Selective breeding techniques? anyone?

[lampshadeee69]

I've decided that i want some of my chickens to breed specifically with one another instead of having my hens just getting paired with whichever rooster she wanders closest to. I have them their own cages, with food and water, the whole 9 yards. my question was which is the best method? to keep them in the same cage at all times? keep only the hen in and put the rooster in at some point during the day? keep only the rooster in and place the hen in at certain times? I want to cross two of my japanese bantams. Should I know anything about their temperament? (They seem to be a bit...grouchy to say the least.) tips on what would be best in general would be extremely helpful, because I plan to sell the chicks.

 

[Illia]

Personally I hate caging birds, but, to each their own. My own method is allowing all my girls to share the same space/pasture, no matter the breed or color, and allow my boys their own area too. Although yes it takes work, when the time comes, I pair who I want to in another separate "breeding pen" for an hour, sometimes less, about once a week, sometimes more frequently (depending on breed) That way no one is constantly bothered, everyone has freedom of space and good diet, but I still know exactly who gets bred to whom, and, although my boys live together they actually have full view and interaction through a fence with the girls.

 

[lampshadeee69]

i hate caging them too, but its the only way that would work. i don't have the resources, or space, for a separate pen. and I also have 5 roosters which pick mates at random, all day, every day, whenever they please. does anyone know also, if a hen is fertilized by a hen, how long the semen stays in the hen, viably, before another rooster can come along and fertilize her? (sorry if thats crude for any young eyes that may see it, but its important to this discussion.)

 

[Illia]

A rooster can keep a hen fertilized for a pretty long time, I've known a hen to be away from a male for 5 weeks or more and still have chicks from her eggs, but the average is 3 weeks.

As for another rooster intervening, I'd say the moment he mates with her properly, he's contaminated the supply. Far as I know, but I'm no expert, she can carry both the males' semen at once, so to truly "cleanse" a female of a male and keep her eggs fertilized by only one specific male, you must wait 4 weeks after contact with the undesired male, then breed to the desired male.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I little info. Maybe more than you want, but it might help you.

It takes an egg about 25 hours to go through the hen's internal egg laying factory. It can only be fertilized in the first 15 minutes of that journey. So if a mating occurs Monday, Monday's egg is certainly not fertile. Tuesday's egg might be, depending on when the mating took place and when the egg started its journey. Wednesday's egg will almost certainly be fertile.

A hen will normally stay fertile for about 2 weeks after a mating. She may only be fertile for say 9 days, she may stay fertile for three weeks or so, but the average is around 14 days. I know you don't want to hear this, but you need to isolate that hen for at least three weeks to be pretty safe and four weeks to be absolutely safe.

Remember, these are after a mating, not just them shaking hands and saying hello. A rooster does not necessarily mate with every hen in the flock every day. It just seems that way.

How you manage them is up to you and your set-up. Illia's method sounds good, but there are plenty of other ways to go too. Good luck!

 

[sjarvis00]

Quote:
I have some indoor breeding pens we use for fall matings with our bantams and larger outdoor pens we use as well. When selectively breeding individual hens they are penned seperately or two to a pen, you can rotate the males into the pen preferably early evening so long as teh rooster is rotated in every third day we still hit 100% fertility. it will take a minimum of two weeks of no exposure to another male to have any certainty that the fertile eggs are from teh chosen male however based on the breed it can be longer. A hen can drop several ovum at once and all can be fertilized from a single mating or she may only drop 1-2 at a time.
our indoor pens are 30 in. x 30 in. the hen or 2 hens and teh rooster is rotated in the afternoon and left there till the following day.
our outdoor pens are 12x6 ft A-frames and we run 6 hens to 1 rooster with no rotations in males.

 

[lampshadeee69]

Thank you for all the advice and science. That was extremely good news, because my polish rooster; the alpha, died a few weeks ago and from my last batch of chicks, about 80% that reached maturity had polish crosses in them. Now that he's gone, even though its been a while, i still might be able to get a half polish chick! If not, its no big deal. I have one of his offspring still.