Suggestions for managing multiple roosters for breeding (keeping hens and roosters separated)

[bestoboth]

Hello all! I am new and have been searching the forums and articles but having a bit of trouble finding the specific info I need, so I am sorry if I have missed it somewhere, but hoping I can get some tips or even, perhaps some direction, if this info is somewhere I just am not looking.

My main questions revolve around managing breeding stock...

To explain, my plan is to breed 3-4 different breeds (ameraucauna, welsummer, black copper marans, and possibly cream legbar). I intend to do BOTH pure breeding as well as crosses (mainly for egg color) and want to keep 3-4 roosters and around 6 hens of each in order to give myself enough of a pool to be able to have back ups and to begin selecting for the best in the bunch, as it were.

My tentative plan would be to keep all roos together in a bachelor flock (I will be raising them all together from chicks), separate from all the hens, which I would like to keep together when they do not need to be separated for breeding. I will be selling unfertilized eggs for eating when there is no need for breeding or collecting hatching eggs, so keeping the girls together would be ideal if possible...

As I intend to do both pure breeds and crosses, I would like to be able to put the desired rooster(s) in with the desired hens to breed then each go back to their respective flocks, once breeding is achieved. I am less concerned about the hens mainly because I would never be taking out a single bird, if I were to separate the hens, I would always want to be breeding at least 6-10 girls at a time if possible.

My main concerns would be reintroducing roos to the bachelor flock when their job is done, and also exactly HOW to set up the breedings within this loose framework, if it is even possible. So, I am hoping some folks out there who do this sort of thing could share some of their experience. I have been trying to reinvent the wheel and realize that is a waste of time and effort, when there are plenty of experienced breeders out there.

I may subdivide the hens for breeding purposes and then put them back together after, whether that is before or after egg collection. The main thing is that I don't want to have 4 or 5 different flocks of chickens at all times, especially not when breeding.

I hope this makes ANY SENSE at all... I am happy to clarify anything that is not making sense.

Thanks for any and all help!!

 

[raingarden]

Selective breeding is a long-term project that requires persistence and dedication. When you start doing selective breeding you'll need a LOT of small pens. There's no way around it. The fact that hens remain fertile for weeks after removing the rooster really complicates and slows things down. However, the fact that chickens mature at such a young age helps speed things up. With most other animals, it takes a year or more to move from one generation to the next. Best of luck with the project.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Hi, welcome to the from from Louisiana, glad you joined.

To help with your planning. It takes around 25 hours for an egg to go through the internal egg making factory of a hen. That egg can only be fertilized during the first few minutes of that journey. This means if a successful mating takes place on a Monday, Monday's egg is not fertilized from that mating. Tuesday's egg might be depending on timing but I would not count on it. Wednesday's egg can be fertilize from that mating.

A rooster doesn't necessarily mate with every hen in his flock every day, but h doesn't have to. In the last part of that mating the rooster hops off, his part is done. The hen stands up, fluffs up, and shakes. This fluffy shake gets the sperm in a special container near where the egg starts its journey. The sperm can stay viable from over a week to over three weeks. You never know exactly how long it will last. This means to be pretty sure a specific rooster is the father the hen needs to be isolated from any other rooster for at least three weeks. To be very sure make that isolation four weeks.

The main thing is that I don't want to have 4 or 5 different flocks of chickens at all times, especially not when breeding.

I'll let you work out the logistics but it sounds to me you will need several breeding pens and your breeding/hatching season may last a while. I think you are out of luck with this goal but work on your logistics.

My main concerns would be reintroducing roos to the bachelor flock when their job is done,

With living animals you never know what will happen but often this works out with a bachelor flock. When you remove and add flock members they can rearrange the pecking order/flock dominance, but if there are no hens to fight over it's often not that bad for a bachelor flock. I'd try it and see what happens.

 

[bestoboth]

Selective breeding is a long-term project that requires persistence and dedication. When you start doing selective breeding you'll need a LOT of small pens. There's no way around it. The fact that hens remain fertile for weeks after removing the rooster really complicates and slows things down. However, the fact that chickens mature at such a young age helps speed things up. With most other animals, it takes a year or more to move from one generation to the next. Best of luck with the project.

Yeah, I am (both fortunately and unfortunately), aware that you are definitely right...

I don't really plan on doing serious selective breeding (aside from the big things) for a while. To start with, at least, I am trying to test out basic systems and get experience breeding, at least to start, before I begin the DEEP dive into REALLY selective breeding...

I know when and if that time comes, I will have to really invest a LOT into infrastructure and my dreams of having a large mixed flock of breeding hens will probably be a distant memory... LOL My biggest concern at the moment, is figuring out how to manage all the roosters I need, between the different breeds and the multiples of each for back-ups, to make up for bad roosters, etc...

I suspect may be a bit crazy... it is true... LOL but only time and experience will tell... I suppose, mainly, I would just not like to go about reinventing the wheel when there are MANY experienced and awesome wheel makers and inventors out there already...

 

[bestoboth]

Hi, welcome to the from from Louisiana, glad you joined.

