Breeding details

[jmorriso]

Just curious how you all do your breeding. If you have a certain roo that you want to breed with several hens do you have a cage or small coop/run that you put them together in for a week or so? I'd love to see some pictures of a breeding setup if you have them. I've only got one roo so this isn't really an issue for me, I was just wondering how it's done.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I don't have the set-up you are looking for so I cannot help you there. However, I noticed you mentioned a week or so. That is not long enough. When a hen is mated, she normally will stay fertile 2 weeks. It can be less and it certainly can be more. Many breeders wait three weeks after isolating a rooster with the hen or hens to make sure that rooster is the father of any resulting chicks. There have been reports of eggs remaining fertile for 3-1/2 weeks after a mating, so some breeders wait 4 weeks to be absolutely certain.

It is different if no rooster has been with the hens, of course. Then you don't have to wait for the old rooster's sperm to clear. The new rooster will be the only possibility. It normally takes 2 days after a mating for the eggs to be fertile. It takes about 25 hours for an egg to make its way through a hen's internal egg-laying factory. It can only be fertilized during the first 15 minutes of this journey. So the egg is not fertile the day of the mating, may or may not be fertile the next day depending on the time of the mating and the time of the egg laying, but the following day the egg will almost certainly be fertile.

Good luck!

 

[jmorriso]

Thanks, I see you're from NWA, me too! I'm in the Farmington/Fayetteville area!

 

[Lollipop]

Quote:
Check this out. Jeb is building some breeding pens. It`ll give you the idea. To carry on with purebred chickens, pen the rooster and hens away from others of another breed and use those eggs for incubation. Pretty simple, when you think of it, but it can get really involved and complicated when you begin a breeding program to improve your stock, whether it is for show, or something else. Check out Jeb`s page. I was impressed.........Pop

https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=25889

 

[Ridgerunner]

I'm just down the road in Prairie Grove.

 

[TK Poultry]

I have my bantams in 6x6 pens and the best roos and the best hens get penned and the rest are SOLD! that is how I do it with my chickens

 

[jmorriso]

Thanks everyone for the replies, that gives me a good idea of how it's done. Ridgerunner, do you ever sell birds on craigslist? I see quite a few listings from there for birds.

 

[joe17]

How many silkies can you put in a 6 x 4??? A quad?

 

[TK Poultry]

I can fit about 10 Bantam Ameraucanas in a 6x6 comfortably so I would say about 6 silkies at the most IMO