Rooster age and breed for mixed flock?

[Weehopper]

I tend to prefer the stability of a slightly older rooster. Really hard for me to say as my boy was born here, as were his parents. Have never had to purchase a rooster before. He is a gamecock, and as such, will not, under any circumstances, allow another rooster on the property (not even a Tom turkey). When the time comes to replace him I will keep a son out of him. He will have helped to raise the son, and hopefully, teach him only good habits. I also have his mate (a game hen), two of his daughters out of her, and I have a flock of five laying hens. If I ever feel that I need more laying hens, I will probably keep chicks out of this rooster and the laying hens (as long as the offspring continue with laying large eggs.) game chicken eggs are not all that large.
My rooster rarely crows during the winter. But in the spring, watch out. He tells the world, often, that the breeding season is on.
As far as aggressiveness goes, Slick has never shown the inclination to hit me or be aggressive with me. But I want to add that were I to bother his ladies, it might turn nasty. He is very protective of them. The slightest squawk and he comes running.

 

[OEF5]

As a follow up to this, our current plan is to start with 4 chickens and see how that goes. We plan on getting Barred Rock, Buff Orpington, Blue Orpington, and a Light Brahma.

My question is this, if we like one breed over the other, but still want to keep the original 4 birds, get a rooster if I got a Light Brahma rooster then all of the eggs from the non light would be mixed and the eggs from the Light Brahma hen would/should be light brahma's correct?

My thought is getting a straight run of blue orps next year and culling the roos we don't want so that we have mostly Orps in the flock. So the Buff and Blue hens would still breed orpingtons if I'm thinking correctly. Then we would still have "mutt" chicks from the Barred and Brahma, right?

Sorry to be so confusing, just trying to think all of this through for sustainability and future.

 

[aart]

As a follow up to this, our current plan is to start with 4 chickens and see how that goes. We plan on getting Barred Rock, Buff Orpington, Blue Orpington, and a Light Brahma.

My question is this, if we like one breed over the other, but still want to keep the original 4 birds, get a rooster if I got a Light Brahma rooster then all of the eggs from the non light would be mixed and the eggs from the Light Brahma hen would/should be light brahma's correct?
Yes

My thought is getting a straight run of blue orps next year and culling the roos we don't want so that we have mostly Orps in the flock. So the Buff and Blue hens would still breed orpingtons if I'm thinking correctly. Then we would still have "mutt" chicks from the Barred and Brahma, right?
If you have 2 different breed cockbirds, you'd have to keep them separated with their breed hens or all your chicks might be mutts. Having 2 cockbirds can be problematic anyway.

Sorry to be so confusing, just trying to think all of this through for sustainability and future.

Not sure what you mean by sustainability, lots of variables there...
.....but Light Brahma, as much as I love them, are not great layers.

 

[OEF5]

It was just an example. I think our plan is for the Blue Orpington's to be the main bird. The wife loves how they look. And yes we would only have one Rooster, I just wanted to make sure that the breed would still breed true for the same breed pair, whichever rooster hen combination it is that we go with.

 

[Ridgerunner]

There are a lot of things that go into breed other than just color. Body shape is a really big one but comb type, eye color, skin color, just on and on of different things called for in the SOP. A good poultry judge should be able to tell you the breed just by looking at body shape in a black and white silhouette. Even in prize winning flocks a lot of the chicks that hatch are not going to be prize winners. They are going to have some flaws that will disqualify them. How many you get that fully conform to the SOP will depend on the quality of your chickens.

With all that said, a Blue Orpington rooster over a blue Orpington hen will give you “Blue” Orpingtons. Blue is a strange gene. If you have two “blue” genes you get Splash. If you get one “blue” gene at that gene pair you get Blue. If you get zero “blue” genes you get the default, which is black. If you cross blue with blue, you will get chicks that are all these combinations. But the comb type, eye color, body shape all that should be Orpington.

If you cross a Blue Orpington with a Buff Orpington, body shape, eye color, all that should be Orpington. But you will not have a recognized color. Considering buff and blue mixed you could get some really interesting colors and patterns.

