How hard is it to breed and raise chicks?

[ras719]

Hi, I am new to chickens, we live on a horse farm and this year at the feed store my daughter saw the baby chicks so I let her and my niece pick out 8. 4 Buff orpingtons, 2 rhode island reds and 2 black stars(sexlink)They assured us that these were all hens no roosters. Anyway they are now 4 months old and we have 2 roosters. Pretty sure of it because I researched online what mature hens and roosters looked like and they are definitely roosters. Since they are pets, my husband is going to build 2 more coups so everyone is seperate. My question is how hard is it to actually breed the chickens to get chicks? One rooster is a buff orpington the other is the black star(go figure) We were thinking of putting booth black ones together and giving the buff rooster a buff hen. Can someone give me advice about this or are we just wasting our time humoring our daughter?

 

[Matt A NC]

Breeding is up to the birds. All you can do is keep them happy with feed, water, shade, sun, keep them parasite free, protection from predators, and love. It is best to have at least 5-6 hens per rooster. Over mated hens can look really beaten up.

Once you have fertile eggs, you can incubate or let a hen set them. That is if you have a hen go broody. Orps are normally a good setting breed.

Matt

 

[ras719]

my husband was thinking of maybe incubating the eggs, and putting the hens back together after we have fertile eggs, any thoughts? Would the roosters be lonely? (I really am new to chickens not trying to be silly)

 

[Matt A NC]

Once you seperate the boys with hens, you cannot put the boys back together. They will have asserted themselves as "top dog" and they will fight each other for dominance.

Even hens will fight once established into different flocks. I can't put my Australorp ladies in with layers for this reason. Too many dominant hens. Neither flock has a Rooster right now. I wanted to combine so I could remodel the Aussie house. NOPE, not gonna happen.

Matt