Pure vs mutts

[Rod-T]

I have young chickens. About 6 months old. One RIR hen, one black bantam hen and I think a Wyandotte rooster. So far he can't catch the bantam hen.

Until she decides to let him one day

 

[123RedBeard]

I'd try your hand inviting one of those BO roosters to the dinner table.

Do you have any other roosters?

Do you have any BO hens? They would be the best broody of the breeds you have, if not, you may have to get a incubator ...

As stated before you already have a few mutts ... Controlled breeding created the crossbreed Reds, and Easter eggers ...

The BO & Red's mixed should give a good amount of brown eggs, and possible a broody (from the BO side)

The BO & Leghorn might get you calmer egg layers than the Leghorns ... And a smaller appetite than the BO ...

Get your blue layers in the spring, at least one of each gender ... That way if they breed together, you get your blue eggs, but if the rooster breeds with a different breed hen, you still may get something different ...

 

[lazy gardener]

I have an EE roo over a variety of hens. Love the mixed egg basket I'm getting. He also produces some very nice sex linked birds that lay beautiful aqua colored eggs. You might want to look at the "Sex linked information" thread. There are some awesome charts in the first post. I go to those often to review the breeding possibilities.

 

[Bush84]

Total population is three buff orp roosters, 10 buff orp hens, the single production red, single brown leghorn, and the Easter egger.

I was thinking about a couple of things. First would be possibly getting a mix of ameraucanas and cream legbars. I wonder what that cross would be like? Then crossing my orpingtons with one of the blue egg layers to make a greenish egg (at least that's how I understand it). I guess I'm not terribly interested in mating the buff orps to the Easter egger (unless it lays blue), leghorn, or production red. Those came to me for free from a family member. So they were not in my initial plan.

The big pain is managing who impregnates who and I believe rooster semen can stay viable in hens for a month or so. I'm thinking about how to use my two coops to manage this. My main coop is a huge (~30x60) that I sectioned off a third of the shed for my chickens. I also have a smaller 3x8 a frame coop. Would I keep extra roosters in there or just a few hens and a rooster to choose who impregnates who. But this goes back to my original question. Part of me wants to strictly manage blood lines to manage egg color but then again that's a lot of work and I'm questioning whether it's worth it.

 

[Rod-T]

Unless you have purebred stock that you can make few bucks on every year..why hassle with 2 pens

 

[Mrs. K]

I have played with raising chicks for several years, just riff raff for fun. But eventually the birds were thinner, smaller and less quality. I bought a full bred rooster, and was amazied at how he improved my birds, and they are not full grown yet.

My point, is the easiest way to improve the quality of the birds, is with the rooster. Roosters are easy to come by.

Mrs K

 

[Bush84]

Unless you have purebred stock that you can make few bucks on every year..why hassle with 2 pens

Because I already have them. I built the small one initially thinking I was going to keep a few and of course things escalated.

 

[Rod-T]

Because I already have them. I built the small one initially thinking I was going to keep a few and of course things escalated.

You asked if it was worth it. You want blue Eggers for second pen.. might as well make it worth it.. get some pure cream legbars for your second pen.. that way you can sell chicks or hatching eggs.

 

[donrae]

Or, to simplify things, you can purchase some blue egg laying pullets every 4 or 5 years. Each bird should easily lay that long, and you don't have to worry about breeding pure.

 

[aart]

You sound like I did when I started a couple years ago.

I did build my coop with 2 separate people doors and a temporary wall to separate birds, more for integration than breeding,
but I also dreamed of getting some Ameraucana, Marans to have a varied basket of striking colored eggs and to make Olive eggers.
That coop partition, as I call it, with it's separate run has been invaluable as have the 4 (2 lg,2 med) folding wire dogs crates to segregate and move birds for behavior issues, transport, harvest, etc. Wish I had several more of the medium sized crates also.

What I've learned in 2 years of keeping chickens and raising/hatching chicks:
-I wish I had 3 or 4 or 5 or 6.... separate pens, for secluding pure breeds, secluding chicks until old enough to integrate into main flock, containing randy extra males until harvest ready, separating broody hens, etc.
-Finding pure breed birds is difficult and very expensive, everyone has Ameraucana and Aruacana-but most are not pure, those names are used freely and inaccurately. You can find good breeders out there but you will pay dearly for pure birds(understandably so) and probably shipping them.
-Having harvesting equipment, and gaining the skills to use it, is essential if you're going to hatch chicks, you can sell or give away a few males if you're lucky, but you have to deal with the rest, eating them is the best answer IMO.
-It takes a long time to realize your efforts, 21 days to hatch, 6 months until eggs.

Keeping chickens is pretty easy once you have some experience and good housing/equipment, but it takes patience.
I suggest keeping the birds you have for a year, big learning curve that first year, meanwhile research breeds and breeders, incubation, integration, quarantining.
At the end of a year you'll have a much better feel for how to keep birds, what kind of housing you can facilitate, and what your chicken goals really are.

Just some thoughts.