What to do with growing chicks

[Back40chick]

I have one hen and one rooster. My flock has doubled with the hatching of two chicks from them. They are 4 weeks old now. I would like to keep my rooster. Doesn't that mean that I need to find a home for the chicks if they are pullets? You don't want the father rooster fertilizing the eggs of their offspring. Am I correct? My daughter lives right behind me and she has lots of chickens. One rooster. She has hatched out 7 chicks. My thought was trading out. At what age can that work? Wait until they are about full grown so they can defend themselves when a new pecking order is established? Advice please

 

[MysteryChicken]

I have one hen and one rooster. My flock has doubled with the hatching of two chicks from them. They are 4 weeks old now. I would like to keep my rooster. Doesn't that mean that I need to find a home for the chicks if they are pullets? You don't want the father rooster fertilizing the eggs of their offspring. Am I correct? My daughter lives right behind me and she has lots of chickens. One rooster. She has hatched out 7 chicks. My thought was trading out. At what age can that work? Wait until they are about full grown so they can defend themselves when a new pecking order is established? Advice please

It's perfectly fine for fathers to have offspring with daughers.

 

[aart]

You don't want the father rooster fertilizing the eggs of their offspring. Am I correct?

No. It's fine.

 

[Ridgerunner]

You don't want the father rooster fertilizing the eggs of their offspring. Am I correct?

I assume you are going to hatch the eggs, otherwise you wouldn't ask. That doesn't bother a lot of us. That's been going on for thousands of years, since even before they were domesticated. But there are things to watch for.

If they have genetic deficiencies inbreeding like that will bring those deficiencies out. If you see any problems in him or his daughters then you can run into problems. It's a matter of the genetic lottery. The genetic base you start with is important.

A model that has been used for thousands of years on small farms, the model that my father used, was to keep replacement chickens, hens and roosters, for a few generations. Fathers bred daughters, sons bred mothers. Dad typically kept one rooster and about 25 to 30 hens. The ones he kept were pretty random, though we ate any obvious problems or excess. He was able to maintain genetic diversity for four or five generations. Then he would bring in new blood, get chicks from a feed store and keep a rooster and a few of the hens. Wirth as few chickens as you have that is not going to be very random. You might want to bring in new blood in a couple of generations.

So if a problem shows up, don't breed the problems. If it shows up in the first or second generation you might consider getting rid of your entire flock and starting over. But most of us will not see a problem.

My thought was trading out. At what age can that work? Wait until they are about full grown so they can defend themselves when a new pecking order is established?

You can do that all kinds of different ways. You can integrate chickens or chicks of any age. You can integrate any gender. I always integrate chicks, either hatch them myself or get them from a hatchery because that suits my goals. Integrating immature chickens to a mature flock can be challenging but many of us do it. One of the easiest integrations is usually a mature rooster to a flock of all hens. That doesn't always go perfect but usually a mature rooster will swagger in, mate a hen or two, and the flock is his. If you integrate mature hens they may fight to establish the pecking order but it is usually over fairly quickly, not like immature chicks where you have to manage the process as they grow up.

In your situation I could see you eventually swapping with your daughter or getting chicks from a feed store and raising them when you are ready for new blood.

 

[Back40chick]

Thank you so much for the useful information