could i breed my chickens and how long do you think it will take

[dirkapitation]

i have two roosters that i plan on keeping and one that im trying to get rid of
one is a large amberlink and the other a small bantam
i have both bantam and large hens
who can breed with who
also my roosters are all about twenty weeks

 

[Ridgerunner]

First, you might read this. This is between mature chickens. Your cockerels are not mature. I'm guessing your females are also not mature so it might be a bit wild down there. But this is what you will probably eventually see.

Typical mating behavior between mature consenting adults.

The rooster dances for a specific hen. He lowers one wing and sort of circles her. This signals his intent.

The hen squats. This gets her body onto the ground so the rooster’s weight goes into the ground through her entire body and not just her legs. That way she can support a much heavier rooster without hurting her joints.

The rooster hops on and grabs the back of her head. The head grab helps him get in the right position to hit the target and helps him to keep his balance, but its major purpose is to tell the hen to raise her tail out of the way to expose the target. A mating will not be successful if she does not raise her tail and expose the target. The head grab is necessary.

The rooster touches vents and hops off. This may be over in the blink of an eye or it may take a few seconds. But when this is over the rooster’s part is done.

The hen then stands up, fluffs up, and shakes. This fluffy shake gets the sperm into a special container inside the hen near where the egg starts its internal journey through her internal egg making factory.

It takes an egg about 25 hours to go through a hen's internal egg making factory. It can only be fertilized during he first few minutes of that journey, which means if a mating takes place on a Monday, Monday's egg is not fertile. Tuesday's egg might be, might not be, depending on timing. Don't count on it. Wednesday's egg should be fertile.

The sperm can remain viable in that special container for anywhere from 9 days til more than three weeks. Most of us count on two weeks. So the rooster does not have to mate with each hen every day for the eggs to be fertile.

If the pullets or hens are laying eggs and the male is mating them, either cockerel or rooster, the eggs are probably fertile. This link will tell you how to look for the bull's eye to confirm they are laying fertile eggs.

http://www.backyardchickens.com/t/16008/how-to-tell-a-fertile-vs-infertile-egg-pictures

I have hatched some pullet eggs, you can do it. But when a pullet first starts to lay the eggs are small. Also it sometimes takes them a while to work the kinks out of their internal egg making factory. There are a lot of parts to that process and they all need to be pretty close to perfect to make a hatchable egg. Those small eggs means the chicks will be small, there are not enough nutrients or room for then to grow very big. When I hatch pullet eggs the hatch rate is sometimes not very good. Most chicks that manage to hatch live, whether from small pullet eggs or larger eggs from older pullets or hens. The ones that die after hatch are usually from small pullet eggs. I suggest you wait at least a month after a pullet starts to lay before you try to hatch her eggs. Your results will probably be better.

Any rooster can mate with any hen. It doesn't matter if one is bantam and the other is full sized. The bantam can usually hit the target, even on a larger hen. A large rooster can usually mate with a small bantam hen without problems as long as she squats for him. The more size difference there is the more risk their is, but usually it's not a problem. Do not expect them to mate with only the pullets or hens their size.