Breeding pens, pecking orders and housing roos

[OneLuckyDuck]

I was hoping someone might be willing to give me some advise on best way to set up housing for my flock. I would like to be able to keep 4-6 different breeds with the thought of possibly selling hatching eggs for some of them. I am new to chickens and not sure if I understand pecking order dos and don'ts. Could i in theory. House roos seperate from hens and then just pull out the hens and rooster that I would like to breed and pen separately for a few hours then return to normal run/coop? Is this likely to cause too much stress on any particular gender? Obviously depending on breed and egg color there would be issues of knowing whose egg is whose. Do i just need to commit to manage separate flocks for each breed or is there a way to commingle?

 

[KatAnn]

Following. I'm just curious.

 

[FuzzyCritters]

You could house your roosters separate from the hens and only put the hens and roosters together for breeding. For the eggs to fertile, the hens and roosters have to be together for a few days before you start getting fertile eggs. For the first two days at least, you wont get fertile eggs.

 

[NuggetTheChicken]

I am thinking the roosters would stay a week with the girls. Make sure those girls haven't been with any other rooster and their eggs are not fertile before putting in your roo. After a week, remove him. You should hopefully have many fertile eggs afterwords, since chickens store sperm for a few weeks

 

[OneLuckyDuck]

Thank you