Small flock spiral/clan mating logistics?

[Hermits Garden]

Hi there, hope you are enjoying BYC!
I am! My brain is sore with so much study going on, but this is a wonderful group.

My stag pen is kept with an adjacent attached wire fence to the hens.. where everyone can communicate and recognize each other. This is how the boys learn to treat call and flirt some and the ladies sometimes groom their face etc through the wire.
This is good to hear--I really don't have a lot of flexibility except that I have a 20'x20' bit of land and a set of coop plans. Kinda reminds me of a boys' school next door to a girls' school, all that flirtin' through the fence.

In order to reduce any pecking order antics.. and it has worked well for me.. I remove my stag after dark from his occupied position and put him with the ladies. After dark that night.. he goes back to the stag pen before they get up the next morning. This seems to not be enough time for them to realize a piece of the order needs to be filled and so life goes on as usual ALWAYS, so far.
This is doable. I work from home, and we have insanely early hours.

Please note that that selecting a ROOSTER that doesn't over mate his ladies would require them to actually be roosters and not cockerels as the two are entirely different creatures and behavior of one cannot compare to behavior of another when talking hormonal things.. behaviors change sooo much.. and this needs to be accounted and allowed for...
I won't be able to free range--our area is rural, but the neighbors have dogs that roam wherever they want--not to mention the woodland wildlife in our mountains. But I do intend to let the chicks "grow up" together, and separate the genders at puberty. Then I'll test them out, once they've calmed down a little, and the hens are laying reliably.
Thank you!

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Thank you. I'd want to wait til the following spring to hatch eggs, regardless. I'll be getting the starter flock spring of 2021, hatching the first offspring spring of 2022.

It's great that you're planning ahead! I'm a planner too, it helps me more often than not to be prepared.

Sounds like you're starting out going ALL in on a very challenging yet worthy and super rewarding project.. What breed are you gonna be working with? Is there one you're in love with in person already (or on paper)?

 

[Hermits Garden]

I have one cockerel with three pullets, all grew up together and are six months old. SO FAR it is working well! I'm aware this could change. I just have to wait and watch.

What breed do you have in this setup?

 

[Hermits Garden]

I've toyed with the idea of Ameraucanas and Easter Eggers together, and aim for a slightly heftier bird. Our weather is dry, but it gets pretty chilly at 7000 ft elevation in the winter, so I lean toward pea combs. Sounds like I'd have a project before I had a project!

 

[Hermits Garden]

Jan in the Pines: I have a BO cockerel and three BA pullets.

The cockerel was one of three (BO straight run, all cockerels; grrrr!) The other two had to be culled at about 4 months as they became very aggressive to both the pullets and to me. This guy seems to be turning out well. As I said, we'll see.

Y'know--I do hear a lot about BO roosters being jerks. Odd for a breed that has the reputation of being "the golden retriever of chickens", isn't it?

I wonder if that's always been the way of it, or if, like actual golden retrievers, there has developed a division in the breed. Not that it has to do with showing with chickens, but there's a definite temperament difference between show goldens and family goldens. Hatcheries can't exactly cull for temperament, since their chicks go out the door on day one.

 

[Sally PB]

I heard they were the laid back, gentlest of birds. The two I culled weren't, so at first I wondered what had gone wrong. But recently, I have heard that sometimes they are real problems. So maybe like certain breeds of popular dogs, they have been pumped out of the hatcheries, quantity over quality.

Still sorry at least one of those two wasn't a pullet. Never buying straight again! Live and learn.