Hello all,
We are just getting started raising birds for show. We currently have australopes in a large penned area that we use just for egg production. However I am wanting to start showing and would like to raise a few different breeds. I want to trade my lorpes for Jersey Giants so we can have a better butcher bird, we also have swedish flower hens, cemanis and I would like to add barnvelders. I just am not sure how to best lay out our coop and breeder pens. We have 40 acres total, there is about 5 acres around our house that I would like to use for the birds. I've raised horses and goats, but chickens are a whole new world. So I'm wanting to know how many pens I need and for what, how many roosters of each breed do I need to keep to prevent inbreeding and I'm sure there is a lot more that I need to know and maybe this isn't the best place to put this but I'm not sure where else to ask. Right now we have a pair of cemani, I'm not certain I want to raise them based on what I've found to be a lot of arguing about what the SOP is supposed to be, we have a trio of sweedish flower hens, and will be a getting a pair of jersey giants. Where do I go from here?
We are just getting started raising birds for show. We currently have australopes in a large penned area that we use just for egg production. However I am wanting to start showing and would like to raise a few different breeds. I want to trade my lorpes for Jersey Giants so we can have a better butcher bird, we also have swedish flower hens, cemanis and I would like to add barnvelders. I just am not sure how to best lay out our coop and breeder pens. We have 40 acres total, there is about 5 acres around our house that I would like to use for the birds. I've raised horses and goats, but chickens are a whole new world. So I'm wanting to know how many pens I need and for what, how many roosters of each breed do I need to keep to prevent inbreeding and I'm sure there is a lot more that I need to know and maybe this isn't the best place to put this but I'm not sure where else to ask. Right now we have a pair of cemani, I'm not certain I want to raise them based on what I've found to be a lot of arguing about what the SOP is supposed to be, we have a trio of sweedish flower hens, and will be a getting a pair of jersey giants. Where do I go from here?
