Thinking about submitting to the force of Chicken Math...

[JeffOeuf]

OK, I bought 5 hatchery chicks in March. They're doing wonderfully, growing strong and I anticipate eggs in another month or two. As it turns out, other than my red sex-links, none of my girls are exactly what they were sold as. Not to worry, they're still chickens...but on the other hand, these girls were as much for yard decoration as for eggs. They're pretty, but they're not going to be "stunning".

If I go for "stunning", I've learned here on BYC that I need to buy from a breeder, not a hatchery. If I'm going to do that, I might as well get a breeding set and get some chicks that I can sell and/or show. Which leads to my questions. If you have a mixed breed flock, do you keep them all together and let the rooster breed the laying hens, or is that counter-productive to egg production? If I buy one roo and a couple of hens for breeding, is he going to wear them out? I've heard one roo can service up to 15 hens...don't want that many.

 

[Judy]

You can house them all together. One roo with 7 hens might not be too bad on the girls; it just depends. You can always put saddles on a hen who starts showing signs of being the favorite. I have the "rule of thumb" one roo and 10 hens, and a couple of them definitely get mated more than the rest. Their back feathers are thin, and I keep an eye on them with saddle in hand.

For breeding, though, you would want a separate breeding pen. You would move the roo and his couple of good quality hens to a separate pen for about a month, then start collecting eggs for hatching. Once you have your eggs, you should be able to mix them again, especially if they were all able to see and hear each other during the breeding time. Of course this means a separate coop and another run for that month or two. On the other hand, you could have more than one "good" breed, and use the breeding pen as a bachelor pad if the roos start fighting or really overmating, then rearrange things at breeding time.... chicken math can get complicated!

I would enjoy a few good quality birds -- but I also started with hatchery birds in a good sized coop and run. They have now hatched several mutts, and I just never got around to taking it further. Mutts are their own kind of pleasure -- interesting, pretty, and often healthier and larger. And broodier. At least in my limited experience.