Free Range Flock With Separate Breeding

[JustAMoHick]

Evening!

I am new to this forum and trying to get "my legs underneath me." LOL
one big question we have

So my wife and I are planning to start raising chickens, and one big question we have, CURRENTLY, is how do we raise a mostly free range flock, but keep the breeding separate?

We are wanting to run a flock that consists of 5 different colors of Wyandottes, but want to keep those specific colors pure.

Any thoughts/ideas from folks that have done this successfully would be GREATLY appreciated.

(BTW: If this has been discussed somewhere on a different thread, I'd be obliged for a point in the right direction. Thanks again)

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

You would probably have to have multiple coops and pen them when you want to hatch eggs or rotate them. When they free range though the hens will choose their roosters and it won’t necessarily be because he is the same color.

 

[The Moonshiner]

If you want to breed seperate colors you just have to keep them seperate. 5 colors mean 5 different groups. You can pen them separately and rotate free range time.

 

[JustAMoHick]

You would probably have to have multiple coops and pen them when you want to hatch eggs or rotate them. When they free range though the hens will choose their roosters and it won’t necessarily be because he is the same color.

I've wondered about keeping all the roosters in a separate free range space and coop. Then, when I want to hatch, put the hens and the rooster I want to breed in a breeding coop to let them do their thing. However, I've heard that if you take a rooster out of the rooster flock for any significant time, meaning more that a few hours or a day, it could cause problems within the roosters.

 

[JustAMoHick]

I've wondered about keeping all the roosters in a separate free range space and coop. Then, when I want to hatch, put the hens and the rooster I want to breed in a breeding coop to let them do their thing. However, I've heard that if you take a rooster out of the rooster flock for any significant time, meaning more that a few hours or a day, it could cause problems within the roosters.

But... I am also trying to do this with as little extra infrastructure and added labor as possible.

 

[Mother of Chaos]

And I’ll add - and I’m officially requesting help from more experienced posters! - hens can store rooster semen for some ridiculous amount of time (3 weeks?), so you can’t just separate a hen from the flock, pop her in with the chosen rooster, and expect all the eggs the next day to be his.

@Ridgerunner @BigBlueHen53 @fuzzi and others: please jump in here and untangle any mess I’ve made!

 

[SilverBirds]

Either keep them separated in different pens at all times or rotate days your free range. Or, if you aren't planning on breeding year-round, you can keep them all together during the off season and then separate your colors a month or so before you plan on hatching.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

And I’ll add - and I’m officially requesting help from more experienced posters! - hens can store rooster semen for some ridiculous amount of time (3 weeks?), so you can’t just separate a hen from the flock, pop her in with the chosen rooster, and expect all the eggs the next day to be his.

@Ridgerunner @BigBlueHen53 @fuzzi and others: please jump in here and untangle any mess I’ve made!

I'm flattered, MoC, but I'm not a breeder. I'll defer to the others here. @The Moonshiner would be my expert of choice here but I know there are others.

 

[Mother of Chaos]

I'm flattered, MoC, but I'm not a breeder. I'll defer to the others here. @The Moonshiner would be my expert of choice here but I know there are others.

Thanks for helping with the Bat Signal! I couldn’t think who to flag.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Hi, welcome to the forum. Glad you joined.

First, the basics to help you plan. On average it takes an egg about 25 hours to go through the hen's internal egg making factory. That egg can only be fertilized during the first few minutes of that journey. That means if a mating takes place on a Monday, Monday's egg is not fertilized from that mating. It can't be. Tuesday's egg may or may not be fertile from that mating, depends on the timing. Wednesday's egg should be.

Note that this is after a mating. A rooster does not necessarily mate with every hen in his flock every day. He doesn't have to. After a successful mating the hen stores the sperm in a special container near where the egg starts its journey. That sperm can remain viable anywhere from 9 days to over three weeks. The 9 days is good to know. The over three weeks is probably more important to you. Three weeks is not a hard and fast time period. The sperm may not still be viable, it may remain viable for a week or more longer.

Some breeders use three weeks as a cutoff date, it usually works. But usually does not mean always. Some people use four weeks if they want to be very sure. I don't know how strongly you feel about that.

With this information it is up to you to decide how you want to manage this. I don't know how many hens you will have, how many chicks you want, or how often you want to hatch chicks. If a hen is exposed to a rooster that you do not want to hatch from she needs to be isolated three or four weeks before you start collecting eggs to hatch. You may want to think about not letting them free range with any rooster.

One model would be to let the hens free range without a rooster and keep all roosters in a secure bachelor pad. When you want hatchable eggs put a rooster with his specific hens in a breeding pen. How often you want hatchable eggs will determine how many breeding pens you will need.

Many people are successful keeping roosters in bachelor pads as long as there are not girls to fight over. They will establish their own pecking order and will probably have to redetermine that whenever you remove one or out one back. With living animals you do not get guarantees but it is usually not too bad. But if you decide to build a bachelor pad make it big. Give them a lot of room, both in the coop and in the run. It is not something you want to think small about.

There are other ways to go about it. Keeping five different breeding flocks from cross breeding isn't that complicated but it does require facilities and a plan. Good luck! And once again,