Q's - fertility rate, roo aggression, when to collect eggs from hens for incubation, etc.

[Chickengirl209]

Might be good to just do one breed and save that second space for extra birds or either gender....and think about making those spaces larger.

Is there a good market for chicks in your area.

Yes, there is. At the local feed store, 125 chicks sell out in 45mins, and the line starts before they even receive news from the post office. It was not an easy feat getting these birds...

And as for the coops... I know they are too small. The builder in my family believes they will fit and is very determined about it, so I'm going with the idea of either they'll see that it's too small when the birds get bigger and will build more space, or we'll sell some. Oh well.

 

[Chickengirl209]

If you can I'd appreciate that link. I want to see if I am right.

It is from a book. The complete herbal handbook for farm and stable by Juliette de Bairacli Levy, first published 1952.
Here is a quote:
Chicks
"As with the young of the larger farm animals, provision for the chicks should begin with the embryo. The hens eggs for hatching should be from birds not less than 18mo of age, eggs from very young pullets producing weakly chicks and a tendency to be a predominace of cockerels. The cocks should run with the hens a month before fertility of the eggs can be counted on.
The brood hen should be in vigorous health, with heavy plumage, and slightly fat, all to give added warmth, comfort and vitality to the eggs during their daily contact with the body of the sitting bird."

Thank you for the information.

 

[Mrs. K]

Technically you could hold the roosters in the coop, and let the hens out to free range. But the boys will naturally want to be with the girls, and they will get wise to you, and it will become more and more difficult to do so. It may lead to aggressive behavior towards you. I think they will crow incessantly while you have them separated during the day.

 

[Ridgerunner]

It is from a book. The complete herbal handbook for farm and stable by Juliette de Bairacli Levy, first published 1952.
Here is a quote:

Thanks for taking the time to reply. I do appreciate it.

Chicks
"As with the young of the larger farm animals, provision for the chicks should begin with the embryo. The hens eggs for hatching should be from birds not less than 18mo of age, eggs from very young pullets producing weakly chicks and a tendency to be a predominace of cockerels.

These do not fit either of my two possible scenarios. One was people breeding for show usually wait for them to get older before picking breeding stock or people carefully breeding for improved egg laying may wait until they have a full season of egg laying to evaluate which hens to breed.

At least half of the eggs I hatch are from hens and pullets less than 18 months old. Individual hatches are often 2/3 or even 3/4 of one sex or the other, but over a span of two years it is almost always real close to 50% of each sex. This is with around 45 chicks per year. I'd actually be happy with a predominance of cockerels since I hatch that many to eat. I certainly have not noticed a weakness in chicks. The hatcheries we buy our chicks from are not going to feed those flocks for 18 months before they start hatching eggs and shipping us chicks.

The cocks should run with the hens a month before fertility of the eggs can be counted on.

This one is certainly nonsense. It takes about 25 hours for an egg to go through the hen's internal egg making factory from release of the yolk to start the process until the egg is laid. That egg can only be fertilized in the first few moments of that journey. That means if a successful mating takes place on a Sunday, Sunday's egg cannot be fertile from that mating. Monday's egg might or might not be, depending on timing but I would not count on it. Tuesday's egg will be fertile.

A rooster does not necessarily successfully mate with every hen in his flock every day but he doesn't have to. In the last part of the mating act the rooster hops off, his part is done. The hen then stands up, fluffs up, and shakes. This fluffy shake moves his sperm to a "container" near where the egg starts its journey. That sperm can remain viable from 9 days to possibly over three weeks. Many people count on about 2 weeks and get decent hatches. But if you go by Levy's one month wait, the vast majority of the matings in the first half of that month were wasted.

The brood hen should be in vigorous health, with heavy plumage, and slightly fat, all to give added warmth, comfort and vitality to the eggs during their daily contact with the body of the sitting bird."

I don't totally agree with this either as to the reasons. Vigorous health, yes. Heavy plumage, well the heat comes from the skin, not the feathers. Some broodies pluck breast feathers to expose more skin to the eggs. That may help with keeping the humidity up some too, not sure about that.

It is true that pullets and hens store up excess fat before they even start to lay. If you ever butcher pullets, hens, cockerels, and roosters the difference is very obvious. That fat is put there for the pullet or hen to mostly live off of while she is broody so she can spend her time on the nest taking care of the eggs instead of having to look for food and water. It is not there to add comfort and vitality to the eggs.

I'm sure that book has a lot of good information in it, but like a lot of posts on this forum you might want to fact check any that you are uncomfortable with.

And once again, thanks for making the effort to post that.