breeding chickens question (sorry, a little long!)

hi, wasn't sure where to put this post. For those of you who breed your chickens I have a couple of questions. I'm planning on trying to keep 2 roosters, one light brahma, the second a silkie. I have one light brahma hen and a lot of silkie pullets. as well as an assortment of other breeds.
if I wanted to (someday) make pure babies how do you manage the 2 rooster issue? I'm assuming I would separate the pair and then collect eggs from the female (or let her sit if I were lucky enough that she were broody) I know that chickens can stay with fertile eggs from a rooster for a length of time so how long after separating the pair are the females eggs likely to be fertile from the rooster you've chosen for her?

Does this make sense? I'm assuming the silkie roo will have his way with the light brahma pullet at times and likewise for the light brahma roo and the silkie pullet. I'm not being very clear but hopefully someone knows what I'm talking about!

I don't mind at all having 'designer' chicks, but I would like to try my hand at breeding purebreds too (the light brahmas and the silkies are by far my favorite breeds so far)

lastly, what do silkie/standard mixes look like as a rule? Can it be any result or do you get big birds with some silkie feathering? I'd love to see anyones pics of their 'designer' birds.

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Some people do have good luck keeping more than 1 rooster in a coop but most people eventually see that they must be separated. Your silkie will most likely be dominated by the far larger heavier breed lt. brahma. If the brahma decides he isn't having that silkie roo in his coop he may kill it. Sad but true. Roosters can be very aggressive as they get to mating age when other roosters are around. With silkies being small in comparison it wouldn't stand a chance in a barnyard fight except to run and hide somewhere.

If you plan to keep 2 the little silkies should have their own small coop.

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It has been reported that some hens can lay fertile eggs up to 3 weeks after the last mating. So - you have to wait about 3 weeks to make sure she is cleaned out before mating with the other rooster for the pure bred eggs.

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A lt brahma roo is big. He is really too big to be mating a small silkie hen. You may find that he can seriously hurt and injure her. Those injuries can be fatal. You really should plan to have another coop for those small light weight silkies. They don't belong mixed in with a heavy breed rooster. As far as a silie roo mating a big hen - not if a big lt brahma roo has his say. That is a fight looking to happen.

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There are some photos on here of silie and NN crosses, silkie and EE's, etc. Someone I am sure will come around with some photos or links for you.

Thank you! I knew that I might have to separate them. What about free ranging though? would i then house the silkies separately and not allow them to free range? (I mean in general, not while I'm breeding)

They can free range. You can open the houses and two different times and let some range early in the day and some range later.

You will find you save yourself a lot of work and worry if you keep 2 coops.

now that's a great idea! I'm also considering just keeping the silkie roo.
The thing is my light brahma who is looking like a roo (just 6 weeks, no crow yet so jury is still out) is the nicest chicken in my flock. The first on my shoulder when I go out, so beautiful, so friendly! When he first started looking rooish I planned on rehoming him. I was worried about having a rooster of that size (he's already huge!) with my kids and the other birds, but he's just soooooo nice! maybe he's just a big, red combed pullet (with a longer tail, the beginning of wattles, different neck feathering) i think I will just wait it out. Should I have troubles (i.e. fighting etc...) it shouldn't happen for a while yet right? I'll think about a second coop, and see how everyone gets along. otherwise I may end up with a roo for sale in maine.

Thank you for your help miss prissy, I always learn so much from your posts!

If you handle them and teach them to be nice with your kids they will be nice with your kids. That is over and above their natural behavior with other roosters. Even the most docile rooster that you handle and your kids play with will be aggressive and assert his dominance in the hen house where other roosters come into play.

Ask speckledhen about her two boys. She has a big blue orp Suede and before an aweful accident she had a large barred rock rooster, Hawkeye. Docile gentle lap sitters. But face to face and given a chance they would fight and it was blood drawing fighting.

So, in general, hen house dominance and allowing your children to hold them and pet them is generally two different behaviors.

I had silkies and standard chickens together for a couple of years. They chared the coop at night but I separated them in the runs in the morning with access to small houses instead of the common coop. They free-ranged together though when I was home and the flocks just stayed appart by them selves. In the night-coop there was never any fights but that might have been since I always let the standards in first and they flew up to the pins and then the silkies who stayed on the floor.

Thanks Van,
(wow belgium!) i think I'm leaning towards adopting a wait and see attitude, they're all so young right now, and for now at least all getting along. I think I'll let my roos grow up and see how things go. If I can't part with the either roo I'll think about a second coop!

We may just be lucky but most of our roosters get along just fine. We housed 10+ roosters together all last winter, It wasn't the best situation but they all got along okay. Right now we have seperate breeding pens but we still have a bantam rooster and 4 hens in with our Cherry Egger Rooster and BR hens. On occasion we let out our huge Sexlink Rooster and his two hens to free range with the others and they don't fight Kramer(the Sexlink) will mate the BR's and Romeo(Cherry Egger) will run at him but always chickens out last minute. Kramer is our dominate rooster and every one respects that. However we do keep out silkies seperate, I just felt to bad for the little hens getting taken down by the big roosters all the time. I don't like Romeo mating the banties but the stupid little hens fly out of everything we put them in and I like to let them free range.

So far we havn't had any to blood fights between our large roosters or the banty roosters.

Good Luck
Melissa

Mine too! I housed 9 roos over the winter and 10 hens, the roos got along just fine never a worry.