Choosing breeds to add to my 5 Barred Rocks

[MagistraTn]

Hawks have pared my flock down to 5, so I’m planning to replenish this spring. My goal is a sustainable flock to keep our family in eggs throughout the year (approximately 3 dozen a week). I was hoping someone would go broody so I could sneak some fertilized eggs under her, but it’s not happening.

Right now we live on 1/2 an acre and the coop/run is just shy of 200sqft. I like to let them free range as much as possible during the day. (hawks!) However, we are building a homestead on 50 acres. So, they will have a larger space there, but also more predators. I’ll also have to move them, which I’m already fretting about

I’m looking to build a diverse flock that will keep up (at least some) winter egg production. I would enjoy a color egg basket, but it’s more important to have hardy hens that can elude raptors As well as tolerate hot summers and occasional frigid (like Christmas) winter days In East Tennessee. When we get situated in our new home (likely 2 years), I would like to let nature take its course and possibly harvest excess hatchings (especially the Roos) for meat.

My cackle hatchery cart is over-loaded and I need to pare down my choices. I have to buy in 3s, so I feel I need to pick 3 breeds plus one male:

black copper maran (also my rooster choice)
speckled sussex
buff orpington
black Australop
black laced Wyandotte
Black ameraucana

After typing all this up, I feel my choices may not be as diverse as I want. I saw a video of a guy (lol) saying Wyandottes lay more in the winter and can Balance out some girls on hiatus. The amerucauna (sorry for all the misspellings autocorrect is a beast), because of her blue eggs, and I read if the Maran roo breeds with her I’ll get olive egger types. I have a proclivity towards more heritage breeds, but am not worried about maintaining lines, just a nice, personal flock.

I would love any advice on my choices, and a heads up if I missed an obvious diverse choice. Many thanks!

 

[SmiYa0126]

Hello! Out of my flock the over two years old are still laying over the winter, they're all mixes except Rhode island red, Plymouth blue, Easter egger, a leg bar mix and my olive eggers just started after being broody and then molting. I don't know if breeds make as much of a difference as good nutrition and overall happy birds

 

[3KillerBs]

I have no particular input to make in re: breeds -- except that the Ameraucanas may lay later than you might expect from your experience with Barred Rocks -- but I would like to suggest that you start with several males with the intent to choose the best of a batch rather than being stuck with the one and only.

When I got my Blue Australorps from Welp, I ordered a group of pullets and a group of straight run, ending up with 5 cockerels to compare to each other.

Of these, one was an obvious no-go -- lanky, gangly, and generally such poor type that you would never have known he was an Australorp at all. (Imagine if he'd been my only male!)

Two were fairly ordinary and two were well above average.

Of the latter, the best is now my avatar.

There are all sorts of things you might value in your male, who is half the flock going forward, so it makes sense to have several candidates to choose from.

 

[MagistraTn]

I have no particular input to make in re: breeds -- except that the Ameraucanas may lay later than you might expect from your experience with Barred Rocks -- but I would like to suggest that you start with several males with the intent to choose the best of a batch rather than being stuck with the one and only.

When I got my Blue Australorps from Welp, I ordered a group of pullets and a group of straight run, ending up with 5 cockerels to compare to each other.

Of these, one was an obvious no-go -- lanky, gangly, and generally such poor type that you would never have known he was an Australorp at all. (Imagine if he'd been my only male!)

Two were fairly ordinary and two were well above average.

Of the latter, the best is now my avatar.

There are all sorts of things you might value in your male, who is half the flock going forward, so it makes sense to have several candidates to choose from.

Thank you, that’s a good idea about picking the best roo. Do you think I should go for unsexed assortment of hatchlings, of just add an Americana and/or austrolop male To my order.

 

[3KillerBs]

Thank you, that’s a good idea about picking the best roo. Do you think I should go for unsexed assortment of hatchlings, of just add an Americana and/or austrolop male To my order.

How many extras are you willing to sell/eat?

I ordered mine the way I did because Welp has a firm minimum order of 25 and breed minimums of 5 each, but I would have *preferred* to order 3 males of my desired breed instead.

I don't know Cackle's minimums or what combination would work out best in your circumstance.

 

[MagistraTn]

How many extras are you willing to sell/eat?

I ordered mine the way I did because Welp has a firm minimum order of 25 and breed minimums of 5 each, but I would have *preferred* to order 3 males of my desired breed instead.

I don't know Cackle's minimums or what combination would work out best in your circumstance.

