Chickens for 10-20 years or more? Pull up a rockin' chair and lay some wisdom on us!

[aussie pete]

I always let my roosters fight it out. Of course, if I had some valuable roosters I doubt I'd take the chance...but then again I might. No sissies allowed.



On that note....I'm in love. Catch me I'm falling!! Fred that last RIR cock is stunning...simply stunning. Take that one and the one that Al had of the WR and a person would need no other kind of bird...ever.

did try that ,but u have seen pics of my 2 big boys Bee, neither wanted to back down .got a bit too bloody, so i broke it up .the BA, even thou he was the biggest ,lost some comb permanently .guess I'll just have to run 2 separate flocks

 

[aart]

This thread is great, hard to keep up with and always eats time but, such a relief from . . . that other stuff. I was about to bail from this forum til I found this thread.
I'm a newbie, never had my own but hope to soon, but have loved chickens since teen years and now chicken sit for friends.
Too bad OT most often means Off Topic, because in this case it certainly doesn't. Thanks to the OTer's for the down to earth logic and sharing the experience you have with us all.

 

[NanaKat]

I have a 70 year old friend who will be setting up his breeding pens in January and will be finished the end of April before the heat hits our area...Oklahoma.
Does this sound okay.

Also, this is my plan for my breeding season..any suggestions?
I plan on setting up 1). a CW roo over matron CW hens and 2) a CW roo over CW daughters, and 3) a pen with CW roo over Blue Wyandotte daughters using the same rooster but rotated every three days...each pen will have three hens.

Then I have two F1 Birchen CW roosters that will each have their own pen. One will have two F1 Birchen CW hens and the other will have three F1 black Wyandotte hens. Both pens are 1/2 brother to 1/2 sisters. All share the same sire but not the same mother. The better Birchen roo could go over his mother. But just thinking of this one. Both Birchen Roos are out crossed ..a pairing of my CW roo over two of the best Australorp hens. The Birchen hens are out of a Blue Wyandotte hen and the CW roo.

There will also be a pen with a young Black Cochin roo over two older white Cochin hens, a pen with a Blue Cochin roo over two Blue Cochin hens, and a pen with a Blue Cochin roo over a two Blue Splash Cochin hens. Then these girls will be covered on a rotation with my older Blue Cochin roo.

Sounds like I'll need to set up a toe punch system for these 11 different breedings and Al gave me instruction on how to artificially inseminate chickens last year and it will come in handy for the Cochins if needed.

Oh my....sounds like a big piece of pie....could I post pictures of the pairings for advice?

 

[Fred's Hens]

.... using the same rooster but rotated every three days...

Did you mean to say three days?

 

[Beekissed]

did try that ,but u have seen pics of my 2 big boys Bee, neither wanted to back down .got a bit too bloody, so i broke it up .the BA, even thou he was the biggest ,lost some comb permanently .guess I'll just have to run 2 separate flocks

You could pen one boy up for awhile and alternate them out into the flock. Sort of a work share program from prison.

This thread is great, hard to keep up with and always eats time but, such a relief from . . . that other stuff. I was about to bail from this forum til I found this thread.
I'm a newbie, never had my own but hope to soon, but have loved chickens since teen years and now chicken sit for friends.
Too bad OT most often means Off Topic, because in this case it certainly doesn't. Thanks to the OTer's for the down to earth logic and sharing the experience you have with us all.

Welcome to the thread! Stick around...we'll be doing some quizzes after the holidays on choosing the right characteristics in a breed. The last one was super fun and we all learned a lot.

 

[aussie pete]

You could pen one boy up for awhile and alternate them out into the flock. Sort of a work share program from prison.

great idea Bee, why didn't I think off that .sometimes I think so hard ,I miss the obvious

 

[Beekissed]

They often call me Ms. Obvious around here....can't help but point it out sometimes. Was born that way, much to my dismay.

 

[delisha]

Quote: saddles? What is a saddle?

 

[NanaKat]

.... using the same rooster but rotated every three days...

Did you mean to say three days?

He will cover each pen three days and the rotate to another pen for three days then into the last pen for three days. the the rotation repeats.

Should I do this differently?
Also I added some info on the Birchen pen description....

 

[al6517]

My take on the practice of Trio's.................. With one great foundation Rooster and 2 fine hen's that is all that is required to get a good start. Within a short period of time during hatching season you could concievably have more than you need to cull from seeing as how you started with good birds to begin with culling will be left to a minimum. They ship easier, the cost is less and space requirements are also less. That is why Breeders sell trio's.

It is also best to try your best to keep worthwhile breeders seperated if possible and not just group them up only during breeding season, there are other parameters to keep in mind that sole free range flock owners cannot accomplish. You can't have your cake and eat it too, well you can but it's a big hassle to do it right.