

Just tossing this out there....when dealing with hatchery Rocks, I've had much better luck with them going broody in their second or even third year. No idea why, and sometimes it's hard to keep them that long as I tend to age mine out around 2 years or so.

 

[ToddQ]

I have 15 barred rock hens that are 11 months old, started laying around 7 months, eggs were small but got progressively bigger. I now get large eggs daily. I have had 3 hens try going broody in the last month. I also have 5 australor hens. These girls are bigger, lay a little larger egg, and all of them want to go broody as I write this. If you want broody hens, yes sometimes barred rock go broody, but not real often. Certainly not as often as my australorps which is another orpington breed. Both sets of hens are dual purpose and are very good layers that are cold hardy

 

[Life is Good!]

And another point, you don't always get enough pullets! Last year I hatched out 11, got three pullets. I have been doing chickens for years, but until this year, I have had to add chickens, or chicks, or eggs from outside of my flock into it. It sounds easy to be sustainable, but it is a bit more tricky than you might think.

Mrs K

We started a self-sustaining flock of Black Java's in April 2010. Bought 9 chicks - one turned out to be rooster, all's well. Purchased in April 2010, started laying in September, went broody in May/June 2011.

2011's first year's chicks all but one killed by an owl at about 16wks old. Grrrr.....had eight of eight broody hens. Didn't have eggs again until September!

Third year (2012), had 17 chicks hatch from those eight broodies. 13 were cockerals!

Determined we needed more homegrown meatbirds - raised Red Rangers. Nice birds, tasty, easy to take care of - meat lasted longer, as we raised 25. Just need big freezer to do this!

Fourth year (2013), had 10 broodies with 21 chicks, 11 hens! Ate the boys.

Raised Cornish X meatbirds. Hated them. Loved the meat, disliked the birds. Raised 25 birds.

Now on our sixth year, they've slowly increased the egg flock to larger than it likely should be - and the quantity of broody hens has remained the same. Yes, they've changed who's broody - but of our hens, not more than 1/3 are broody any given year. And yes, our original birds are still with us (all but one, killed by hawk). And yes, those original birds still lay and are more likely to go broody also. They're great momma's, even if they're starting to slow down a bit.

My point is - even if you have a dual purpose bird, it takes much too long to actually develop a self-sustaining flock, as most birds will only be broody once a year (spring/summer) - and there's simply no way around that. Now, if I managed the flock for purely our consumption, I would keep a stable flock of 9 hens, 1 rooster and eat the cockerals produced and replace the hens fairly frequently.

But that does not take into consideration that a flock is an organic component of individual, social creatures. When an owl killed one of a sister pair - the sister called for literally days afterwards trying to find where her sister had gone to. (She actually went hoarse calling for her sister). How can I cull birds willy-nilly based on production alone? Are there other factors to consider? And why do the cockerals know when it's time to select a new rooster? And how do they know none of them are the one to be selected? (We buy a new rooster every year from the farm they came from - over 100 trios of birds to mix the gene pool around). I cannot explain it. But they know.

Figure out what you are seeking - we wished meat birds - we order 25 chicks, grow them, send them to Camp Frigidaire, and enjoy what they offer us. We need egg layers - they have allowed us to give eggs to families in need, to the elderly we know and help others. Being able to enjoy our cockerals at our table has been extra - we do not count of it, but rather thank God for the provision, as we never know how many cockerals are under those broodies! Should we cull our main flock now that it's so big? Likely. Just a matter of time. But I'm taking my time watching the hens, seeing who's who and deciding what to do - this is a life we've taken care of from the start. I wish to honor that.

Good luck on your journey!

 

[centrarchid]

I can get mature American Dominiques to go broody twice annually. First year layers not so good. Game hens can do it three times annually with exceptional hens going four times when in good condition. This is were hens rear chicks to weaning / juvenile stage of 5 weeks post hatch.

 

[aart]

I can get mature American Dominiques to go broody twice annually. First year layers not so good. Game hens can do it three times annually with exceptional hens going four times when in good condition. This is were hens rear chicks to weaning / juvenile stage of 5 weeks post hatch.

"can get".....like you do something to make them go broody?

 

[lazy gardener]

I think that what he's saying is that Doms are natural broodies, and a mature Dom, if allowed will rear 2 broods in a season. Love my Doms!

 

[centrarchid]

I can promote the broodiness although they still tend to put too many eggs into nest before going broody. Older dom hens that go broody can do it twice a season, some do more but to be conservative I will say two. They are still not as consistent as the games