Should I separate breeds?

[Pickled Egg]

Hello,

My husband and I will be ordering Chantecler and Barred Rock chicks for the spring. They will be our first chickens and we are really excited.

We plan to have several layers and will designate others as meat birds. We want to allow some eggs to mature so we can replenish the meat birds. We would prefer not to cross the two breeds. Should we keep the them separate? Would it make sense to only keep one rooster around of the breed we prefer?


Any advise would be appreciated

 

[hollyk]

If you don't want to mix the breeds then they chickens would have to be seperated at least from the rooster. Of course, if there is only one rooster he will have purebreeds with the hens of his kind and and mixes with the others.
Those are my thoughts, there is a lot more experience out there who might can give more insight.\\

Good Luck with your new chicks!

 

[EliteTempleton]

A strategy that is often employed is to keep the Roos in their own separate coop's with attached run's and then put in your selected breeding hens with them.

This way you won't end up cross breeding them, and you get to be selective with your breeding.

Your choice on which hens are selected, reasons might include: egg production, egg size, number of double yolkers, early layers, temperment, feather quality/colors, new blood line to avoid inbreeding, etc.......

It helps of course to write it all down so you can keep track over the years, ya know, bloodline, which ones had any illness, etc.

Plus if you need to isolate you can just put the rooster in the main coop and not hatch any of those eggs and you have a ready to go isolation spot(a good reason to make sure the breeding coops are not close to the main coop).

I would put them all together at first though, ya know those first fun 12 weeks! Or even just keep them all together until you decide to breed some(like the following spring) that way the pecking order gets established.

Also, if you like the idea, be certain the Breeding coops are locked down like Fort Knox! After all your best of the best will be in there, don't want them all wiped out for sure!

 

[cmom]

Roo's will mate any hen he can ,so if you want him to reproduce with the hens of the same breed, you will have to separate them.