Just an add-on to what brahma is saying, you don't HAVE to breed from all your females either. If you want to run entire flock together, do it, but then during breeding season (a couple months at most) separate into a couple pens, with the right males, and your best 2 or 3 females. I have a friend that does this with Leghorns. They all run together in his big main coop year round, but he has 3 12x12 pens in addition. He hatches 2 months out of the year, he puts one male and a couple females in each 12x12 pen, once those two months are up, the breeders rejoin the rest of the flock and he uses those pens to finish growing out his young birds, those are the ones he will pick his personal keepers from. By winter time the young birds join his main flock and the extra pens sit empty til next breeding season. If people want to buy eggs or chicks from him he collects them from the combined flock. Just a bit of thinking outside the box that works for him.
