Advice needed for breeding our Blue Favacuanas

[cyan23]

Hey everyone,

We are new to chickens as of this year. As it happens, my husband and I were able to purchase 4 Blue Favacuanas chicks from a back yard flock for a very low price. The chicks are about 9 weeks old right. It was not our intention to breed these chicks we simply wanted to mix up our flock. After some research we have found that these are quite a new breed, that they are rare and appear to be in demand. At this point we have one blue, one black and 2 splash chicks. We also believe we have a roo, has "he" is almost twice as big as the other chicks and has some roo like behaviors. Our flock also has 4 black copper marans, 6 isa brown hens and one RIR hen who is already laying. One of our Maran's is a roo for certain. As we are super new to this, and loving it btw, any and all advice about breeding would be very helpful

 

[GitaBooks]

Sounds awesome! Breeding birds is so much fun! There will be some things you learn along the way, I know I have, but I hope I can get you started with some helpful hints.

.1 One rooster will do most of the breeding, the others may try but won't produce as many offspring. It is best to just have one breed of rooster so you can predict the parentage.

.2 Make sure they are not related, as inbreeding will lead to poor fertility and mutations in hatching chicks.

.3 Breeder ration leads to healthier, better hatching chicks then layer or chick rations.

.4 A rooster can breed up to 12 hens, but less then 8 may be over-bred by a rooster and loose feathers

.5 Don't try to hatch eggs that are a poor shape or have a thin shell, as you will have poor hatch rates. Instead, use these for eating and the well shaped eggs for hatching.

.6 Breed for healthy, friendly, productive birds that are correct to breed standard and you will become a well known breeder of them, even if there are only a few chicks available each year.

.7 If you are selling hatching eggs then buy good cartons for cheap and if you are selling chicks then buy a good incubator that can hatch a larger number of eggs and is good quality.

.8 Keep records of the number of eggs the hens lay, their health, and other such things so that you can tell your buyers this information and improve on the breed.

.9 Start small and have tons of fun! Because chickens are awesome!

Feel free to ask any other questions!

Best of luck!

 

[cyan23]

Wow, thanks for all the information. I know that there is a lot more too it than allowing nature to take it's course and your post really helps. The chicks are still very young and we have only had chickens since May of this year. As we are beginning our homesteading adventure, this could be a great way to help with income, however the most important thing to us is raising healthy happy chickens. The Favacuana appears new and there is limited information on this breed. If anyone knows of a breed standard that would be great. We only have 4 Favacuanas right now, so if we do breed it sounds like we would need more to proceed?

 

[GitaBooks]

Favacaunas are a mix between Faverolles and Ameraucanas (I think) so they were created originally as a hybrid. They are hardy and lay pretty eggs, as well as being beautiful!

You don't need more birds, you just don't want the rooster you have related to your hens.