Thanks again. It’s so nice when experienced people take the time to help out ones on the learning curve

Cackle has mainly 3 female (not 100%) minimum and they add $20 to orders under 15, but 20 total birds is just too many for us right now, so I’m willing to pay the fee. I like the idea of adding the dark chocolate egg genetics of the Black copper maran, so guess I should discuss with the family about how many Roos we are willing to cull. If we are going to be sustainable, culling Roos will have to become common, right? This breed seems to be a good choice as far as not being overly aggressive and still protecting the girls, I think

 

[aart]

just add an Americana

Beware that many hatcheries Ameraucana or 'Americana' are Easter Eggers rather than pure Ameraucana. You may get blue eggs but not 2 blue shell genes so female offspring may lay brown.

Was one of the biggest disappointments when I started with chickens.
I finally realized my dream of breeding Olive Eggers with a Marans cockbird over Cream Legbar females.

If we are going to be sustainable, culling Roos will have to become common, right?

Absolutely a necessity if hatching.

 

[3KillerBs]

I like the idea of adding the dark chocolate egg genetics of the Black copper maran, so guess I should discuss with the family about how many Roos we are willing to cull. If we are going to be sustainable, culling Roos will have to become common, right? This breed seems to be a good choice as far as not being overly aggressive and still protecting the girls, I think

Any breed can have a dud, but Marans boys have a good reputation. I haven't had one myself, but I have had a couple Australorp(or Langshan) x Marans cross cockerels who were quite well-behaved.

Beware that many hatcheries Ameraucana or 'Americana' are Easter Eggers rather than pure Ameraucana. You may get blue eggs but not 2 blue shell genes so female offspring may lay brown.

The OP is ordering from Cackle. IIRC, they have real Ameraucanas in correct color varieties.

 

[MagistraTn]

Beware that many hatcheries Ameraucana or 'Americana' are Easter Eggers rather than pure Ameraucana. You may get blue eggs but not 2 blue shell genes so female offspring may lay brown.

Was one of the biggest disappointments when I started with chickens.
I finally realized my dream of breeding Olive Eggers with a Marans cockbird over Cream Legbar females.


Absolutely a necessity if hatching.

Thank you. I am aware of those differences. Autocorrect is particularly difficult when one is unsure of the spelling (ameraucana).

@3KillerBs good info, maybe we will try 2 marans and one amerucauna roo, and choose the strongest.

as an aside, we put some golf balls in the nesting box and one girl laid an egg right on top. Maybe there is hope for her to get broody. I’d much rather her raise the chicks and save me the pasty butt!

 

[Ridgerunner]

I once got 7 pullets when I ordered 7 straight run Buff Orpingtons from Cackle. The odds of that happening are less than 100 to 1 but it can happen. After that I stopped ordering straight run and ordered the sex I wanted.

I once ordered 20 male Buff Rocks from Ideal with the idea of putting a lot of cockerels in the freezer and picking one to be my rooster. I started out butchering the rejects. It was not hard to find the less preferred until I got down to the last three. Any one of the last three would have been a good choice. You don't have to order 20 but the point is the more boys you have the better your chances of getting a good one. But of course you need to know what traits you want.

As for laying in the winter, some pullets will skip the molt their first fall/winter and lay through until they molt the following fall. Then when the days get shorter in the following fall they molt and stop laying unless you provide light. Some people read that to say that all pullets skip the molt their first fall/winter and lay all winter. That is not correct. Some means some, not all.

Some hens will start laying after they finish the molt, even if it is still the dead of winter. Others wait until the days get longer in the spring. Again, some means some. Thinking that some means all leads to a lot of frustration on this forum.

Each pullet or hen is an individual. You can never tell if one will lay in the winter or not. Production breeds are more likely to lay in the winter than the decorative breeds. More likely does not mean each individual absolutely will. Of the breeds you listed I consider all except the Ameraucana to be production breeds.

Buff Orpington have a reputation of often going broody. The two out of the seven I kept from Cackle never did. The two Black Australorp I kept from Cackle did. This does not mean Buff Orps you get from Cackle will not go broody, any of them can. It does not mean the BA's you get from Cackle will. It is meant to show how random this stuff is.

If we are going to be sustainable, culling Roos will have to become common, right?

Culling does not mean killing, it means to select, usually which you keep and which you let go. About half of what you hatch will be boys so you need to have a plan for them. Eat them, sell them, or give them away.

To me, being sustainable also means culling the girls. You want to breed your best stock, boys and girls. You do not want to breed problems into your flock. If one has crooked feet or does not lay well don't hatch her eggs. On the other hand, if a hen has traits you like, hatch her eggs. That could be good egg laying traits. If you hatch the eggs from a hen that goes broody her daughters are much more likely to go broody than pullets form hens that never go broody. Some people eat the boys and sell the girls to help pay for food. I don't, I eat the excess boys and girls.

I’d much rather her raise the chicks and save me the pasty butt!

My feelings exactly. But you cannot control if a hen will ever go broody, let alone when. The only way you have any control over that is with an incubator.