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

[Fred's Hens]

How many hens to roo ratio do you experienced people think is good? Just wondering as i am a total newbie here.

These articles are so interesting, and for a complete neophyte as myself, learning a lot here...

Thanks for the education!

MB

MB,

Are you asking about the two-three month breeding season, or the 9 month off season, or year 'round, or.....?

 

[Miss Lydia]

Exciting news today! Mr. Nixon(my roo) is finally crowing!!
I know, no one cares, but I'm excited and proud and wanted to share with my BYC friends!
And I was beginning to wonder if he would ever crow!

How old is he? I'm still waiting for our youngest to start he is around 19 weeks now, Hooray for mr. Nixon!! what breed?

 

[smyers32]

How old is he? I'm still waiting for our youngest to start he is around 19 weeks now, Hooray for mr. Nixon!! what breed?

He's a Buff Orp, about 6 1/2 months (26ish weeks) going by what I was told, but I suspect he may be a little younger, not sure. He's just now getting little spur nubs and his tail feathers are still fairly short. Or maybe that's appropriate for his age? I don't know at what age spurs start growing....

 

[chickencowranch]

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I'm a complete newbie still and have lots to learn, but the first thing I learned is that time spent watching them is time well spent.

absolutely. That is the only way to get to know your flock. Observe them

That is something only a chicken person would know. My hubby thinks I'm sitting waiting for the chickens to go to bed. It's nice to watch them pick around without a care in the world.

 

[Ridgerunner]

RR,

What are you working on if you don't mind telling?  Inquiring minds want to know.

Green egg layers, decent size for meat. I don't need a huge chicken. There are only two of us so we easily get two meals out of a fairly small pullet, but still decent sized roosters by 18 to 20 weeks.

Number of eggs not terribly important, though I want a decent sized egg.

Speckles like the Speckled Sussex.

Roosters that treat the hens right and are not human aggressive. Hens that treat the roosters right.

I want to have Extended Black so the speckles will be on black. If I can get a couple of white tail feathers with that, I'd be real happy. But I'll keep some Wheaton, Gold, Columbia, and Mahogany in the mix so I'll also get dark red chickens which will show the speckles nicely.

I'll never be able to stabilize on both the red and black, they are pretty much mutually exclusive. But I think I can get them to the point where I can get several from each hatch that are either one or the other. My best bet for that is a black rooster with red hens as long as that rooster is split for Extended Black/Wheaton.

I'm still at least two years away from getting close, but it is fun to see some progress.

 

[caj1985]

Thanks, RR. Sounds like a beautiful bird.

 

[Melabella]

MB,

Are you asking about the two-three month breeding season, or the 9 month off season, or year 'round, or.....?

I guess for year round purposes... I was wondering if someoe had a small back yard flock,, if more than one roo would be too much. Say for about 15 hens. Another thing learned...

 

[Beekissed]

I've found that 2 roos are one too many for a flock of 15 or less. Much better for 2 roosters for 30 hens.

 

[Fred's Hens]

OK, for just year 'round, Bee is right. One for a couple dozen is plenty good. We do not hatch chicks year 'round, so maximum fertility is meaningless. When we enter breeding season, however, we don't do "flock breeding" anyhow. We match-up very intentionally, as a good breeder should. Otherwise you're just hatching, propagating, whatever you want to call it.

We select the cock bird we want and put him over those 4-6 hens we want under him. Won't go back over all the reasons why those selections are done, but suffice to say, we are intentional. These breeding pens get populated 3 weeks before we start collecting eggs for incubation. (I'll leave out a broody situation for now). After we've collected our final batch of hatching eggs, the breeding pen gets broken up. We start around March 1 and breed/collect until May 15 or so. That's it.

I hope that helps.

The whole process of selecting and culling, in two or three stages during the year, is another discussion related to this management issue as well.

 

[just me]

OK, for just year 'round, Bee is right. One for a couple dozen is plenty good. We do not hatch chicks year 'round, so maximum fertility is meaningless. When we enter breeding season, however, we don't do "flock breeding" anyhow. We match-up very intentionally, as a good breeder should. Otherwise you're just hatching, propagating, whatever you want to call it.

We select the cock bird we want and put him over those 4-6 hens we want under him. Won't go back over all the reasons why those selections are done, but suffice to say, we are intentional. These breeding pens get populated 3 weeks before we start collecting eggs for incubation. (I'll leave out a broody situation for now). After we've collected our final batch of hatching eggs, the breeding pen gets broken up. We start around March 1 and breed/collect until May 15 or so. That's it.

I hope that helps.

The whole process of selecting and culling, in two or three stages during the year, is another discussion related to this management issue as well.

Is my thinking right on this....

You breed (up to) 6 hens and collect the eggs for three weeks. Assuming each hen lays a minumum of 5 eggs/week, that's 30 eggs per week, total of 90 for the three weeks. While those are incubating, you collect eggs for 3 more weeks and repeat from March 1 thru May 15. MAN, that's a lot of chicks!! I've really got my work cut out for me (don't mind the work, just got to figure out how to get all the brooding pens ready)!!