Breeding Free Range Chickens

[Racheleighc]

Hi all! I have a flock of 11 established hens and 10 pullets from this year. I was thinking of adding some roosters next year and breeding to sell chicks. My flock is free ranged during the day, and locked in the coop at night. If I have 2 roosters of different breeds, is there any way to control breeding? For example, I was thinking of getting a Blue Laced Red and Cream Legbar. Would there be anyway to make sure I'm hatching the blue rooster with my blue hens? Maybe isolate them for a couple weeks and then mate them? Not that I really want to do that. But I could use a chicken tractor and move it everyday. Any thoughts or suggestions? Or is it not worth the hassle?

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Hi all! I have a flock of 11 established hens and 10 pullets from this year. I was thinking of adding some roosters next year and breeding to sell chicks. My flock is free ranged during the day, and locked in the coop at night. If I have 2 roosters of different breeds, is there any way to control breeding? For example, I was thinking of getting a Blue Laced Red and Cream Legbar. Would there be anyway to make sure I'm hatching the blue rooster with my blue hens? Maybe isolate them for a couple weeks and then mate them? Not that I really want to do that. But I could use a chicken tractor and move it everyday. Any thoughts or suggestions? Or is it not worth the hassle?

No. There will be one dominant and one submissive male. The dominant will breed most of the hens and the submissive will breed few if any. They will pick who they breed, not you. Separating the males and or hens lo g enough to be 100% sure of parentage (at least one month) will almost certainly make reintegration of males impossible.

 

[Racheleighc]

No. There will be one dominant and one submissive male. The dominant will breed most of the hens and the submissive will breed few if any. They will pick who they breed, not you. Separating the males and or hens lo g enough to be 100% sure of parentage (at least one month) will almost certainly make reintegration of males impossible.

Okay. I guess maybe I'll just pick one and do that if I decide to. Thanks so much!

 

[aart]

breeding to sell chicks

This can be tough, sounds great but make sure you have plans to house these chicks if they don't sell quick.

 

[3KillerBs]

This is why I'm selling my Black Langshan so that I can raise only Australorps and Australorp Crosses.

In order to ensure that the right rooster fertilizes the right hen you have to separate them for at least 3 weeks -- and I have 4 black Orpington x Wyandottes to prove that even 3 weeks *might* not be enough.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Whether it is worth the hassle is up to you. Your opinions on that are what count, not mine. But I can give you some information to help you plan.

An egg takes about 25 hours to pass through the hen's internal egg making factory. That egg can only be fertilized during the first few minutes of that journey. That means if a successful mating takes place on a Sunday, Sunday's egg is not going to be fertile from that mating. Monday's egg might or might not be, depending on timing. Tuesday's egg would be.

A rooster does not mate with every hen in his flock every day but he doesn't have to. In the last part of the mating act the rooster hops off, his part is done. The hen stands up, fluffs up, and shakes. This fluffy shake gets the sperm into a special container near where the egg starts that internal journey. The sperm can remain viable in there from over a week to maybe over three weeks. It varies by rooster and hen. You generally get good fertility if you use two weeks, longer than that and fertility starts dropping. Many good breeders use three, but there have been cases where three weeks isn't enough. I've seen a couple of reports on here where 4 weeks wasn't enough but that's like 2 times in ten years. Really unlucky.

What often happens in a true free range situation where room is plentiful when you have two roosters, each one claims a territory out of sight of the other and collects what hens they can. It doesn't matter which one is dominant, they each have their harem. That's not going to be by breed, it's whichever rooster a specific hen decides to hang with. Neither the hens not roosters are all that loyal either. There can be a lot of interbreeding between harems. It's been several years but I read a Dutch study where they kept track of that. Chickens are not loyal to their mates.

It doesn't always happen like this. I had two roosters that were best buddies. The hung together and took care of the flock together. One was dominant and did most of the mating but the other wasn't left out by any means. Unless you physically separate them you have no control over which rooster mates with which hen.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

A rooster does not mate with every hen in his flock every day but he doesn't have to. In the last part of the mating act the rooster hops off, his part is done. The hen stands up, fluffs up, and shakes. This fluffy shake gets the sperm into a special container near where the egg starts that internal journey. The sperm can remain viable in there from over a week to maybe over three weeks. It varies by rooster and hen. You generally get good fertility if you use two weeks, longer than that and fertility starts dropping. Many good breeders use three, but there have been cases where three weeks isn't enough. I've seen a couple of reports on here where 4 weeks wasn't enough but that's like 2 times in ten years. Really unlucky.

