Breeding hybrids

[ChickenCanoe]

Looks like I need more land of I want to breed. So I don't have to kill any roosters. I don't eat meat, I couldn't imagine eating any of my flock, I don't even eat unknown chickens.

Bruce has had the odd moment of bossyness, he has done the odd wing dropped shuffle toward me. I just laugh and flap my arms or lunge at him. He instantly shrinks back down to size

I agree. You aren't a candidate for breeding. If you give cockerels away, they will be eaten.
Even if you buy sexed pullets, something will have to happen to all the boys. There is no need or place for 240 million cockerels a year other than food. That could be pet food, zoo food or people food.

 

[Kris5902]

I don’t want to sound negative... but considering your feelings on the matter, (which I do respect, so please don’t think I’m saying this to be rude or mean) you may want to reconsider breeding them to sell pullets at point of lay.

I don’t know what the market in your area is like, so I could be way off, but generally mixed breeds don’t sell for as much as pure breeds here. Average is $17-$20 CAD per bird at point of lay for hybrid layers. 10 birds= $100, gross profit... but you have to consider your feed and heating costs for the 4-5 months of raising to point of lay. Not to mention cost of building enough infrastructure to house those birds.

Now assuming you’re lucky and only get a 50/50 even split genders... your costs all double, and you probably won’t be able to sell the cockerels or maybe even give them away if you don’t want them to be eaten. To make $500 gross you’re looking at 50 cockerels or roosters, and they will just keep adding up with every hatch. That’s a lot of feed. My 25 chickens go through about a 50#bag a week at $16/bag now at point of lay age.

I didn’t do a cost analysis since hatch... but I’d research things a bit more before you make the jump to breeding. I think you would feel badly if you got into a situation where you need to compromise on your values, which would be quite likely with the numbers of cockerels that you could end up wanting to sell point of lay hens. You could look into a rare or pure breed, and that might be more feasible if you really want to breed them.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

X2
Raising up chicks to POL, is quite expensive. IMHO, unless you have a rare breed in demand in your area, you will probably be losing money on every bird you sell.
Since I cared for them, I'd rather eat them myself than give them away or worse yet, lose money.
There other hobbies easier on the pocket book.

 

[Kris5902]

Of course you can still keep your beautiful boys and enjoy them... maybe if you have a few people you can rely on for sure to rehome your extra boys to, do a small hatch or two... for fun, more chickens, because you have really nice guys and want to. I also wouldn’t worry too, too much about them mating their “sisters” animal breeding is different than human, and backcrossing genetics is common to enhance desirable traits.

They might both get along in your flock just fine (you might want to add more hens though). They may stay the perfect gentlemen, and there is nothing wrong with eating fertilized eggs and letting your girls be pampered and tidbitted by them, the interactions are quite adorable! segregating the boys might not be a long term condition, once they learn manners.

If you can pre-sell straight run chicks locally, that might work better for you... easier financially for sure. Speaking personally from the perspective of a first time chicken owner, and soon to be breeder myself... Heck, I’m currently being overtaken by just 15 tiny layer cockerels, and I thought I had it planned out well enough! (some are great, some are a**h***s, most are somewhere in between) and I have access to 600 acres of land. If it weren’t for the fact I also plan on meat production (not quite set up yet thought), I personally wouldn’t consider breeding my layers at all. Profit margins, and ability to care for the chickens adequately, and shear percentage of males (and they don’t all stay nice, as I’m finding out!)

Best of luck, don’t be discouraged... chickens are awesome, and roosters can be great! (I actually love my little natural alarm clocks!). Breeding is possible, just be very careful about biting off more than you can handle, because they multiply like bunnies, but have sharp beaks, claws, Spurs... and sometimes “attitudes” too boot.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

There are hatches that are 30:70 pullets to cockerels and vice versa and even about 400 to 1 odds they could be all female or all male but in general, expect about a 50:50 ratio.
There is a problem with having so many cockerels around as they mature.
It becomes mayhem with cockerels constantly chasing the pullets giving them no rest and sometimes mating the same one multiple times in a row. The pullets will lose feathers, not be allowed to eat or drink in peace, be constantly stressed and could suffer physical injury or even be killed. The constant stress means they may not ovulate till the cockerels are eventually removed. Egg laying will definitely suffer, not to mention the well being of the pullets.

