help

[selfsufficient1]

if i start off my chicks as 3 cockarel , and 6 pullet welsummers , how long will it take me to build up , having them hatchinf fertiles eggs for me to have around thirty?

 

[CMV]

Your ratio is off. A good ratio is 1 roo to 10 hens. Any more roos than that will wear down your hens and cause fighting in the poultry yard.
You will also need to figure out how you are going to hatch the fertile eggs once you get them. You will need to purchase an incubator or get a broody hen.
Once you get fertile eggs and get them hatched, you could theoretically build up your flock in as little as 2 years if all goes very well. You will likely need an incubator for such an ambitious expansion, though.
Good luck.

 

[bobbi-j]

I agree with CMV. If you only have 6 pullets, 3 roosters is far too many. And an incubator will be a good addition to your flock management plans. Then you can hatch them out on your schedule instead of waiting for a hen to go broody. (This is the voice of experience - I have a Buff Orpington (known for broodiness) that I was hoping would go broody last spring, or at the latest, during the summer. Nope. She didn't go broody until the end of October! All good and well, but my coop is not big enough to handle all the chickens I would have had if her 13 eggs had hatched. So, no new chicks for me last year. This year, I'm looking into getting an incubator.)

 

[they'reHISchickens]

Theoretically, you would chose the most correct, nicest roo and put the other two in a bachelor pad. The pullets would start laying at about 6 months and I would give it at least another 2 months until their eggs are a nice size before incubating. As everyone` else says, you would best get an incubator.
Assuming you get something like an Little Giant that holds about 40 eggs, in a perfect world it would take your three hens 10 days to lay you 30 eggs to incubate. Figure on 2 weeks to really fill your incubator and you really want eggs as fresh as possible. Usual rule is 10 days but we all break that on occasion. Then you have 3 week incubation period.
Out of 30 with luck you hatch 25. Sometimes you only get 5, sometimes 40. Your mileage varies. Let's assume you get 30, of which 15 will likely turn out roos.
If you have room to grow them out, you can incubate another batch right away ( You've been saving those eggs during the three weeks, but that means you aren't eating any!!!) Again, assume you have 30 hatch and 15 are roos.
Note that you don't realize which ones are roos for at least a month or two and you can't combine the two batches because of size differences so you are raising 60 chicks for at least 2 months until you can sex them. You have 4 coops going : the laying hens, batch #1 and batch #2 and the bachelor pad. 66 chickens
Now decide what to do with the 31 roos you aren't going to keep. 31 you say, but I have 33 roosters? You are keeping your best breeder, and one spare. With 30 hens you can actually keep 2 spare if you want.
In about 4 months you can combine all the girls and you will theoretically have your 30 hens. If your roo was fertile. ( You did check, didn't you?) If they all hatched. If 50% were pullets. If none had birth defects. if no predators got any.
So a time line if everything went perfectly starting from 3 chicks right now: 8-9 months til you hatch and another 6-7 months til all are laying, I'd say you could theretically have a flock of 30 hens in a year and a half. Theoretically.
If Murphy's Law of chickens, a raccoon or a hawk doesn't getcha.

 

[Mrs. K]

If you want 30 head, and are new to chickens as your question rather implies. I would buy 30 head of pullet chicks. Chances are, some of those 30 chicks will be roos, but not 50% as the above poster pointed out if you are hatching your own, and sometimes, I have had 7 out of 10 be roos!

Then within 6 months you are up and running and getting eggs. When you have 30 hens, you have plenty of eggs to incubate, might even get a broody hen or two, but as stated above they are chancy, but do take all the work out of incubating and raising the chicks.

I will tell you, that I have a flock of 10, sometimes as high as 18, sometimes down to 5.... but I have been at 10 for a long time, with one roo, and they give me enough eggs, but it depends what you want to do.

my point is, it would be better to buy the pullet chicks and get started, and then maintain your flock, and begin work on breed quality and genetics for good builds and egg laying.

just my 2 cents
mk