Question about breeding heritage chickens

[Montanatrapper]

If I was to keep two different breeds of chickens such as RIR and Silver Penciled Wyandottes, couldn't they be kept in the same coop if the roosters were kept together in one coop and the hens kept in another coop then use a seperate breeding pen to put the selected cock and hens of the same breed together to mate and collect hatching eggs? My goal is to keep pure breeds for conservation of the breed.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

Yes you can do that.

If you have two breeds whose eggs look different, you can rotate putting a roo in with the girls. Then just collect the "white" eggs or the "green" eggs, etc. to hatch out your babies, for example if you had easter eggers and RIR- you can run your EE roo in there and just collect the EE eggs.

Keep in mind that most roos' "stuff" hangs around in the hen for usually a couple of weeks but to be totally sure a MONTH is possible! So in other words, if a month ago one roo was in the pen and you put another roo in there, you should be OK if a month has passed. Two weeks, and you might be OK. So you can actually keep your boys in with the girls until a month prior to breeding.

Here is a nice thread on how to tell fertile eggs:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/16008/how-to-tell-a-fertile-vs-infertile-egg-pictures

 

[Montanatrapper]

Thank you.

 

[shoblitz]

I have a question along the same line. I plan on keeping a few different breeds for layers and will have 2 roosters one from each of the breeds I'd like to hatch out. Would it be possible to keep them all together for parts of the year and only remove the rooster/hens to breeding coop when its time to mate?

Thanks

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

I have a question along the same line. I plan on keeping a few different breeds for layers and will have 2 roosters one from each of the breeds I'd like to hatch out. Would it be possible to keep them all together for parts of the year and only remove the rooster/hens to breeding coop when its time to mate?

Thanks

Yes, you can do that.

You need to keep the hen away from other roosters for two weeks generally but one month to be safe to ensure another rooster didn't mate with her and leave his stuff behind, still effective. So if you put a roo and hen in a breeding pen and leave them there two weeks, it is still possible that the other rooster she mated with two weeks ago will be the daddy (wait one month to be safe from what I have read, but two weeks is generally enough time from what I have read on BYC). Please note that I have not experimented with this myself. You can google backyardchickens and your search query to search byc if you want, since byc's search engine doesn't work well.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...night-how-long-will-my-hens-eggs-stay-fertile

OK guys here is a thread that illustrates what I was trying to say.