To help with your planning. It takes around 25 hours for an egg to go through the internal egg making factory of a hen. That egg can only be fertilized during the first few minutes of that journey. This means if a successful mating takes place on a Monday, Monday's egg is not fertilized from that mating. Tuesday's egg might be depending on timing but I would not count on it. Wednesday's egg can be fertilize from that mating.

A rooster doesn't necessarily mate with every hen in his flock every day, but h doesn't have to. In the last part of that mating the rooster hops off, his part is done. The hen stands up, fluffs up, and shakes. This fluffy shake gets the sperm in a special container near where the egg starts its journey. The sperm can stay viable from over a week to over three weeks. You never know exactly how long it will last. This means to be pretty sure a specific rooster is the father the hen needs to be isolated from any other rooster for at least three weeks. To be very sure make that isolation four weeks.



I'll let you work out the logistics but it sounds to me you will need several breeding pens and your breeding/hatching season may last a while. I think you are out of luck with this goal but work on your logistics.


With living animals you never know what will happen but often this works out with a bachelor flock. When you remove and add flock members they can rearrange the pecking order/flock dominance, but if there are no hens to fight over it's often not that bad for a bachelor flock. I'd try it and see what happens.

Thanks for your detailed reply, and yeah there are a LOT of logistics to work out. lol

As I begin the first stages of this project, I want to keep things as SIMPLE as possible... and my main concern is managing a bunch of roosters (maybe as many as 16, who will all be raised together from chicks), because I already know I do NOT want a huge flock with multiple roosters living with the hens... Two in my home flock was enough... lol

I have a great spot picked out for the roos, far out on one side of my field, behind and including a couple stands of trees that I will make a large pen for the bachelor flock. It will completely block their view to ANY hens, as I intend to keep the hens on the far opposite side of the field, up over a little rise, as everyone says that with a rooster flock, the MOST important thing to keeping them from fighting is to keep them as far from hens as you can...

In the end, I think this is really going to come down to trial and error... but as I mentioned... I know there are a lot of folks who have the experience to HOPEFULLY help keep me from some of the more egregious and painful errors... But of course, as you said, with living animals, you never REALLY know how it will work out...

 

[NatJ]

I may subdivide the hens for breeding purposes and then put them back together after, whether that is before or after egg collection. The main thing is that I don't want to have 4 or 5 different flocks of chickens at all times, especially not when breeding.

I would probably try to make enough pens to do all the breeding at once.
Divide up the hens, put in the right roosters, leave the extra roosters in their bachelor coop.

Give them a few days for the roosters to mate with the hens, then start collecting & hatching your eggs.

When you put the hens back together, and the roosters back in the bachelor coop, I would put them ALL in at once. If you put one "new" bird in an established flock, the new one usually gets picked on. But if you put 6 roosters in a pen that already has 6, the fighting gets spread out among a bunch of different birds. I would supervise when you put them back together, but try to let them sort it out as long as they are not doing major damage. (Comb wounds are generally not "major damage," even though they do bleed heavily.)

Once they are back in big male-only and female-only groups, you can keep them that way until next breeding season.

Keeping the hens in a female-only group outside of breeding season means you don't have to worry about them having stored sperm from the "wrong" rooster.

 

[bestoboth]

I would probably try to make enough pens to do all the breeding at once.
Divide up the hens, put in the right roosters, leave the extra roosters in their bachelor coop.

Give them a few days for the roosters to mate with the hens, then start collecting & hatching your eggs.

When you put the hens back together, and the roosters back in the bachelor coop, I would put them ALL in at once. If you put one "new" bird in an established flock, the new one usually gets picked on. But if you put 6 roosters in a pen that already has 6, the fighting gets spread out among a bunch of different birds. I would supervise when you put them back together, but try to let them sort it out as long as they are not doing major damage. (Comb wounds are generally not "major damage," even though they do bleed heavily.)

Once they are back in big male-only and female-only groups, you can keep them that way until next breeding season.

Keeping the hens in a female-only group outside of breeding season means you don't have to worry about them having stored sperm from the "wrong" rooster.

That makes total sense... I had planned to do AT LEAST a couple of breedings a time for that exact reason, thinking that putting multiple roos back in would at least mean that not ONE dude would get too picked on...

I had also thought MAYBE to add a temporary pen or something adjacent to the main roo pen to be able to do a day or two of look-no-see before throwing anyone back into gen-pop, as it were... but then I wondered if being adjacent might just prolong any possible hostilities, by adding unnecessary frustration... As they all will have grown up together but will have been separated for at least a week... I suspect that might depend more on individual personalities, but not certain at all about any of it... LOL

That all said, for some time to come, my max # of breedings at any one time will be 4 (1 for each breed of rooster), as that planning to ramp up slowly. I am guessing though, even 4 at the same time is better than 1 or 2...

At least for the first year, I will have mixed breed flocks of hens with each chosen rooster, for each breeding. Since each breed will be laying different colored eggs, I can mix and match breeds with fewer worries over parentage from either side, while being able to also breed true for each breed every time. I think I will also be better able to assess and keep track of how each hen produces, as well as how each male does, overall. I am hoping this will maximize my ability to start selecting desired traits sooner and more accurately from the beginning, while simultaneously allowing me to get more out of each breeding cycle, overall.

You have given me a lot to think about, thanks!