Arizona Chickens

[Happy Novogens]

See if the person will sell you fertile eggs,, Then you have 3 options. Get a small incubator. Find someone near you that can incubate the eggs with their batch,, Wait for one of your hens to go broody.
Last option is slightly risky, since you are not sure of when a hen will go broody,, and will stay broody the total duration to hatch out.
In my opinion,, best choice would be a small incubator.
If you can budget the NR360, that would be an excellent option,, since these incubators have excellent reviews. Then keep hatching from your hens, and sell the chicks.
You would of course have to be ready to deal with the possible 50% roosters. Not sure if you would be willing to process/eat them,, or willing to let others have for their dinner table.

@Happy Novogens hatching is an option of course, but you should know that the average hatch is 50/50 pullets and cockerels. So if you have your friend hatch and don’t want a roo you’ll need to have a plan for them. It could be worse than that too; I had four of six chicks turn out to be cockerels and had to send them to freezer camp a couple of weeks ago.

I have lotsa learnin' to do! With just hens, life is simple. If I start hatching, then I'll need to learn how to tell fertile eggs from infertile, how to safely integrate new birds into my flock, and how to handle too many roos. --all new to me.

That also means I'll need to setup a couple new enclosures (I assume). One for young chickens too small to go with the main flock. Would extra roos be kept separate (from main flock and/or from each other??) until they're big enough to process? (cavemanrich, we are fine with sending them to freezer camp)

 

[BlueBaby]

@Happy Novogens The boy's should be kept separate so that they don't stress the girl's out too much.

 

[ChicksnMore]

I have lotsa learnin' to do! With just hens, life is simple. If I start hatching, then I'll need to learn how to tell fertile eggs from infertile, how to safely integrate new birds into my flock, and how to handle too many roos. --all new to me.

That also means I'll need to setup a couple new enclosures (I assume). One for young chickens too small to go with the main flock. Would extra roos be kept separate (from main flock and/or from each other??) until they're big enough to process? (cavemanrich, we are fine with sending them to freezer camp)

Immature roos I keep with the pullets. Once the hormones kick in any unwanted or unsure of yet roos go in a bachelor coop. For tender meat you usually want to butcher before those hormones create an issue anyway.

If you build a growout pen into your coop, you can integrate young ones pretty easy. Give it a door big enough the babies can get through and small enough the adults can't. It lets the babies have a safe space so they can move in and out as they feel brave/scared. The adults get used to them fairly quickly.

 

[springvalley123]

I have lotsa learnin' to do! With just hens, life is simple. If I start hatching, then I'll need to learn how to tell fertile eggs from infertile, how to safely integrate new birds into my flock, and how to handle too many roos. --all new to me.

That also means I'll need to setup a couple new enclosures (I assume). One for young chickens too small to go with the main flock. Would extra roos be kept separate (from main flock and/or from each other??) until they're big enough to process? (cavemanrich, we are fine with sending them to freezer camp)

My experience is with hatchery birds. I can't prove it, but that's probably why I have such a poor track record on integrations. Also, I've found that when I've had straight run chicks, I invariably had to put them in a larger space sooner, and had more nailbiting (my own) until I processed the boys. Breeding novogen to novogen is like breeding any other red sex link as far as my reading can tell--you don't get white males and red females. SO, that means the males will just show themselves by behavior, which could be hit and miss. If your person has parent stock for the novogens, to result in sex-linked chicks, so much the better.

 

[BlueBaby]

My experience is with hatchery birds. I can't prove it, but that's probably why I have such a poor track record on integrations. Also, I've found that when I've had straight run chicks, I invariably had to put them in a larger space sooner, and had more nailbiting (my own) until I processed the boys. Breeding novogen to novogen is like breeding any other red sex link as far as my reading can tell--you don't get white males and red females. SO, that means the males will just show themselves by behavior, which could be hit and miss. If your person has parent stock for the novogens, to result in sex-linked chicks, so much the better.

You are correct in saying that the sexlink's will not breed true in the future generation's of them. Only the auto-sexing breed's will breed true in the future generation's as long as you do not cross them with other breed's.

 

[igorsMistress]

I have lotsa learnin' to do! With just hens, life is simple. If I start hatching, then I'll need to learn how to tell fertile eggs from infertile, how to safely integrate new birds into my flock, and how to handle too many roos. --all new to me.

