Starting a flock with just one hen?

[Miami Leghorn]

Hello to everyone!
Hopefully I can get some help in this situation.I've been debating this for quite some time, I received hatching eggs from out of state from the same breeder in five different occasions, and as luck would have it out of those five batches that I received in the mail, I was only able to hatch four cockerels and one pullet.I really like the pattern and appreciate the work that was put into this line and would very much like to conserve it for years to come.

BIG QUESTION...
So as I'm setting up my breeder pens, I was wondering,once I choose the best rooster that I have,can I develop a flock with just that one hen?
I am planning on keeping the other roosters around for other projects and some genetic diversity should I only be forced to use one hen.
Has this been done before? Have whole flocks been created with just one female available? I figure after the first hatch hopefully I will have some eggs that will give me some females being as they would be my eggs and not shipped eggs. That they wouldn't have gotten banged around so much during shipping- I'm not sure if the shipping has anything to do with the sex outcome of a chicken-
Any advice would be greatly appreciated any one out there that has gone through this I would love your input and feedback.
Thank you.

 

[Trish1974]

Hello to everyone!
Hopefully I can get some help in this situation.I've been debating this for quite some time, I received hatching eggs from out of state from the same breeder in five different occasions, and as luck would have it out of those five batches that I received in the mail, I was only able to hatch four cockerels and one pullet.

BIG QUESTION...
So as I'm setting up my breeder pens, I was wondering,once I choose the best rooster I have can I develop a flock with just that one hen?
I am planning on keeping the other roosters around for other projects and some genetic diversity should I only be forced to use one hen.
Has this been done before? Have whole flocks been created with just one female available? I figure after the first hatch hopefully I will have some eggs that will give me some females being as they would be my eggs and not shipped eggs. That they wouldn't have gotten banged around so much during shipping- I'm not sure if the shipping has anything to do with the sex of a chicken-
Any advice would be greatly appreciated any one out there that has gone through this I would love your input and feedback.
Thank you.

I did it. I bought a hen and her 4 chicks a few years back, bred her back to one of the sons I bought with her, then the following summer bred the hen back to him along with his two daughters from the previous year. They were black and split for mottling, so it was like making two flocks, a black and a mottled flock. I just sold all the black ones and now breeding just the mottleds from that line.

 

[Miami Leghorn]

I did it. I bought a hen and her 4 chicks a few years back, bred her back to one of the sons I bought with her, then the following summer bred the hen back to him along with his two daughters from the previous year. They were black and split for mottling, so it was like making two flocks, a black and a mottled flock. I just sold all the black ones and now breeding just the mottleds from that line.

Awesome.
Thank you for the quick response!
This helps me immensely!

 

[nicalandia]

I am no sure why people keep asking if it's okay to do a Line Breeding program. This is done all of the time and as long as it's done properly it can be done indefinitely

 

[NatJ]

Would you worry if it was one male and four females? Genetically, it's equally good or bad either way.

The main limitation with one hen is how many eggs she lays--you won't get enough eggs in a week to do a large hatch, so you'll be doing lots of small hatches, trying to increase your numbers.

Of course start by mating her to the best male, but you might want to cycle through all the males (or at least, all that are reasonably good). That way, you'll have some chicks that are half-siblings rather than full siblings of each other. And if the "best" male has some hidden flaw, it won't be in ALL the chicks.

Usually, when switching males, people wait three weeks before hatching more eggs, to be sure of who the father is. In your case, that could be a big waste of eggs. So I suggest you try using one male for a month, then another for a month, then another... The first three weeks of each month, you know within two choices who the father is: previous rooster or current rooster. That's enough info to let you breed pullets to one of the other roosters, and you won't waste any eggs. The last week of the month, you're positive who fathered those particular chicks. (Or, if you only start another batch in the incubator every three weeks, you can switch males right after starting the incubator: three weeks for the chicks to hatch, three weeks to be sure of which male will father the next ones.)

If you find that you get much better chicks with one male than with another, obviously you'll want to hatch plenty more from that pairing! But the male that looks best may not be the one that produces the best chicks. (Sometimes is, sometimes is not.)

 

[sourland]

I would be tempted to keep the two 'best' roosters and then breed the first roosters pullets to the second rooster - basically developing two different but related lines. Line breeding is great for 'fixing' traits, but along with the good it can also fix the bad necessitating a related outcross.

 

[Miami Leghorn]

I am no sure why people keep asking if it's okay to do a Line Breeding program. This is done all of the time and as long as it's done properly it can be done indefinitely

Awesome.
Thank you for the input.
Greatly appreciated.
This takes the uncertainty out of the equation.

 

[Miami Leghorn]

Would you worry if it was one male and four females? Genetically, it's equally good or bad either way.

The main limitation with one hen is how many eggs she lays--you won't get enough eggs in a week to do a large hatch, so you'll be doing lots of small hatches, trying to increase your numbers.

Of course start by mating her to the best male, but you might want to cycle through all the males (or at least, all that are reasonably good). That way, you'll have some chicks that are half-siblings rather than full siblings of each other. And if the "best" male has some hidden flaw, it won't be in ALL the chicks.

Usually, when switching males, people wait three weeks before hatching more eggs, to be sure of who the father is. In your case, that could be a big waste of eggs. So I suggest you try using one male for a month, then another for a month, then another... The first three weeks of each month, you know within two choices who the father is: previous rooster or current rooster. That's enough info to let you breed pullets to one of the other roosters, and you won't waste any eggs. The last week of the month, you're positive who fathered those particular chicks. (Or, if you only start another batch in the incubator every three weeks, you can switch males right after starting the incubator: three weeks for the chicks to hatch, three weeks to be sure of which male will father the next ones.)

If you find that you get much better chicks with one male than with another, obviously you'll want to hatch plenty more from that pairing! But the male that looks best may not be the one that produces the best chicks. (Sometimes is, sometimes is not.)

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Shipping usually doesn't affect genders

 

[JacinLarkwell]

@The Moonshiner

They probably have a lot of experiance around this subject