OK, guys, I've been tying myself in knots with my plans, including looking at breeding pens, thinking about multiple roosters, etc., to the point where I can't quite keep everything I've read straight, and I think I'm losing my mind. So, since my primary goal is production, this thread seemed the right place to ask some input/advice/opinions from folks with more experience than I have.
I have two separate goals - eggs and meat. I think the best approach for my goals is to maintain two separate flocks.
Egg flock: Cream Legbars and Black Copper Marans (Goal: egg colors - blue, dark brown, and olive eggers from F1 cross, fun playing with F2 crosses and back crosses. BCM over CCLs will allow sexing of chicks at hatch.)
Meat flock: Naked necks and New Hampshire Reds (not adverse to adding a BCM with good meat bird characteristics to this down the road) (Goal: yummy birds, possibility of faster growing meatier hybrid with same heat resistant qualities of NN - so, would like pure NNs and NNxNH crosses. NHRs are supposed to be good layers, but with the number of chickens I'm looking at, I'll already be awash in eggs, so subtleties of egg production aren't as crucial. May try to add a Cx hen to this for NN toads down the road.)
Muscovy meat flock: I'm planning to get chocolate muscovies in the spring and keep one drake and several ducks to establish a flock for meat. I don't have questions about that specifically, but they will be wandering around the property (1.6 acres, 1 effective acre in back), eating bugs and/or being broody.
SIMPLEST VERSION:
Meat flock in either a tractor similar to JessicaThistles (well built, sturdy, about 60 sq ft I think), or other tractor-type coop, moved regularly with electric netting and overhead aviary netting (hawks!!!) for paddock ranging. (I have roughly 1 acre in the back to use as "pasture".) I am picking up 15 Nacked Neck and 10 New Hampshire Red straight run chicks from Ideal in early September. I would raise these, select about 3-4 NN pullets and 3-4 NHR pullets for breeding and one NN cockerel to serve as cock-of-the-flock. These would constitute my meat flock, and I could breed for both pure NNs (selecting for the best nakedness of necks/no bowties to ensure homozygous breeders to use for hybrids, as well as speed and quality of growth), as well as NNxNHR crosses (and their progeny). For more pure NHRs, I would have to intermittently get more NHR pullets/chicks from a hatchery or breeder.
Egg flock in static coop in shade with paddock for ranging. I already have three cream legbar pullets nearing POL. I am getting some BCM chicks (or maybe hatching eggs) from a breeder near me later this fall. I would keep 3 or so BCM pullets and the best BCM cockerel to serve as cock-of-the-flock. These, with my cream legbars, would constitute my egg-laying flock, and I could breed for both pure BCMs and F1 olive eggers (BCM x CCL). For more CCL hens, I would have to intermittently get more CCL pullets - as they are auto sexing, this shouldn't be too high drama (meaning I shouldn't have to get a bunch of straight run chicks to get desired pullets). But they're costly.
MORE COMPLICATED VERSION (Here's where I have questions about roosters)
Meat flock as above, but also keeping an additional rooster out of the NHR straight run chicks. As I understand it, I would need to keep the roosters separate. Given my breeding goals, I could simply swap out the roosters, either throughout the year or just during breeding season, keeping the one not "in rotation" in a rooster condo by himself. This would add the ability to get more pure NHRs - I hear good things about NHRs with regard to production, and they're supposed to do ok in heat, so this appeals to me. Maintaining a separate solo condo for a lonely rooster is less appealing, and I would need to think through how best to make that work. Note that the NHR and NN rooster would have "grown up together", possibly increasing their ability to get along, but I have read that that all goes to hell when you introduce hens to the equation, so I'm not sure what to think.
Egg flock as above, but adding a CCL rooster to the program. As above, as I understand it, I would need to keep the roosters separate, and could simply swap out the roosters throughout the year or in breeding season, keeping the one not "in rotation" in a rooster condo by himself. This would add the ability to get CCLs. Note, however, that as CCLs are a new breed with limited genetic diversity here in the US, even if I'm not aiming for SOP, really important practical factors like autosexing (one of the most important features) can be lost easily when trying to breed oneself with limited stock. I'm not in love with this idea for the egg flock, but I'm including it for completeness. CCL cockerel chicks are much cheaper than pullets, and I'm honestly just out for blue eggs and I like the personality and features of the breed (not trying to sell chicks or anything), so if I figure the rooster thing out for the NHRs, I may consider the same solution for a CCL rooster.
Rooster questions for the complicated version:
Which option would potentially work best?
1. House both roosters together year round (hoping they get along), and placing one at a time with the hens during breeding season. This would require an additional separate housing, another set of feeders and waterers to manage, figuring out how to range them on their own (I want happy roosters, not keeping them locked up all the time), and needing to worry that they're suddenly going to start wanting to kill each other. Another downside to this is that they won't bond with and protect the flock (main issue will be hawks, but I hope to use aviary netting over their paddocks, so not sure this is an issue).
2. House one of the roosters with the flock at all times, but switch them out (say, 6 months each). This allows a rooster to be part of the flock at all times, makes the management of breedings a little less demanding, timing-wise, and keeps the roosters from being housed together. I would still have to manage a separate "residence" for the lonely rooster and give him outside time. Not having had roosters, I don't know whether this would be an "unhappy" rooster, or if they do fine housed on their own.
3. Is there a good third option?
(I don't get the impression that running both roosters with the flock will be a good idea, as they'll be confined to the tractor at least part of most days. I'm thinking bloodshed would follow.)
A few notes:
- As I've tried to keep my goals simple, and I can't be home all day, I don't currently plan to use trap nests (though I may reconsider this later). For the egg flock, I will be able to make some decisions based on egg color alone, which is a bonus.
- I am currently committed to full enclosure predator protection of my flocks (and using netting to keep them apart as appropriate). While I'm having an 8 foot fence rebuilt around the property (as we speak!), there are enough overhanging trees to risk climbing predators like raccoons, and hawks nest on the property, so they would range with protection, and likely only when I'm home. Also, at one point a few years ago, almost ALL of my neighbors had crowing roosters (we're allowed roosters). Yes, they crowed at 2AM. I got used to it, never bothered me. However, no one has roosters now (though one neighbor next door has a LOUD guinea hen). So I MAY try the no crow collars just to be a good neighbor and not cause a nuisance.
OK, let me know what you think! Simple version is easiest, likely best, but I'd love to hear any strategies to have the two rooster option. I also need to think through bringing up junior cockerels to replace the old guys eventually - I guess that works better in the one rooster flock? You tell me...
(And maybe some of your answers can help DesertChic who I believe is also in the head-blowing-up phase, breeding-pen-wise...
)
- Ant Farm
(Edited for typos, etc. - my grammar sucks late at night...)