How can I identify Parent Stock Chickens?

[Sonoran Silkies]

ANY of the chickens CAN be used to reproduce. Offspring WILL have laying abilities similar to their parents. That does NOT disappear just because the birds were crossed.

YES, you CAN breed and reproduce from sex-linked birds. The laying ability will continue, the sex-linked colouring will not, so you will end up with a flock who are a variety of colours, none of which are gender-specific at hatching.

The biggest issue you will have with more of the heavy laying breeds and crosses is that they will not go broody, so you will need to use an incubator to hatch chicks.

 

[pocopoyo]

The term 'parent stock' comes from the commercial poultry world.
Big egg companies or broiler companies spend a lot of money and research to produce the best layers and meat birds.
The 'parent stock' are the breeders used to produce the layers or broilers used in the production houses. Usually the parent stock consists of a male line and a female line. There are 'Grandparent stock' breeders that produce the male parents and female parent lines. The layers and broilers produced are the final product and are never intended to be used as breeders.

This type of breeding usually won't apply to a back yard or small farm breeding program. The commercial farms are producing thousands of birds. Most of us are only hatching a couple of dozen or at most a few hundred chicks each year. If you had the space, you could use some modification of this program to improve your particular strain of poultry.

pocopoyo

 

[Goose and Fig]

Boy this is confusing. How about this-

Get yourself a pair of birds- like Rhode Island Reds (for example)
Let them have chicks, or hatch eggs in an incubator. The pair you started with is now your "parent stock".


*All of the chicks (hens) will be good layers, and so will their chicks. You can inbreed for several generations safely.

 

[lildinkem]

Happy you got it. There is 2 pages of tryin to figure out that this thread is about line breeding.
Far as I figure, IF you like Reds as layers, WHY would you need to worry about LINE breeding Production Reds? I would be more concerned about finding new bloodlines to compliment the Reds, and that also has the great laying traits like the birds you are talking about. That will have much healthier birds and be way easier to accomplish.

 

[greathorse]

OP is more accurate than it seems. In commercial layers and in meat birds there are almost always breeder that keep a line of females and a line of males. It is how the sex linking and the feather sexing is kept in place. These breeders then produce eggs from which the terminal layers are produced.

I would imagine that our birds hatched from the original stock will have good laying and production, but I would guess not as good as the original laying stock.

The breeders producing the terminal layers are really a very separate business from the layer industry. Breed from the stuff you get at the hatcheries and you will get pretty good stuff. Or just buy the chicks from large hatheries and you will have the stuff that commercial operations get (sort of)

Hope I havent added to the confusion

 

[mooSa]

ok I do understand most of the the things said, but why is what im trying to understand. Anyways I am trying to make a big farm. Organic Free Range Eggs and I chose to have large brown eggs as the beginning product to be sold. I need to have good layers and i don't intend on purchasing chicks each year. I would like to produce my own chicks for production and also sell.

What I understand is I need to purchase pure breeds. But how do I know if this certain chicken is pure bred? Im looking for 300 Average eggs per year per hen. Does anyone know where I can purchase eggs of purebred RIR, Leghorns, Barred Rock, etc, in EUROPE.

And Is there any website that will give me a good understanding of breeding in general?

Thanks to all for the help.

 

[WalkingWolf]

Quote:
You should go with production red instead of the RIR they generally believed to lay more eggs. I believe the NHR even has a better record laying. Maybe do a search for layers by breed. I know the link was posted on here once.

Unless you intend to hire a lot of employees to take care of chores of a large egg producing farm. I do not see where you will have time to work a breeding project at the same time. Honestly if the big egg farms could make more money with raising their own chicks they would. They concentrate on doing one thing efficiently, and they do not even raise their own chicks that will become layers. They purchase them from brooders or have other locations where this is done.

Poultry industry is big here in NC. The hatcheries get the eggs from the breeders who work on breeds for specific purpose. The eggs are then hatched by a hatchery who ships them to the chicken farm where they are raised for either meat or laying. When they reach the appropriate age they are then shipped to either Tyson, Purdue, Townsend, or other poultry slaughter houses. The layers are shipped to a number of egg farms. If you are planning large scale I think you will find out quick that you are biting off more than you can chew trying to do it all yourself. Plan on a BIG payroll.

 

[pocopoyo]

300 eggs per year per hen is pretty lofty goal. Especially on free range. The commercial laying houses can control the temperature and lighting and feed ration and still can't meet that standard. You can't control those things on free range. You make up the difference in quantity with the quality of eggs that you produce.

There is an Amish guy not far from me who raises free range layers. He buys different colored chicks each year so one year he has white hens the next year black then red etc. That way it makes it easier to cull the hens when they get too old. He just gets rid of all the birds of that particular color.

If you are going to breed your own, select a breed that you like and that needs preserving. Most breeds will be adequate producers for a free range operation. That way you can produce free range eggs and help preserve a rare breed at the same time. (Don't get too big too fast. Give yourself time to learn what works for you before you invest too much.)

pocopoyo

 

[tadkerson]

Moosa,

You can not purchase parent stock. You can only buy the end product of the line breeding for the laying offspring. The offspring are a product of hybridization of two or more lines of birds. It is my understanding that there is a male line and a female line in layer type chickens. The companies cross chicken A with Chicken B ( male line) to produce male chicken C. They cross chicken D with chicken E (female line) to produce female chicken F. They then cross chicken C with chicken F to produce the chickens you would buy to lay eggs.

I would suggest that you follow the advise of a previous post. Start small and learn, then grow your business.

I was in the health food egg business for a few years.

If you are going to free range, you will have to rotate the birds from area to area. If birds stay on one area, they will destroy the grass, etc. and you will have bare ground and nothing for the birds to eat.

I would suggest you start with 25 birds. Learn and then build the flock. I would run at least one rooster with the birds. Roosters will warn the hens concerning predators.


Predation will be a problem with free range birds. Your birds will need a secure area to roost at night ( a well built building).

Parasites will be a problem. Both internal (nematodes) and external ( lice, mites)

Sick birds will also be another problem ( respiratory infections).

You will have to become your own veterinarian.

You have a lot to learn. The least of your worries is the 300 eggs per year.

In Europe ISA is big- buy some ISA browns (they are a hybrid) which are excellent brown egg layers. Work with them and see what happens. You will have to rotate your birds every 1.5 years. ISA browns are the cross of a red male parent stock and a white female parent stock.

You could experiment. Cross an ISA brown male with some ISA brown females. Raise up the pullets- cull all the males. Then see how they lay.
If they lay well enough, then just purchase ISA brown for breeders. You will then rotate the offspring from the ISA brown crosses. The offspring will be various colors- some red some white some red and white.

You are going to have to find a buyer for all of your birds that you rotate out and males from the laying stock. If you have 300 layers that means you will have to find a buyer for the birds or process and sell the birds as stewing hens etc.

You have a lot to think about.

Try this site: http://www.bovans.com/


Tim

 

[Dustin Biery]

I agree with Tim. You most definately have goals, but think you are trying to shoot for the moon way too fast. Commercial houses are able to get the egg laying capacity up with artificial lighting. Hens reproductive system operate on daylight hours. So unless you are able to control the amount of light the hens receive everyday, you aren't going to reach the laying goal you have set out.