9 hens 3 roos..what to do with roos and egg wants..

[whatthecluck]

This is my first flock...12 chickens...I have 7 laying now and two that should lay by mid July or August. I ended up with 3 roosters.
Of my 2 EE hens only one has the blue/green egg so I was thinking of breeding her at some point and incubating (next spring when I have more time)...so I have a few more blue/green layers. Also maybe a few more dark chocolate or olive layers.
I have one BCM pullet, one Welsummer pullet, and 1 EE pullet that I would be interested in breeding.
The 3 roos consist of two EEs with different traits...both are crossed with 1/2 Ameraucana, and 1/2 Maran or Welsummer. Both of those would carry the blue/green gene correct? SO ...I was thinking of keeping them or at least one of them for the future. Then I have a roo who is Wheaten maran or BCM roo over cuckoo marans hen. He would be a dark egger. SO was thinking to keep him around? If I want the olive eggers and have a dark BCM layer would I simply cross her with the EE roo? He has the 1/2 Ameraucana 1/2 maran line. Or go about it the other way and use the EE blue green layers eggs with the dark layer over her?
I am just learning all of this.
I guess I am wondering what troubles I am going to have with 3 roos down the road? Should I only keep one of the EE roos? Should I get rid of the cuckoo X...and get a BCM roo so if I want BCMs in the future I would be able to sell some and only keep the egg layers I want vs. using a cuckoo cross for the dark eggs and having a bunch of chicken mutts that others may not be interested in?
What are your thoughts. We arent too interested in butchering ourselves in small quantity.

 

[Lollipop]

I`m a guy that has just downsized from 52 pens to only 6. I`m gonna tell ya that variety as you have described it, only comes from many available avenues. If I couldn`t make up my mind, I would build 3 seperate setups, including coops, to accomodate the 3 roosters and whatever hen I wished to breed with them. Perhaps 4 or 5 would be more like it and that`s just to start. The combination is up to you. Just a bit of trivia for ya, the hen is the most important eliment in any mating. Most of the genes you want to perpetuate will be from her. Sounds like you are in for a very interresting adventure. Have fun........Pop

 

[sherrydeanne]

Someone check my genetics here, but your EE/dark cross roosters over a blue laying hen would produce blue layers, and over a brown laying hen would produce either olive or dark brown layers. I *think* you could just keep one and then hatch eggs from both your EE's and darkest egg layers to get a variety.