Finally settled on my breeds

[cariboujaguar]

Okay, so I have finally decided what I want to buy/breed...

Marans (Blue birchen, Wheaton, Splash, Salmon, Golden, or anything else I can get ahold of LOL)

Light Brahmas (Standard or Banty or both, leaning towards Banty)

Silkies

Doesn't sound like allot but I figure I'll have allot of silkie groups and Marans groups to seperate colors

So I have a question, how do you allow certain groups to free range w/o mixing them? can you open one door, let them all out then will they go back to roost in their regular coop so you can lock them up, then next day let another group out to roam? My friend had chickens laying eggs all over the place and roosting in trees because she let them out to free range I'm hoping to avoid this problem...

thanks!

 

[Ridgerunner]

If you let more than one group out to free range together, they will interbreed. The only way you can control breeding is to keep the different groups segregated. Breeding will take place while they are free ranging, not in the separate coops. Roosters don't care about color or breed. Any hen will do.

If I remember right, I think Speckledhen has photos of her breeding pens on her web page.

 

[greenfamilyfarms]

Marans have always sounded like a lot of work to me to keep the egg color as dark as they should be. Good luck!