That also means I'll need to setup a couple new enclosures (I assume). One for young chickens too small to go with the main flock. Would extra roos be kept separate (from main flock and/or from each other??) until they're big enough to process? (cavemanrich, we are fine with sending them to freezer camp)

It’s all pretty easy really. Hatch, and after a couple days put them outside where the bigs can see them and vice versa, but no mingling. They’ll need a heat source until they feather out, I like heat plates rather than lamps. At about 4 weeks let the littles out with supervision at first. Littles are easier to integrate than larger birds, but they’ll need a place to escape where the bigs can’t get in. A door to that safe place small enough to accommodate them but not the bigger birds is necessary. Feeding an all flock is easier because it’s one feed that’s suitable for all, provided you supply oyster shell to the layers. If you feed pellets they can be ground slightly in the blender to make them small enough for chicks. Exposing your chicks to the soil in your yard will help build strong immune systems. They will adore a dust bath just as much as the bigs do.

Keeping cockerels in the group until they’re old enough to process will depend on your flock really. In my experience it has been both easy and stressful, depending on the cockerels and the roo in charge if you have one. If you have a separate area you’ll want to block it off so they can’t visit the ladies, otherwise they may fight. Again, experience varies, but the more guys that are around, the more tense the flock seems to be. In your situation you’ll have cockerels all the same age at first and yes, keeping them all together should be fine provided they aren’t killing each other or hurting the girls. You don’t want to wait too long to process them anyway

Having a rooster can really change the dynamic of your flock. If you’re the type of person who wants to hug your chickens and have them eat out of your hand, I don’t recommend a rooster.

 

[Happy Novogens]

It’s all pretty easy really. Hatch, and after a couple days put them outside where the bigs can see them and vice versa, but no mingling. They’ll need a heat source until they feather out, I like heat plates rather than lamps. At about 4 weeks let the littles out with supervision at first. Littles are easier to integrate than larger birds, but they’ll need a place to escape where the bigs can’t get in. A door to that safe place small enough to accommodate them but not the bigger birds is necessary. Feeding an all flock is easier because it’s one feed that’s suitable for all, provided you supply oyster shell to the layers. If you feed pellets they can be ground slightly in the blender to make them small enough for chicks. Exposing your chicks to the soil in your yard will help build strong immune systems. They will adore a dust bath just as much as the bigs do.

Keeping cockerels in the group until they’re old enough to process will depend on your flock really. In my experience it has been both easy and stressful, depending on the cockerels and the roo in charge if you have one. If you have a separate area you’ll want to block it off so they can’t visit the ladies, otherwise they may fight. Again, experience varies, but the more guys that are around, the more tense the flock seems to be. In your situation you’ll have cockerels all the same age at first and yes, keeping them all together should be fine provided they aren’t killing each other or hurting the girls. You don’t want to wait too long to process them anyway

Having a rooster can really change the dynamic of your flock. If you’re the type of person who wants to hug your chickens and have them eat out of your hand, I don’t recommend a rooster.

Thank you for that. I was getting overwhelmed with all of it. If I do this and end up with a few roos, if I decide I want to breed more, should I keep one or two roos and house them separately from the gals (if I want to still be able to interact with the gals)? How would that work when one wants to get fertilized eggs? Does one just let the roos out with the gals maybe when they are out of the run and roaming about? Will any of the ladies hatch them out or must it be done with an incubator? How do we know which eggs to collect for eating and which are fertile? Oh my, now it's getting complicated again just thinking about this.

 

[BlueBaby]

@Happy Novogens I have heard of broody's before that did not sit the full time on the egg's to hatch them. I have also heard of hen's that kill the chick's as they hatch. I incubate in an incubator because with knowing that, I do not trust the hen's to hatch them. It only takes one rooster to fertilize the egg's, unless you are planning on running 2 group's for breeding purposes.

 

[Happy Novogens]

@Happy Novogens I have heard of broody's before that did not sit the full time on the egg's to hatch them. I have also heard of hen's that kill the chick's as they hatch. I incubate in an incubator because with knowing that, I do not trust the hen's to hatch them. It only takes one rooster to fertilize the egg's, unless you are planning on running 2 group's for breeding purposes.

So if 1 rooster can change the dynamic of a flock, can the roo be housed separately (until needed for breeding) or does that make for an unhappy roo?

 

[BlueBaby]

So if 1 rooster can change the dynamic of a flock, can the roo be housed separately (until needed for breeding) or does that make for an unhappy roo?

My rooster Hawkeye is housed with the girl's. He call's them when I put food out there and let's them eat first. He warns them when a hawk fly's around them so that the girl's can go run and hide in the coop. He also break's up the girl's fighting for the nest boxes.