My Lg Fowl breeding pens

[Chris Herzog]

Last year I was looking around for some pics of breeding pens and had a hard time finding what I wanted. I plan on doing single matings (breeding one male to one female) and built a pen that's over all dimensions are 6' x 12' divided up into 3 separate (4' x 6') pens. Well I liked the first one so much I built a second one this week and plan on building at least one more. I still have some little detail stuff to do on the new one but this is what I ended up with.....

This is the first one that I built.


This is the one that I built this week







I hope this helps to give some of you some ideas....

Thanks for looking,
Chris

 

[biggerdigger]

They look great! I will be using this design. Thanks

 

[SarahJaneB]

Oh wow, great design! Sometime in the future I plan on possibly breeding, I'll have to remember this design

Great job!

 

[CESpeed]

Do you plan to house a rooster and one hen per cage? Where will you put the roosters while the hens are hatching eggs and raising chicks? Where will the chicks go when there are old enough to forage for themsevles?

Sorry, but this design has me excited which always leads to lots of questions.

 

[WyandotteTX]

CESpeed, I would imagine that he would be able to house up to a quad(four birds, one male, three female) in pens of this size. Most people who selectively breed birds do not hatch them out under hens. We collect eggs and incubate them, then put them in a brooder until they are big enough and feathered out to maintain their own warmth in a grow out pen. Then most breeders select the birds they like then sell or butcher the rest of them.
Breeders, as I would call myself, are not so much interested in the same things as backyard chicken people. This is no knock on either just a difference of objectives and purpose for the birds. I love my birds and love spending time with them when I can. I know each and every one of them, I do not however name any of them. They do have leg bands to identify themselves. My purpose is to perpetuate the breeds I raise and enjoy to as close to the standard that I can.
Hopefully this makes sense and answers your questions.
By the way Chris, love the pens. I am in the initial stages of getting ready to build new breeder pens for my birds. My thought is to make a building that will be 8 x 32, with the individual pens being 8 x 4. Large enough to hold a maximum of six birds during breeding season. I will probably not have that many in them but that is my thought on maximum. I will most likely be building it pole barn style with posts etc. I have to make it a fortress to protect against varmits.
John

 

[good3gg]

This is just the design I've been looking for! It's excellent! Do you use 4x4 posts for the corners? (Any chance you have progression pics?)

 

[HooverHenHouse]

Those are nice! And saved to my computer under My chicken wish list. =)

 

[CESpeed]

CESpeed, I would imagine that he would be able to house up to a quad(four birds, one male, three female) in pens of this size. Most people who selectively breed birds do not hatch them out under hens. We collect eggs and incubate them, then put them in a brooder until they are big enough and feathered out to maintain their own warmth in a grow out pen. Then most breeders select the birds they like then sell or butcher the rest of them.
Breeders, as I would call myself, are not so much interested in the same things as backyard chicken people. This is no knock on either just a difference of objectives and purpose for the birds. I love my birds and love spending time with them when I can. I know each and every one of them, I do not however name any of them. They do have leg bands to identify themselves. My purpose is to perpetuate the breeds I raise and enjoy to as close to the standard that I can.
Hopefully this makes sense and answers your questions.
By the way Chris, love the pens. I am in the initial stages of getting ready to build new breeder pens for my birds. My thought is to make a building that will be 8 x 32, with the individual pens being 8 x 4. Large enough to hold a maximum of six birds during breeding season. I will probably not have that many in them but that is my thought on maximum. I will most likely be building it pole barn style with posts etc. I have to make it a fortress to protect against varmits.
John

Hi John, thank you for your reply. I'm breeding to keep a constsnt supply of meat not to perputuate the species. And the idea of hatching them out myself is extremely uncomfortable so I'm trying really really hard to have a flock in which I have two or three mommas to do the job.

 

[Chris Herzog]

Do you plan to house a rooster and one hen per cage? Where will you put the roosters while the hens are hatching eggs and raising chicks? Where will the chicks go when there are old enough to forage for themsevles?

Sorry, but this design has me excited which always leads to lots of questions.

CESpeed

John answered this better than I could have but let me just add this. These would work great for what you would like to do and if I were to let a hen sit on the eggs, hatch them and raise the young.... I would move the roster out and put him in a pen like this...







I use these for all sorts of things...., outside brooders, conditioning pens, bantam breeding pens or just rooster condos. I need to remake the doors and have individual doors for each side but this should give you an idea of what you could do with the boy/boys while your hens are raising the young chicks. My males stay in the breeding pens and I move the girls in and out of them. I have a large coop to keep the girls in. When I breed I breed one hen and one rooster at a time, then toe punch and ban the chicks so I know later on who came from who.

Thanks for looking,
Chris

 

[Chris Herzog]

CESpeed, I would imagine that he would be able to house up to a quad(four birds, one male, three female) in pens of this size. Most people who selectively breed birds do not hatch them out under hens. We collect eggs and incubate them, then put them in a brooder until they are big enough and feathered out to maintain their own warmth in a grow out pen. Then most breeders select the birds they like then sell or butcher the rest of them.
Breeders, as I would call myself, are not so much interested in the same things as backyard chicken people. This is no knock on either just a difference of objectives and purpose for the birds. I love my birds and love spending time with them when I can. I know each and every one of them, I do not however name any of them. They do have leg bands to identify themselves. My purpose is to perpetuate the breeds I raise and enjoy to as close to the standard that I can.
Hopefully this makes sense and answers your questions.
By the way Chris, love the pens. I am in the initial stages of getting ready to build new breeder pens for my birds. My thought is to make a building that will be 8 x 32, with the individual pens being 8 x 4. Large enough to hold a maximum of six birds during breeding season. I will probably not have that many in them but that is my thought on maximum. I will most likely be building it pole barn style with posts etc. I have to make it a fortress to protect against varmits.
John

Thanks John....you and I are on the same page!!!!

I was going to do my like your talking about but I wanted to be able to move the pens around. It's sort of a pain for me to do it....but I can if I want to.

Chris