Many breeders let the birds run together during the non-hatch time. Starting January, they move the roosters and hens into special breeding pens, they pull all eggs until February. These are usually small pens with nests. If you are really trying to perfect a breed, you will find, that over time, you will get to the point you will only be wanting to breed one or two of your roosters to a select small group of hens. I know a person who gets a tremendous amount of money for his birds, and he has over 30 breeding pens. The reason is he will select one rooster and one hen per pen, his breeding program is that specific.
When I start off , I usually have one pen per variety, because unless you have purchased some very exceptional birds , you will have to hatch quantity to begin with to get birds that are close to the APA standards (kinda of like rolling dice). Once you get a bunch of close ones , then you start breeding strengths to weaknesses, trying not to promote recessive unwanted traits, its a lot of fun.
Oh sorry, you would let the eggs remain in nest or pull them second week of February for incubators - you would start hatching ( have babies ) in March.
This is a general scheduled and needs to be modified for climate.
Keep this in mind , and I have seen evidence to this, top breeders say that the stronger, larger birds will be born March-May, after that your quality drops off.
The person I mentioned above stops hatching in April.
), I need to know how do you keep the breeds pure. I have a silkie roo and have two bator batches that may include roos. when I decide which other roo to keep, how do you control which roo services which chickens?