A Blue Orpington rooster over a Light Sussex hen should give you either solid black or solid blue chicks. The white of the Light Sussex hen is from silver. The blue or black from the rooster should dominate that. They will be mutts.

A Blue Orpington rooster over a Barred Rock will give you mutts, but they will be Black Sex Links. Some will be black, some will be blue, but all males will be barred and all females will not be barred. You should be able to see the spot on the head for all of the chicks from that cross. Any black or blue chicks with the head spot should be male from the Barred Rock hen, but any blue or black chick without the head spot could come from any of the hens if the eggs are mixed.

So yes, the breed pair would breed true but with that rooster and those hens you may not always know which chicks those are.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I’ll respond to your pm on the forum. It’s a good question.

any problems with that rooster mating with it's offspring, should we change roosters every year as well???

All chicken breeds are manmade. Some people seem to think that breeds are natural but they are not. All chicken breeds were developed by inbreeding, parent to offspring, sibling to sibling, cousin to cousin. All these have their uses. There can be problems with inbreeding. This decreases genetic diversity. That is a goal of creating a breed, get rid of any genetics that don’t give you the right color, body type, behavior, whatever. At the same time, you do not want to lose the genetic diversity that keeps flocks fertile and healthy. The people that created the breeds had to know what they were doing.

I don’t have that knowledge, very few people do. But people have been keeping chickens for thousands of years that supply them with lots of eggs and meat. A standard model for many small farms for the past few thousands of years is to keep a flock and save their own replacements. They probably save new pullets every year. Say they keep a rooster for two or three years, then replace him with one of his sons. That rooster will be breeding his sisters, aunt’s cousins, daughters, maybe his mother.

This goes on for a few generations, the flock becoming more inbred each generation. Then maybe every fourth or fifth generation, they bring in a new rooster, totally unrelated. This restarts the genetic diversity all over so they go through the cycle again. The more chickens you have the longer you can usually go before replacing the rooster with an outsider.

There are some things to watch for. Only keep and breed your best birds. Don’t get sentimentally attached to a crippled or defective bird. Do not allow those to breed. Tendencies for certain behaviors can be inherited. If you want broody hens, hatch eggs form hens that go broody. If you don’t want broody hens, don’t hatch eggs from hens that go broody. If a hen does not lay many eggs or many of them are deformed, don’t hatch her few good eggs. If a rooster becomes human aggressive, don’t keep any of his sons, or daughters for that matter.

There are other techniques you can use, but to me the simplest is to replace your rooster every few generations.

 

[OEF5]

That is totally awesome information in both posts. Thank you so much, the wife and I both thought your thoughts on my first question were very informative. This second post is even better.

Again, we are really really new, like no chickens at all yet so this forum has been just a wealth of knowledge and ideas. You can find her thread on our coop and run here:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/1082178/building-a-chicken-moat-run-around-the-garden-in-stages

Any thoughts or ideas would be most welcome!

Thanks again and you deserve a

don't see a salute icon either or I'd give you one of those too!

 

[dekel18042]

Weehopper, he agreed to let us get some small farm-type animals when we moved in. Plus, they live almost a quarter mile up the driveway from where the shed is. A rooster shouldn't bother him too much, provided it doesn't crow all night. Mr. Landlord is a nice guy, but he can be mildly frustrating at times; he tends to have a knee-jerk reaction to anything new or unusual, and refuses to reconsider his decision. The property we live on used to be a real farm-- his wife grew up here. I might try talking to her about a rooster, and see if she thinks it would work out. She loves our animals, as does their daughter, so we have them on our side!

Out of curiosity, what are the specific pros and cons of younger vs. older Roos?

Older roos you can know the personality. Younger ones can be hit or miss and might go through the terrible teen age years before they settle down
If someone has and is getting rid of one roo it may be because they can't have any or he is aggressive. See if you can find someone with several roosters who may be rehoming one or a few only because they have too many. They should be able to tell you their personalities and help you choose a nice one.
I know several people in our area with flocks and if they have several nice young roosters will either hold onto some for a bit, either as a spare or to see if anyone they know needs a nice rooster.
The ones with human aggressive tendencies don't last long and aren't rehomed (without disclosure.).