New Blood

[Marion]

I have a flock of 23 RIR (22hens, 1roo) and have hatched 34 of their offspring to keep for eggs... they are 8 weeks old now and it "appears" that there are 11 cockerels and 23 pullets... I want to have fertile eggs but of course mating the girls with their brothers is not a great idea and I know I need to get a couple of unrelated cockerels to put with them. What I need to know is if any of you have or know what is the best way to go... wait and get grown roos later... buy a few male chicks and put them in when they are out of the brooder... will they get picked on if they are younger than the pullets? How is the best way to go about this introduction of new blood to my flock?

 

[Holly O]

No clue hun!

 

[19sarah90]

I have gotten young roos to put in with my hens once they started laying, and have never had trouble. The younger roos usually are frightened at first and must be kept separate for a while... the usual quarantine will suffice. Before a week is up they are usually aching to get to the hens. And the hens never seemed to mind a new handsome man.

 

[BluegrassSeramas]

Can you keep the father to breed them to? If they have good qualities then you could line breed.....

If they could be improved, you could get an unrelated roo from good stock to breed them with and hopefully will improve the offspring.

I think that you can do either way. You can add roos to a flock of older hens or just bring them all up together. Whatever works for you.