Baby Chicks Started with 10 now I have 36!!!!!

[Chad Cool]

What has my daughter done to me. Well i guess i do have to say i do enjoy it aslo. The youth Pastor at our Church is a Farmer also and incudates Chicken eggs. We started with 10 hatchling that were: welsummers, Black langshan, cuckoo maran,& Cooper Marans. To say the least we ended up with 24 more this weekend of the same type chinkens that is 36 birds. All are well and happy owe and eat and poop all day long!!!
My next step is to build a coop big enough for all these lovely chickens. My primary goal is to eat the eggs off them but i know I will have to keep replacing birds because preditors. So should i keep one rooster from each breed and build a breeding coop or should i let one rooster breed all the chickens.

Thanks for your input.

 

[3riverschick]

Quote: okay, you need a 12 x 12 coop for them when they are adults. Connect a yard to it which is 12 feet wide and 30 ft. long and you are good to go. 4sq. ft. per adult large fowl in the coop ( 1/2 that for bantams). 10 sq. ft. per adult large fowl in the yard 1/2 that for bantams).
One nest box for every 5 hens. Course probably 1/3 of the chicks are males which you can eat or give away on craigslist if you don't want to keep the. Pick one breed to reproduce and keep 2 males from that breed. Three breeds is too many to start out with.
. Black Copper Marans are nice birds. I used to have one. Maybe ask the farmer which of his breeds ,most closely approaches show quality and work with that breed. Chickens are more difficult to breed than dogs and cats because of all the sex-linked genes.
Varieties of the same breed, Cuckoo and Black Copper Marans are dark brown egg layers. Now your daughter can have fun with these at the Marans egg shows. Yup, that's right, she can show the eggs her Marans hens lay! I did well with my Salmon Marans and have a couple of ribbons and a big rosette. Tons of fun. Ship 3 fresh eggs per entry with 5.oo entry fee to the egg show. ( if you are worried about broken eggs in transit you can ship a couple more and ID each egg with a number of order in which you want then shown. They will only put 3 in a plate in an entry. But you could send 5 and number them so in case of a broken egg, the clerks could pick the top three eggs in order of your numbered preference for your entry. Of course, a precise, short note of instruction should accompany such an entry so the clerks understand your intent. Then the eggs are judged for excellence by an APA judge. Prizes are awarded. The eggs are destroyed and the prizes mailed out to the entrants.
How to breed egg show winners: Look up Marans egg show results on the Net. See whose strains are winning. Ask your farmer friend from which strain he got his Marans. Then go to that strain, find a breeder using that strain who is winning consistently at the egg shows. Obtain a male from him/her which had a dark egg laying mother. ( The male Marans passes on most of genes which are related to dark egg laying; he inherits his ability to pass on the dark egg genes from his mother). Breed this boy to your girls from that strain. Stay in the same color variety . This is really important if you want to sell any chicks. Marans breeders aren't interested in chicks which are 1/2 cuckoo and 12 Black Copper regardless of the color of their eggs. Take the daughters from this breeding and breed them back to the male you bought (their father). You can do this in chickens because of the wide genetic base in poultry, and the many sex-linked genes, which keep poultry from getting genetic bottlenecks. Use the other breeds in your egg flock. Have fun!
Best,
Karen

 

[Chad Cool]

Thanks alot Karen!!

 

[SobbaChickens]

Have fun with the chicks! I'm blaming my daughter too but I've really been enjoying having our girls

 

[Sweet T]

Are you free ranging them, or keeping them in pens?
If you're wanting to keep roosters to protect the hens during free ranging, and to keep these breeds going, keep one rooster per 6 (or so) hens.
If you're going to keep them in pens and aren't sure what you're going to breed yet, you might only want to keep one or two roosters.
My advice would be to grow the chicks out. Wait till you can tell who's pullets and cockerels. By then you'll decide which breeds are your favorites, and if you want to continue them and breed them.

 

[Chad Cool]

1 rooster per 6 hens is good? They won't fight or kill eack other?

 

[Sweet T]

Yeah one per 6-10 hens, or whatever you're comfortable with. If they're growing up from chicks together, they (most of the time) work it out very early, and can all live together comfortably.
Now if you were to introduce two adult roosters to each other who'd never met before, that would probably be a death match.