Clan Mating System Convertible Coop

[JayColli]

I've gotten the spurs a few times but luckily it was in the ankle while I was wearing insulated rubber boots - getting it right in the head would be painful!

Looking forward to seeing the breeding pens if you can remember to snap a few pictures. The more I think about about the intricacies of the breeding system the more I'm starting to think about fail safes for my stock... I've been letting my chooks free range all day every day when the weather is suitable and haven't lost one yet but I'm going to do a bit of chicken math to ensure that I can have back-ups available for when one gets taken by a fox, hawk, ect. but if I have a dog through the yard that decides to kill as many as he can I could loose the majority of my chooks in a very short time.

 

[ejcrist]

I've gotten the spurs a few times but luckily it was in the ankle while I was wearing insulated rubber boots - getting it right in the head would be painful!

Looking forward to seeing the breeding pens if you can remember to snap a few pictures. The more I think about about the intricacies of the breeding system the more I'm starting to think about fail safes for my stock... I've been letting my chooks free range all day every day when the weather is suitable and haven't lost one yet but I'm going to do a bit of chicken math to ensure that I can have back-ups available for when one gets taken by a fox, hawk, ect. but if I have a dog through the yard that decides to kill as many as he can I could loose the majority of my chooks in a very short time.

I managed to get a picture before the sunset of the first 2 of 10 pens I'm building:



The next bank of three pens will be right next to these two but will be free-standing since I don't have a solid wall behind them to attach to, so when you look at it from this angle it'll look like five pens. The other five pens will be exactly the same on the opposite side of the multi-coop. So that'll be 10, plus I have two brooding/breeding pens inside the building, and one 4'X6' stand-alone pen that you can't see that's behind me in this picture, for a total of 13 total when all is done in a few weeks. I'm also thinking about building another bank of four in another section of my property so that'll make a grand total of 17. I know it sounds like a lot but when I think about all the trios and quads I want to breed as singles it doesn't take long to fill 'em up. And then, after I'm done with the pairings I'll need brooders to raise the chicks in until they're old enough to make a determination if they're keepers or not, and I'm not planning on keeping any more than the top 10% of pullets and maybe 5% of cockerels. I'll still need the space though until they're at least 6 months old. So I kinda equate breeding birds to Section 8 housing - you always have way more demand than space available.

Anyway, like I said, you don't have to make anything elaborate - just something simple like these two pens and you'll be good-to-go.

 

[JayColli]

Haha good analogy! I can see how all those pens would fill up rather quickly. Wish I had the space for a setup like that, would make things much easier for breeding. Do the breeding pens have wire bottoms?

In your breeding plan how many chicks do you try and hatch per pullet/hen? Hope you don't mind me picking your brain, looking to get at some of the knowledge you've gathered from the old timers!

 

[ejcrist]

Haha good analogy! I can see how all those pens would fill up rather quickly. Wish I had the space for a setup like that, would make things much easier for breeding. Do the breeding pens have wire bottoms?

In your breeding plan how many chicks do you try and hatch per pullet/hen? Hope you don't mind me picking your brain, looking to get at some of the knowledge you've gathered from the old timers!

The pens have 1/2" plywood bottoms and I covered with linoleum to protect the wood long-term. I also put a layer of pine shavings bedding inside, the same as I do in the coops. They're kinda like mini coops.

I collect and set eggs weekly so however many eggs each hen lays is what I put in the incubator tray for that week. Right now I'm breeding five hens so I typically have been setting around 20-25 eggs weekly on average. This year I'm breeding from February till the first week in April, so about nine weeks worth of chicks or about 200 chicks total. I have a Sportsman 1502 cabinet incubator and the Sportsman 1550 hatcher. When I collect the eggs I write the hen's band number on each and they all go in one egg tray in the incubator at the same time. On day 18 I move the eggs to the hatcher and each hens' eggs get their own separate tray so I know which hen the chicks came from. When I remove them from the hatcher after they hatch I toe punch each chick according to the system I set up before hand, so for example the chicks from RIR hen #1 might get a number 2 toe punch which is the right web on the right foot, etc. After they're a couple of months old I'll decide which ones I want to keep and wing band them with a Jiffy 892-3 that has a number on it and my initials. You can get those from National Band and Tag Co. if you're interested. The nice thing about wing bands is they're permanent, never need adjusting, and hidden by the birds feathers after they grow out. The plastic leg bands have a tendency to fade and the birds often pick them off so all your hard work in keeping things straight can go out the window. The birds I don't keep either replace aging layers I have, go in the pot, or get sold. The main thing I make sure I do with the incubating and hatching is to keep the birds identified by their parents and mark them when they come out of the hatcher so I can identify them after they all go in the brooder together. I also use a program called ZooEasy which is a database for breeders. It's really nice and enables you to keep very detailed records on your birds. It's available online I think for about $80. Personally I love it.

No problem with the brain picking - glad to help. I do it all the time with the mentors I have. I'm actually pretty new at this so I probably wouldn't qualify as an old-timer, plus I'm still a teenager in my own mind but my body keeps reminding me that I'm not. Anyway I'm long on book knowledge but short on experience so take what I say with a grain of salt. But yeah, I'm happy to pass on anything I learn along the way so feel free to ask away.

 

[JayColli]

Wing bands are something I hadn't even thought about and I was really not looking forward to the constant rebanding! Going to be looking into it.

 

[Mapo]

I am a new broiler farm raising chicken for meat
But I would love to find a mentor Help me with
The spiral breeder Clan mating system