Assembling Breeding groups...... :D :D

YAAAAYYYYYY!!!!

WOOHOOOOO!!!!!


I'm putting together my first 2 breeding pens tomorrow - Blue Laced Red Wyandottes (new combination of bloodlines, and Black Copper Marans (new roosters!). I can't wait!!! The rest are a while in the making as everyone is still maturing and I'm still growing out boys for the freezer.

How old do the hens and roosters have to be before considered mature enough to become effective breeding pairs?
Is it a good idea to put a young cockerel in with a young hen, or should a more mature cockerel or rooster be used with young hens? Any other considerations that should be taken into account when assembling breeding pairs?

Me to I have seperated some of my marans

nuthatch333 wrote:How old do the hens and roosters have to be before considered mature enough to become effective breeding pairs?
Is it a good idea to put a young cockerel in with a young hen, or should a more mature cockerel or rooster be used with young hens? Any other considerations that should be taken into account when assembling breeding pairs?

My roosters that are going into breeding pens will be around 10 months old when they go into the breeding pen, however I won't be hatching any eggs from them until they are about a year old. I don't breed via the pair method, I breed in flocks. I don't have huge flocks, in some varieties I only have a trio (birchen marans), but I don't breed with the pair system for a couple reasons - I don't have the set up to do so, and I don't have the time to keep that close of records.

I don't think it really matters if you put a young cockerel in with a young hen, if that's all you have, but you shouldn't put an immature cockerel in with a mature hen as the hen will beat the poor fellow up.

Different people have different criteria for using hens and roosters for breeding, my philosophy is if they are suitable according to the breed standard and don't have any major disqualifying faults (with regards to structure mainly, but color is a consideration, too) then I will use them in my breeding pen. Each breed has different traits that I try to breed for, marans - egg color, size & shape, color, leg feathers. Wyandottes I'm majorly watching size but also trying to encorporate some new blood as the genepool in Canada is small and getting stagnant. The silver sussex I am just trying to breed them to what they should be, which is a ways off what they are.

I think to decide what goes into your breeding pen, you have to figure out what you expect from it. I plan on doing a few different configurations of hens/roos with my guys to work towards improving certian traits in my flocks. This means I will be doing a hatch for myself with rooster A over hen B in feb, then moving out rooster A and moving in rooster C in march for an April hatch for myself.

Many others have their own opinions on what to do or not to do, this is just what has worked for me so far given my set up and time constraints.

nuthatch333 wrote:How old do the hens and roosters have to be before considered mature enough to become effective breeding pairs?
Is it a good idea to put a young cockerel in with a young hen, or should a more mature cockerel or rooster be used with young hens?

Youngsters of both sexes will eventually get the job done but in my experience the young cockerels mature faster than the pullets. This isn't fair on the pullets and the cockerels, getting away with it, turned out to be bullies. Advice we received at that point (after sending the bullies to the butcher because I thought they were no good....including a prize winner) was to keep the cockerels in with older hens who will keep them in line. So for us, that has worked. The hens have never bullied the cockerels but disciplined them, whereas the cockerels would torture the pullets. An experienced roo is much better for the young gals.

I've raised a few young boys in the flock this way and am happy to say they turned out to be wonderful contributing members living happily with the head roo.

I guess that's the other thing...once all youngsters are in the main flock with the head roo....they don't get away with much anymore...so the flock teaches them the do's and don'ts.

Giddyup - good point. I like to raise my guys in various ages (as long as no one gets picked on) and so far have had GREAT success with a very wide range of age. I wait until the younger ones have a very good start and are nearly or completely feathered and then combine them at night. I make sure to have lots of feeders & waterers in the pen so that no one can commandere them, and so far so good. Right now I have everything hatched from June-August in one pen and they are great. I had to take out a couple exuberent roo's of the older age, but then again my gender ratios have been about 75% male and 25% female so there are too many roo's. There are also a few older hens that are closer to about 9 or 10 months in there and they help keep everyone in line.

My goal for this year coming is to raise all my chicks under broodies so they can learn the social interaction. I think broody chicks = healthy, well socialized (with chickens and people) chickens

Well that got a little off topic, oh well! LOL!

Thank you both that was very helpful.