A single pair senario-

[veggiecanner]

How would you deal with a senario where you had one male and one female and wanted to breed for food? would you be able to leave them together?
Or if you had 2 males and one female. How long between breeding each roo would the female lay eggs fertilized from the different male?
I am thinking you would hatch them and make groups from all the half brother and sisters.

With the spiral breeding program you move the males to the next cage in line so I need to know some of these things. I could hatch for meat not knowing who the roo is that fertilized the egg, but for replacement stock I need to know.

 

[James the Bald]

Veggie, funny you should say that, because I have 1 hen and 1 roo in a cage. And I want baked quail and quail parmesan!!! Here's how I dealt with it... I called JMF and ordered eggs. My intent is to keep the 4 of the largest hens with the largest of male to get eggs that I will incubate. I will also keep 4 or 5 other hens for egg production.
The hen and roo have been in the same cage for about 10 days now. This Sunday after church, I will bust open the 7 eggs that I will have collected to make an omlette for myself and my wife. Before I scramble the eggs, I will carefully inspect the eggs for signs of fertility. Any chicks hatched from this couple will be used only for food, and will not be permitted to intermingle with the chicks I get from JMF.

 

[veggiecanner]

Veggie, funny you should say that, because I have 1 hen and 1 roo in a cage. And I want baked quail and quail parmesan!!! Here's how I dealt with it... I called JMF and ordered eggs. My intent is to keep the 4 of the largest hens with the largest of male to get eggs that I will incubate. I will also keep 4 or 5 other hens for egg production.
The hen and roo have been in the same cage for about 10 days now. This Sunday after church, I will bust open the 7 eggs that I will have collected to make an omlette for myself and my wife. Before I scramble the eggs, I will carefully inspect the eggs for signs of fertility. Any chicks hatched from this couple will be used only for food, and will not be permitted to intermingle with the chicks I get from JMF.

Then why keep the roo?

 

[James the Bald]

The "stud" roo belongs to my 16yo daughter. When I first purchased eggs, I allowed both of my children to select 2 eggs each. As luck would have it, the only 2 that hatched were the eggs that I allowed my kids to pick out (one each). Each one have been given life without parole.
Another hatch gave me one hen (actually 2, the other being killed by a cat), and several other males. When my eggs from JMF arrive and hatch, he will go into quaranteen and remain a family pet, the hen will be tagged and put into the egg cage and the other roos will be sent to freezer camp when they put on some more weight.

 

[veggiecanner]

Will you put all the JMf farms in one cage and Breed In one large group, or make family groups from them?

 

[James the Bald]

Will you put all the JMf farms in one cage and Breed In one large group, or make family groups from them?

I want to start off with things I can "handle", so initially, I will have only one cage with 4 hens and 1 roo. Every 7 days, I will be able to incubate 28 eggs and start the process going again, if the roo holds up to his end of the bargain.
Eventually, I'd like to get to the point where I can have multiple cages of fertile hatching eggs to keep a continuous supply of chicks for the grow out pen. I'll only be keeping the largest of hens for breeding. When my incubator is in operation, the eggs that those 4 hens produce can go into baking, hard boiling, fying or omletting with the non-fertile eggs.

 

[veggiecanner]

I want to start off with things I can "handle", so initially, I will have only one cage with 4 hens and 1 roo. Every 7 days, I will be able to incubate 28 eggs and start the process going again, if the roo holds up to his end of the bargain.
Eventually, I'd like to get to the point where I can have multiple cages of fertile hatching eggs to keep a continuous supply of chicks for the grow out pen. I'll only be keeping the largest of hens for breeding. When my incubator is in operation, the eggs that those 4 hens produce can go into baking, hard boiling, fying or omletting with the non-fertile eggs.

do you have 4 incubators?
I only have the one . So I will be collecting eggs the last 7-10 days of each batch, for the next incubation. some day I'll get a incubator with a turner in it. Then my current incubator (no turner) will be my hatcher. I don't think I could grow enough meat or eggs with 4 hens. I'd like to hatch 35- 50 per incubator load. And I am finding out not all eggs layed are the quality you need for the incubator. I would count on producing 25% more eggs for incubation than you need. Not all will go in the incubator. Or be fertile. Of course that's just my opinion.
And you are counting on them laying every day. Which doesn't happen.

 

[hunter109]

What if you have males and females and had them for a week and only got to soft shelled eggs out of 10 birds and they are supposed to be laying but only got two in about a week

 

[hunter109]

What if you have males and females and had them for a week and only got to soft shelled eggs out of 10 birds and they are supposed to be laying but only got two in about a week

 

[veggiecanner]

If you just moved them they need some time to get used to you and their new home. They will start pretty quickly.