 

[Kris5902]

100% true!!! I’m in the “lucky”
70/30 category and have managed to acquire far too many cockerels. There is also the problem of not just separating them from the pullets, but how they are going to behave to one another, and you... once those hormones really kick in!

A pen of 50+ cockerels would (to me) be a nightmare to deal with, and require a whole lot of space. My guys are mostly currently more than 50’ away from the pullets now, and they still act like little jerks. They are really small breed layer boys, and I wanted them to put on decent size before the end... my greediness and wanting to be less wasteful has led to “complications”.

My solution is going to be going with heavier breeds for hatching as much as possible. This is why most smaller breeders in my area sell primarily straight run chicks... and with desirable breeds those can go $15-20 each, so really close in gross profit to point of lay pullets, with less overhead, but a higher initial start up cost of buying a good line of pure breeds.

Just my thoughts on it as a small businesswoman... but the cockerels will assuredly become an issue without culling of some sort, even in a hobby set up. Husband and I are currently “debating” the plant over DIY processing... I don’t want to pay that much and make a trip in for 5 2lb live weight chickens and 2 6lb ones, that will be personal use only. He Will Not help me eviscerate.

 

[Banditschickens]

They love to eat what we cook through. [Human mates]
Getting them to help with the culling is ...........

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I wanted to add more info on not removing cockerels one doesn't need for breeding.
Depending on flock dynamics, cockerels fighting over the right to breed may prevent any from breeding some birds and therefor an excess of cockerels can actually lead to a reduction of egg fertility.
For me, who free ranges most of the birds, these distractions take away from their attention of another primary job. Cockerels chasing pullets and each other distracts their attention away from the skies and perimeter.
When I have a single Black Penedesenca Cock with a flock, I never have losses from hawks (or any other day predator for that matter).
I've had way too many cockerels with each flock this year and in the mayhem, I've lost 2 hens/pullets to hawks. This is the first time in many years.

 

[Madame_Mermicorn]

Do you know for certain if that’s a territorial maneuver or maybe a flirtation? I’m trying to figure out what’s going on in my own problem child’s little brain, lol!

Well, they use the same performance for both reasons. So it's unknown. Neither have attacked me or anyone else so far. I've had a peck on the wrist once many months ago when I first split the boys to live alone from the girls. But a good shove from me has ensured that one hasn't been attempted again.

 

[Madame_Mermicorn]

Of course you can still keep your beautiful boys and enjoy them... maybe if you have a few people you can rely on for sure to rehome your extra boys to, do a small hatch or two... for fun, more chickens, because you have really nice guys and want to. I also wouldn’t worry too, too much about them mating their “sisters” animal breeding is different than human, and backcrossing genetics is common to enhance desirable traits.

They might both get along in your flock just fine (you might want to add more hens though). They may stay the perfect gentlemen, and there is nothing wrong with eating fertilized eggs and letting your girls be pampered and tidbitted by them, the interactions are quite adorable! segregating the boys might not be a long term condition, once they learn manners.

If you can pre-sell straight run chicks locally, that might work better for you... easier financially for sure. Speaking personally from the perspective of a first time chicken owner, and soon to be breeder myself... Heck, I’m currently being overtaken by just 15 tiny layer cockerels, and I thought I had it planned out well enough! (some are great, some are a**h***s, most are somewhere in between) and I have access to 600 acres of land. If it weren’t for the fact I also plan on meat production (not quite set up yet thought), I personally wouldn’t consider breeding my layers at all. Profit margins, and ability to care for the chickens adequately, and shear percentage of males (and they don’t all stay nice, as I’m finding out!)

Best of luck, don’t be discouraged... chickens are awesome, and roosters can be great! (I actually love my little natural alarm clocks!). Breeding is possible, just be very careful about biting off more than you can handle, because they multiply like bunnies, but have sharp beaks, claws, Spurs... and sometimes “attitudes” too boot.

I would love to breed. My son would love the experience too. Maybe in the future when I have more land, so I can keep some roosters.

Sadly, Bruce and Reginald will have to just remain as the roosters I rescued from becoming dog meat, not the spawns of a future bloodline.

Having all the advice on here I have concluded to add more hens to my flock, by acquiring more sexed and hatched chicks. Someone locally has some fantastic lavender Aracuna, white leghorn, copper maran and Amber star chicks about to hatch. I think I will get a female chick of each breed, raise the hatchlings and integrate into my current flock.

If I do go on to dabble in breeding I will a quite a pure breed rooster and make sure I have more space.