"Ideal" composition of a breeding flock?

[Talithahorse]

My advice with that much breeding and hatching. You are going to need multiple facilities. I think if you hatch birds, you need a second set up for a bachelor pad. A bunch of juvenile roosters need to be kept away from the flock. Their harassment can lower egg production, and cause a great deal of strife and fighting with the flock masters. Just easier to separate them. When you hatch you can get a lot of roosters. Last year, I got 9 roosters and 3 hens...seriously.

The other point, roosters are a quick and cheap investment, with a large genetic influence. They are one of the easiest adds to a flock if there is not an established rooster. So, while it is fun to plan, I have never really had it all go according to the plan. People often have extra roosters for free or low cost, an easy way to change up the genetics, if you are loosing egg laying or if your carcasses are too thin, or you don't like the feather pattern.

While having an ongoing operation is an admirable goal, it does not always go that way. However, getting and adding different roosters is easily done.

Space is critical, being able to pen off birds is also important.

Mrs K

X2 although as has been said. My kids tend to get too attached to the roosters and boy is it hard for them to let go. In a single grouping I have found that two brothers or brother and son seem to work best. Any more than 2 roosters and I have found they get into trouble.

 

[Mrs. K]

I too have had good luck with a father/son, brothers ... kind of sort of, maybe. Strange birds.... lots of trouble.

 

[WesleyBeal]

My advice with that much breeding and hatching. You are going to need multiple facilities. I think if you hatch birds, you need a second set up for a bachelor pad. A bunch of juvenile roosters need to be kept away from the flock. Their harassment can lower egg production, and cause a great deal of strife and fighting with the flock masters. Just easier to separate them. When you hatch you can get a lot of roosters. Last year, I got 9 roosters and 3 hens...seriously.

The other point, roosters are a quick and cheap investment, with a large genetic influence. They are one of the easiest adds to a flock if there is not an established rooster. So, while it is fun to plan, I have never really had it all go according to the plan. People often have extra roosters for free or low cost, an easy way to change up the genetics, if you are loosing egg laying or if your carcasses are too thin, or you don't like the feather pattern.

While having an ongoing operation is an admirable goal, it does not always go that way. However, getting and adding different roosters is easily done.

Space is critical, being able to pen off birds is also important.

Mrs K

Thanks. Everyone here has helped me sort my thoughts out. Maybe this spring I bring in some new hens, and don't prepare myself to be able able to breed a year from now, but focus on getting a good group of hens together to work with.

New and improved facilities are my chief goal for this summer. However when planning on getting new birds, I don't want to count my coops before they're built. Life is too good at interfering with plans.

This thread has got me thinking about a simpler build project of some rooster bachelor pads, that wouldn't need to be full walk-in coops. I've got an A-frame shelter I built last summer that I'd planned to use for separating breeding chickens into, but it isn't winter-ready. I could build some fairly simple shelters though that would be winter-ready. If I get my more ambitious building projects, or these simpler bachelor pads built over the summer, I'll be in better shape next year.

 

[aart]

New and improved facilities are my chief goal for this summer. However when planning on getting new birds,
I don't want to count my coops before they're built. Life is too good at interfering with plans.

BRAVA!!!!
Sorry, it's just so nice to see someone plan ahead instead of trying to stuff 10 pounds of **** into a 1 pound bag and then need a bailout.

You'll find your goals and options will change after you've had the birds for a year or two.
You'll have a much better handle on space and how to use it most effectively for your situation.

 

[lazy gardener]

Apologies if this topic has been discussed elsewhere - my searches weren't returning the answers I was looking for.

The question in the title of my post I realize could have hundreds of different answers based on what a person was trying to do, so specific to me, I am:

+keeping no more than 30 birds over winter
+breeding long term for utility, which for me means good egg production, especially over winter, winter hardiness, excellent foragers, good longevity, good predator avoidance (behavior and coloring), self-sustaining (broody enough to be able to hatch and rear new chicks).

Those are a lot of characteristics to breed for: I look at this as a 30 year hobby. I'm just starting out, currently have 22 hens and 2 roosters, and am figuring out what to add to my flock this spring.

If I breed any of my current flock this spring, it will be to learn the process. I currently have 3 Wyandotte hens, 3 Plymouth Rock hens, 16 Orpington hens, 1 Plymouth Rock rooster, and 1 Orpington rooster.

My dilemma right now is figuring out what to add to my flock. I plan to reduce my current hen population by 6, leaving room to add 12 more birds, after fall culling, for the winter.

And finally, my current specific question: how many of those 12 I keep should be roosters??

It would be easy, management wise, if none of them were, but I worry that will damage my ability to have diverse enough genes down the road. The 2 current roosters are maturing, which makes for much happier hens (all my current birds are 40 weeks old right now). I worry about keeping an extra cockeral this fall, having 3 roosters to 27 hens for the winter.

On the other hand, I worry about not having the best roosters to mate next year.

In general, for a winter flock of 30 birds, how many roosters are necessary to have a varied enough population for an effective breeding program?

Make sense? I hope?

With 30 birds year round, how many hens to roosters to be able to mate and breed effectively?

Ever wish you could re-do a post? I shouldn't have been trying to multitask while writing this.

My much simpler overall question is this:

To have a good hen-to-rooster ratio for breeding, among an over-winter / after culling population of 30 birds, all housed together, how many roosters should one have?

Welcome to BYC. I did not notice any mention in the 2 above posts about culling your flock. Did I miss it? B/C if you are planning to breed your own birds, culling is mandatory. Do you have a ready market for all of your cockrels? Or are you planning to process them for your own use? Do you feel it necessary to keep your breeds from crossing? Or, will you be happy to end up down the road with a barn yard mix that meets your production goals? I have been very satisfied by keeping a single rooster. He happily covers 15 - 24 hens, and would breed more, if he could only figure out where to find them! IMO, it's much easier to bring in a new roo every few years than it is to winter over extra roos. When they are in winter confinement, the hens get very tired of all of the unwanted attention.

 

[WesleyBeal]

Welcome to BYC. I did not notice any mention in the 2 above posts about culling your flock. Did I miss it? B/C if you are planning to breed your own birds, culling is mandatory. Do you have a ready market for all of your cockrels? Or are you planning to process them for your own use? Do you feel it necessary to keep your breeds from crossing? Or, will you be happy to end up down the road with a barn yard mix that meets your production goals? I have been very satisfied by keeping a single rooster. He happily covers 15 - 24 hens, and would breed more, if he could only figure out where to find them! IMO, it's much easier to bring in a new roo every few years than it is to winter over extra roos. When they are in winter confinement, the hens get very tired of all of the unwanted attention.

Thanks for commenting. I'll definitely be culling, and stocking our freezer up. If we end up with more than we can eat, I'm sure we can find enough folks to foist our excess off to.

When I begin breeding, my current plan is to use a "spiral" or "clan" mating system. I do (again, currently) plan to end up with a barn yard mix.