Any Advice?

[KikiLeigh02]

My husband is giving me the green light to get some chicks for breeding. I don't want to start huge, we just want to do it as a trial. We have plenty of space for a separate coop and run, and I really want to breed some Olive Eggers and Ameraucanas to sell. I'm thinking of ordering: 1 Black Ameraucana cockerel, 3 French Cuckoo Marans pullets, 8 French Black Marans pullets, and then 3 Black Ameraucana pullets. None of them are common in my area right now. Would that be a good start? Any other advice?

 

[Sneebsey]

It's a great idea to breed your Olive Eggers in with your Ameraucanas; you'll be able to tell the eggs apart easily enough, and the Cuckoo hens will produce sex-linked offspring. Maybe cut down on the number of FBCM in order to enhance fertility; I'd worry that maybe one cockerel would struggle to 'do the rounds' with that large a group.

 

[KikiLeigh02]

I was wondering about that too, thank you! So maybe get 3 French Cuckoo Marans Pullets, 3 Ameraucana Pullets, and just 4 French Black Marans pullets?

 

[Sneebsey]

I would, though it really does depend on the cockerel; you may find that ten is too many or not enough.

With the Black Ameraucana you'll be off to a great start, too, as by starting with Black, it would be very easy to set yourself up in various other colours as time goes on. Blue/Splash, Lavender, White and Chocolate are all dilutions of Black, so with your homegrown pullets, starting a line of any of those colours would only set you back the cost of a decent breeding cockerel.

 

[KikiLeigh02]

That's a really good point! I was just going to start with the black/black & white because they're my favorite.