Where Do You Put Your Chickens???

[chickenlovefever]

So I am looking all over the forums, and alot of peoples Signatures are a little something like this: I Am A Breder Of Wheaten Marans, BC Marans, Shamos, Heritage Dominiques........
But What I don't get, is if you are breding these chickens and you don't want them to mix, For Instance, You Don't want your Shamo Rooster Mating with your Wheaten Maran Hens. How do you breeders do it? Keeping them separate like this? DO you you have different runs, or just cages you put them in??? I am getting ready to get rid of all my adults, and so far I have hatched 36 Mutt Chickens. I have 9 Hens, RIRs, Barred Rocks, An EE, and two other Mixes and a Wyandotte, and 1 EE Rooster. I want them all gone, and I plan on selling all of these babies except for 9 of them. Then When they grow up and I can see the genders, I will keep 4 hens. And Recently I hve been wanting o start Breeding Turkeys And Black Marans And BC Marans. But I want Only a limit of Chickens, And I don't want to be incubating Mix Bred Eggs. How can I separate these Chickens?
Tell Me, WHat do you do with your Breeding Programs?
And exactly what do you do it for?

 

[draye]

I keep mine in runs according to breeds, or if I want certain mixes I will move my rooster to the hen pen.

Some just keep breeding pairs or trios and they sometimes keep them in cages.

 

[moetrout]

I am not breeding yet, but can offer up 2 things that may help you. First is that the breeder I bought my BCM's from this spring had what looked to be a 8' x 8' coup. He had the coup sectioned off into 4 sections. 3 of those sections had breeding pairs and the fourth one had a raised brooder and some small chicks on the floor. He appears to have a outside run divided into 2 runs. Not sure how he let them all out, but I could see where he might have let a pair in each run and one to free range in the backyard.

I myself have 13 chickens right now. Out of 13 chickens, 3 are Americaunas. I am going to attempt to hatch Americaunas in the spring since I have one rooster and two hens. I will know they will be pure because I only have the one Americauna rooster and they will be the only green eggs. By doing it this way I can still have a mixed flock. As long as you only have one rooster and you can positively identify the eggs from the hens of the same breed you would be ok.

 

[chickenlovefever]

Would It be a good Idea to have a run of all hens mixed together, and then 2 runs with two different breeds of roosters in there, and when I want to breed a certain breed, put all of the hens of that roosters breed in with the roo? For example, say I have my 4 mixed hens and then 4 BC Marans And 3 Black Marans all in my coop i have now. Say I have two rabbit sort hutches, with a Black Maran Roo In one and The BC Maran in the other. Say I want to incubate some eggs for the month. Can I put those Black Hens in with the Black roo and then wait til they lay their eggs, and then collect the eggs to put in the bator and then put the hens back in their run? Would this be a good idea? Because I wouldn't want my black roo to breed with my BC maran hens and then me not being able to differ the BC Maran eggs from the Black Maran eggs.

 

[chickenlovefever]

 

[Honeysucklefeathers]

keep mine separated by breed, have 2 runs and let them out alternately.

 

[wsmoak]

I don't breed, but all of mine are from Red Roof Hens and she has a super setup -- it's described on http://www.redroofhens.com/ . Essentially it's a low pole barn structure with individual pens sectioned off inside. You can walk down the narrow center aisle and look at the pens to either side. Each one is set up as a separate 'coop' with food, water, roosts, nest boxes and plenty of room. -Wendy

 

[Hummingbird Hollow]

Quote:
I'm not an expert here but I read on this forum that a hen can hold sperm inside her for a pretty lengthy amount of time. I'd have to go back and look but it could be something like a month. Therefore, if you plan on taking hens and roosters from a mixed flock and want to be guaranteed pure eggs, you should make sure to do the research and isolate the hen from other roosters for a period of time before you make the assumption that the father of the eggs she is laying is the rooster she is currently secluded with.

 

[perchie.girl]

I was planning on 3 breed pens. Ameracanas, Welsummers, and Sumatras.
6 x 12 will accommodate about 18 +- using the four square foot rule as a rule of thumb. Each pen will have a run that will be 6 x 40.

There will also be a bachelor pen for the extra roos. I'm hoping to house them with the guineas but am prepared to keep them separate.
I want to keep two roos in each of my breed pens if they get along. Then keep two extra roos for each breed selling off the extras.

The Guineas will get the most of the space in my poultry house
Their pen will be (18 x 6) + (12 x 6) in the shape of an EL. Their run will be shaped like a flag 6 x 40 to begin with and a rectangular space at the end that will be 24 x 24 give or take. During non breeding season I will free range half of the guinea flock at a time. right now I am working on the details of doing that..... It may be not practiacal.... but I will give it a try. Right now I have 40 +total. Keets and young adults.

The guineas tend to pair off one to one so unless I decide to separate them according to color extras of either dont mater. Breeding season (spring and summer) though I will be keeping them in the coop and run areas. I walk with a cane and cant be wandering about my eighteen acres looking for a guinea nest.

The Sumatras make excellent broodies and mommas perfect if I need to hatch out any eggs So I may expand their pen to 12 x 6 as well. This will keep the Sumatra egg production to a minimum.

Yep its goina get noisy at my house..... The coop is about thirty feet from my bedroom door. LOL.....

 

[guinea fowl galore]

As far as my breeding chickens go, I have one BIG pen that i put ALL my different breeds of large girls in, then a few pens for roosters ( depending on who gets on with who ) then i have a breeding pen that is empty except of course when i want the hatching eggs. Then i choose my hens and a rooster and they go in my breeding pen. easy.
And then i have another 5 or so pens for all the other poultry I have ('pets', bantams and guinea fowl)