Sally,
These are just my thoughts and what I might do. I am sure others will have different thoughts.
I have my 3 RIR hens in my smaller coop with 1 of my RIR roosters making the small coop my breeding area. My questions:
How important is it to know which hen laid which egg?
It all depends on if you are wanting to stud mate your line or pen mate. If you are using more than one rooster (pen) just keep track of your chicks with a toe punch. (It looks like you want to pen mate) Use a different punch for each male.
If you are using only one male, I would collect a week of eggs to see if the eggs are different in size, shape, color, etc. Most hens will lay a little different egg from each other. If you notice this you can pull a hen out for one or two eggs and then mark them accordingly.
Also once in the breeding pen how long does it take for the hens to get used to the area and continue to lay eggs?
Some hens are not bothered by moving. My Barred Rocks were moved a month ago and they are just now starting to lay but my Columbian Wyandottes just kept laying.
Should I remove the rooster for a day every so many days, something like 2 days a week the roo gets pulled from breeding?
In really small pens I feel the male needs to be removed in order to keep the hens laying and in fairly good feather. My birds, if I leave my male in with 3 hens he often runs them ragged and they slow down their laying because they spend most of the day on the roost trying to stay away from the male. I always start my male by putting him in with them for 10 days. After that I alternate every other day or I will pull him in the late PM after they go to roost return him in the late afternoon once I know they have laid their eggs. Lots of moving him but sure helps the females and makes him even more gentle because you have held him a lot.
Will switching out the rooster cause a stop in laying?
I have not noticed any changes if I move a new male in. Remember that you can save eggs from the first male for 3-4 days and then do not collect for 7 days for a total of a 10-14 day total. Some people say you need to wait longer it is all a personal preference (my opinion). By putting the male in shortly after you pull the other male you can keep a closer hatch between the different males.
My plan is to put each of my roosters 1 month at a time in the breeding area with the 3 hens. I was thinking of having a 7 day period with no roosters with the last few days of the no rooster week's eggs being eating eggs to check for any remaining fertility before introducing the next rooster.
Your plan should work well I would think.
The eggs I'm hoping to set are still pullet eggs, I was just hoping to get back into the incubation by joining the new year's hatch along. I'm also hoping to get some chicks going before March and April suddenly show up.
Some people say it is OK to use pullet eggs. If I do use pullet eggs they have been laying for at least 6-8 weeks. I prefer to wait until they have laid for 3 months but sometimes you just have to get started. In one of my breeds I only have 2 females and 4 males and I am afraid if I wait to long something will happen to one of the females so I will be starting this month after only 4 weeks of laying.
Hope this gives you some ideas as to what you can do.
Rob
These are just my thoughts and what I might do. I am sure others will have different thoughts.
I have my 3 RIR hens in my smaller coop with 1 of my RIR roosters making the small coop my breeding area. My questions:
How important is it to know which hen laid which egg?
It all depends on if you are wanting to stud mate your line or pen mate. If you are using more than one rooster (pen) just keep track of your chicks with a toe punch. (It looks like you want to pen mate) Use a different punch for each male.
If you are using only one male, I would collect a week of eggs to see if the eggs are different in size, shape, color, etc. Most hens will lay a little different egg from each other. If you notice this you can pull a hen out for one or two eggs and then mark them accordingly.
Also once in the breeding pen how long does it take for the hens to get used to the area and continue to lay eggs?
Some hens are not bothered by moving. My Barred Rocks were moved a month ago and they are just now starting to lay but my Columbian Wyandottes just kept laying.
Should I remove the rooster for a day every so many days, something like 2 days a week the roo gets pulled from breeding?
In really small pens I feel the male needs to be removed in order to keep the hens laying and in fairly good feather. My birds, if I leave my male in with 3 hens he often runs them ragged and they slow down their laying because they spend most of the day on the roost trying to stay away from the male. I always start my male by putting him in with them for 10 days. After that I alternate every other day or I will pull him in the late PM after they go to roost return him in the late afternoon once I know they have laid their eggs. Lots of moving him but sure helps the females and makes him even more gentle because you have held him a lot.
Will switching out the rooster cause a stop in laying?
I have not noticed any changes if I move a new male in. Remember that you can save eggs from the first male for 3-4 days and then do not collect for 7 days for a total of a 10-14 day total. Some people say you need to wait longer it is all a personal preference (my opinion). By putting the male in shortly after you pull the other male you can keep a closer hatch between the different males.
My plan is to put each of my roosters 1 month at a time in the breeding area with the 3 hens. I was thinking of having a 7 day period with no roosters with the last few days of the no rooster week's eggs being eating eggs to check for any remaining fertility before introducing the next rooster.
Your plan should work well I would think.
The eggs I'm hoping to set are still pullet eggs, I was just hoping to get back into the incubation by joining the new year's hatch along. I'm also hoping to get some chicks going before March and April suddenly show up.
Some people say it is OK to use pullet eggs. If I do use pullet eggs they have been laying for at least 6-8 weeks. I prefer to wait until they have laid for 3 months but sometimes you just have to get started. In one of my breeds I only have 2 females and 4 males and I am afraid if I wait to long something will happen to one of the females so I will be starting this month after only 4 weeks of laying.
Hope this gives you some ideas as to what you can do.
Rob
