questions on flock management

[Yvonne37894]

I have 4 females with 1 male, unknow age. I now have about 50 offspring from 2 day to 6 weeks old.

What is best male to female ratio?

Can I put daughters in with their fathers?

Or would it be better to leave them as is and start new breeding groups with their offspring?

Do I need to find non related male to but in with what I have for breeding or is inbreeding a problem?

I love my A & Ms, they are so frendly. I love to hear them call. I have 5 new boys that just started calling.

This was taken a few weeks ago.

and thanks to all for the help on what to feed them from a previous post question.

 

[shelleyd2008]

In breeding doesn't work the same in birds as it does mammals. In birds, it's called 'typing'. What that means is that by breeding father to daughters or similar, you are enforcing certain traits that are apparent in the father. What those traits are is strictly up to you, and it might take a while to figure out what traits you are enhancing. You'll just have to experiment with them and see what works.

The main 'problem' I've heard of with in breeding is that it can make the eggs less viable. If you start experiencing problems with that, then it's time to get some new blood, though it never hurts to have some different blood running around

 

[JJMR794]

Quote:
YEAH WORST CASE SCENARIO YOU GET A 2 HEADED A&M WITH 3 EYES, 1 LEG AND NO BEAK! LOL...

 

[canter6]

Quote:
YEAH WORST CASE SCENARIO YOU GET A 2 HEADED A&M WITH 3 EYES, 1 LEG AND NO BEAK! LOL...

Available on ebay, and the bidding starts at $20 with no reserve.

All jokes aside, I would break them into roo lines, then cross the lines in one big pile, then secure a line or two from a different source, then split it even down the line and cross back.

As long as you are not breeding for a special color,size or trait, then you should have a good spread of genes.

 

[Yvonne37894]

So I'm picking out the biggest and mostly white out of each age group.

breeding for size and less spots.

and I will start looking for some replacements

Would you add daughters in with their father and what ratio of male to female is best?

Each pen is 2'x3'

thanks for the help
Yvonne

 

[Byrdj]

Quote:
You may have a problem with the father's beating up and bloodying the daughters since they weren't raised together as chicks. Maybe someone with more knowledge can confirm this.

 

[canter6]

Quote:
As far as what you are breeding for: More power to you, but if you do get a 16+ oz. bird, I really doubt anyone here would worry about pesky black spots or freckles.

Please do get some new roo genes into the mix. No matter how "perfect" a roo may be, some totally undesired trait could rear it's ugly head, and you really need something to fall back on.

Daughters to fathers, and sons to mothers is an ok genetic mix for birds, fish and even K9s.
M to F ratio is ideally 1M to 3F or 4F. It can be fudged and should not be considered a hard and fast rule, but is a nice general rule. Just don't use it as an excuse to cull roos

Ideally speaking, its a 6 square foot pen and ideally speaking, it should hold 6 birds at the optimal rate of one square foot per bird.
Realistically speaking, I would put 8 birds (2M 6F) in that space. Of course I would remove that nasty floor space hogging water thing and replace it with something that hangs on the outside.

 

[Yvonne37894]

Thanks for the info.
I'm working on automatic water system and have order more of the no waste feeders from [email protected]
We got NPIP certified last week.