BREEDING FOR PRODUCTION...EGGS AND OR MEAT.

[Fire Ant Farm]

Interest seems to have disappeared in this thread. Perhaps it's time to close it.

What???!!! NOOOOO, what do you mean? Why do you think that? There are posts here on a regular basis - I think of this as my "home" thread.

Please don't shut it down!!!!!

- Ant Farm

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

No No No.

I, for one, still have much to glean from y'all.

For instance, I would love to hear about how folks manage their breeders. I would love to see pics of breeding pens and hear about successes, and failures with different breeding plans Pair, trios, quads, what ever.

I love the concept of breed few hatch many but, I also hate brooding chicks. I am leaning t'words keeping three trios of my DC's to breed from next year and then also keeping a 10-12 of my Cubalayas to hatch and raise the DC chicks. I may also keep a Cuba Cock to guard the Cuba flock and to have a bit of fun doing mad science (cross breeding).

My birds are eight months and I have a pretty good idea who the keepers are. I also have a 24'wx32'l building that I lease out that is supposed to be vacated by the 1st of the year so I have a lot of options for build out.

Since I did end up with enough nice birds to consider breeding them, It is time for me to make final decisions on how to best manage my birds going forward.

Any input?

Oh, and yes, I REALLY need to hear all different variants of managing this aspect. STILL trying to wrap my head around what this will look like in my yard, and what I will need housing wise (though I at least have a better idea than before...)

- Ant Farm

 

[islafarm]

I second that response! I'm a daily lurker on this thread, it's by far my favorite and I've learned such a lot! I don't have much to contribute- relatively new to chickens, don't have a sizable flock and live in a place where most of the breeds mentioned are not available. Still the information and interaction here is excellent! Slowest I've seen it for a long while for sure, but far from freezer camp!
Please don't close the thread!

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

I use triangle shaped tractors made from 3/4-inch PVC pipe, hardware cloth, and painted plywood. The black bear could not tip the triangle shape, but certainly did get the corner up on the house-shaped tractor. The house shaped one now has pressure-treated 2x4 base, with four built-in nest boxes in a row in back ... oh, and about a week after the bear hit us we has electric fence netting as a perimeter. I only know of one other neighbor on this series of dirt roads who does electric fence (registered Angus and Lowline cattle) so the bear seems to prefer softer targets. I'll have a better idea of how well the electric fencing works over the next month, as she and her cub work on fattening up before hibernation.

Right now, I am doing small groups of breeders. My F1 GLWs are from one cockerel and three pullets. I have my "Meaties" as a group of six, another GLW cock, three pullets, and one black sex-link hen (the suspected dam of Bertha, the huge crossbreed pullet from the test mating), and I have five pullets who just came into lay that will soon get a breeding cockerel instead of the young yard ornament currently in with them.

I have a growing number of Silkies here to handle the main incubating, hatching, and brooding, along with a couple Ameracauna hens from Luanne, and so far one Ameracauna capon who is inclined to nanny/brood chicks. I now have an electric incubator, for "off-season" hatching and also in case Bossy decides to quit again.

You know, I would love photos of your triangle tractors if and when you could get the chance - for ideas on options. We don't have bears, though we do have coyotes and feral dogs and foxes and raccoons/possums. But I recently fenced in my property which makes protection from the big predators less of an issue - I'm still trying to figure out how to best use/leverage my 1 acre behind my house (partially trees, partially open).

Do you keep your Silkies separately, or mixed in with any bigger birds? (Chicken math is gnawing at my heels, and I'm thinking of how great it would be to raise them for meat, having had them Singapore as a delicacy).

- Ant Farm

 

[hellbender]

Alrighty then! The request to have the thread closed has been withdrawn. I simply didn't realize the remaining interest!

RON

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

Alrighty then! The request to have the thread closed has been withdrawn. I simply didn't realize the remaining interest!

RON

We've all been too busy breeding for production to talk about breeding for production lately!!!!

- Ant Farm

 

[dfr1973]

You know, I would love photos of your triangle tractors if and when you could get the chance - for ideas on options. We don't have bears, though we do have coyotes and feral dogs and foxes and raccoons/possums. But I recently fenced in my property which makes protection from the big predators less of an issue - I'm still trying to figure out how to best use/leverage my 1 acre behind my house (partially trees, partially open).

Do you keep your Silkies separately, or mixed in with any bigger birds? (Chicken math is gnawing at my heels, and I'm thinking of how great it would be to raise them for meat, having had them Singapore as a delicacy).

- Ant Farm

This blog post has a couple good pics. Most of the tractor pics are under the label "building" although in most chicken pictures you can see parts of the tractors.

Mostly the Silkies are in separate tractors from the others, due to size difference, except a couple hens who always end up at the very bottom of the pecking order when in with others their size (Torpie and Little Girl). I have not eaten a Silkie yet, as my customer is eager to buy them up as soon as they are ready.

Hope this is coherent enough - gonna need a LOT of coffee this morning.

 

[CanadianBuckeye]

What?????????? Clost the thread? I only just found out about this thread, I'm on page 61- trying to catch up- Hellbender put your hands down by your side, and step AWAY from the close button!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[varidgerunner]

So, for my tractoring brooder pens, I like the standard dome pen used by the gamefowl breeders. I cut two pressure treated 2x4s five feet and two more 4'9". I take a five foot tall roll of 2x4 welded wire and make an arch spanning five feet and five feet high and cut it off and staple it to the five foot pieces. Screw the shorter pieces in between the two five foot pieces and make a box and then cut wire for the ends. Cut off the wire that is sticking out on the corners leaving enough of a tag piece to bend it around to tie the ends on. Cut a door and put a swing door in it. You can slide a 1 by two through the wire and attach it with some washer screws for a perch or just shove a stick through. Put the perch on the door end. A high and small door prevents fly outs when feeding and watering. Add a bucket for a nest box. Can be covered with tarp and closed in on three sides with clear plastic depending on season. If it snows a lot you will have to go out and kick your pens or they will bow in in the center, if they get mashed they are easy to bend into shape, a scrap stick can be used to prop the center in the wintertime. In summer they are easy to move and don't blow away in high wind as bad as you would think. I can put a hen in and rotate a breeding male between pens moving him off the roost at night. When she sets I can leave her in and let her raise chicks until they are ready to free range, I can prop them on cinder blocks and let chicks come and go with the hen. 4x4 pens will work for just housing a cock bird or maybe a smaller pair. I can usually get away with pair in the 5x5s in the winter. You can't leave the rooster in the 5x5s once the hen starts setting as he will disrupt brooding sometimes. Sometimes a hen won't lay in a 5x5 but I have some 6 x 8 stationary pens that will work for any of them. Of course depending on your roosters you might need a sight barrier around the bottom if you have yard birds running near your pens. This can be scrap roofing or black silt fence, etc. Pen fights can be worse and more prolonged than if the birds are loose, sometimes.

 

[DesertChic]

Alrighty then! The request to have the thread closed has been withdrawn. I simply didn't realize the remaining interest!

RON

You're the popular kid in school....even if you don't realize it.

Thanks for reconsidering.