What often happens in a true free range situation where room is plentiful when you have two roosters, each one claims a territory out of sight of the other and collects what hens they can. It doesn't matter which one is dominant, they each have their harem. That's not going to be by breed, it's whichever rooster a specific hen decides to hang with. Neither the hens not roosters are all that loyal either. There can be a lot of interbreeding between harems. It's been several years but I read a Dutch study where they kept track of that. Chickens are not loyal to their mates.

ENTIRELY consistent with my experience. My birds range (officially) 5 acres, unofficially a bit more. Every AM, the Roos head to their respective locations and crow for the ladies. Most days, they get the same bunch of hens. Sometimes a lady wanders elsewhere. There are a few roosters who travel as a pair, with their shared group of ladies (who am I to judge?). and sometimes, a hen is caught alone, and a Roo sees an opportunity...

The only way to effectively breed "breeds" is to completely exclude any non-breed from the area. To do that while free ranging means only one breed on the range.

I suppose you could carefully select for different sex linked or breed-specific traits and sort chicks after hatch, but I don't know enough genetics to identify which pairs of breeds might be most conducive to that practice - nor do I have any advice for what to do with the non-breed crosses which will inevitably occur.

 

[3KillerBs]

It doesn't always happen like this. I had two roosters that were best buddies. The hung together and took care of the flock together. One was dominant and did most of the mating but the other wasn't left out by any means. Unless you physically separate them you have no control over which rooster mates with which hen.

I have that with Ludwig and Rameses. Neither interferes with the other's mating but the preponderance of clean-legged chicks indicates that Rameses gets most of the action.

When I had maturing cockerels in the flock they even teamed up to prevent Captain from mating the ladies (but permitted Red Band to do so when the pullet had consented and wasn't protesting).

 

[Chickassan]

If you're going to do it just from my own experience I'd just go with one rooster.
Chickens are without a doubt some of the lustiest creatures on earth.
Every single time I've ever singled out a group for breeding either a rouge roo breaks in or a hot pants hen breaks out.

 

[Shadrach]

Hi all! I have a flock of 11 established hens and 10 pullets from this year. I was thinking of adding some roosters next year and breeding to sell chicks. My flock is free ranged during the day, and locked in the coop at night. If I have 2 roosters of different breeds, is there any way to control breeding? For example, I was thinking of getting a Blue Laced Red and Cream Legbar. Would there be anyway to make sure I'm hatching the blue rooster with my blue hens? Maybe isolate them for a couple weeks and then mate them? Not that I really want to do that. But I could use a chicken tractor and move it everyday. Any thoughts or suggestions? Or is it not worth the hassle?

Yes it is possible. Whether it's worth the hassle and expense is debatable unless like myself, one is interested in studying such behaviour.
It is this and the related studies that have been my primary interest in chickens for over twenty years.

The easiest route is with two single breeds of chicken with seperate ranging areas and accomodation. This doesn't mean they are confined.
What one relies on is the chickens preference to group in breeds, or find other similarities with which to make a cohesive tribe.
There is a bit of an art involved in this because the science behind the theory is largely unstudied.
I had 4 such tribes at one point and once they has settled they tended to breed within the tribe. Roosters from other tribes were view by the hens much as rogue roosters are with feral flocks and the hens ran and fought to avoid mating with roosters other than their rooster. Add to this that hens are able to abort matings from unwanted roosters and will when in a settled tribe.
Hens in a free range keeping arrangement choose their roosters and having chosen it is that roosters genes the pair want to forward, not the genes of some random oppertunist.
Once a tribe is established it is fairly easy when chicks hatch to see if a hen has taken a fancy to a rooster from another tribe or been caught out by such a rooster.

There are people who rely exactly on these principles to strengthen the populations of rare landrace breeds.

I've found it to be a fascinating thing to study but it's a very long term observation and intensive pursuit.