How to separate breeds to breed purebreds

[MeyerRay]

hi all, I’m new here. My name is Meyer, my husband and I live with our two children in northern Italy. We have had chickens for about 7 years, in a very low maintenance sort of way. The chickens have two sheds open to them and a large garden area where they run. We leave their shed doors open and they go in when its cold, if it’s warm they sleep in the pear trees.
Basically we give them food and water, take their eggs and clean inside when dirty. We have 5 breeds, I don’t know their names in english. This year we want the boys to see the eggs hatch, and they each want to raise a couple of our regional breed to bring to competition.

My questions:
I have read that we need to separate them for at least a month to get a purebred, so does that mean keep the couple inside that whole time?

After the month has passed, how long should they stay together to breed?

Once we have all the eggs, should we just let the rooster out and leave the hen to roost? In our experience we have only had one roosting hen, but I have heard people say all hens roost, if they are her eggs will she?

We don’t have an incubator, the only other time we hatched eggs it happened too early in the spring and i brought the chicks and roostin hen in the house, which was a lot of work, kind of gross and generally a nightmare. How should we time this and do we need an incubator?

Thank you all for any advice! Meyer

 

[Shadowfire]

Welcome to the forum!

1. You just need to separate the hen from any bird that might mate with her, so the remaining genes in any sperm she may be retaining can pass out with the eggs. This way when you breed her again with a rooster of the same breed, the chicks will have pure genes.
2. I would say a day or two is adequate.
3. I don't really understand your question.
4. If the hen is broody (wants to hatch eggs) you won't need an incubator.

I hope this helps!

 

[wleigh1021]

If you can separate all the roo's and hens into one pen for roo's one pen for hens I would think this would be easiest. This way when you eat the eggs you can check them just after cracking to see when they're no longer fertile. Then you can pair them up how you want. Check day 2 after pairing if they're fertile by cracking and looking again. Once fertile, the number of days to leave the couple together depends on how many eggs you want to hatch. Don't try to hatch eggs stored for more than a week in my opinion.

It sounds like you brought a hen and her chicks inside last time. A broody hen and her brood shouldn't need to be separated as she can protect them, but if you think that they do for safety concerns can you just use your other shed? If not, can you put a dog crate in their shed to keep them separate but visible? Keeping the broody and her brood with the flock generally helps with integration of the new chicks.

 

[wleigh1021]

Also, I noticed you asked if all hens go broody and the answer is no. I have only had 1 hen in about 20 go broody. Some breeds are more likely to than others. If you can find the english names we can probably tell you if that breed is more or less likely. You also can't force a hen to go broody; she will do it when she feels like it. She will be more likely too in the spring when the days are longer and temperatures are warmer. If you are on a schedule (which it sounds like you will be due to separating pairs) I would think you would need to invest in an incubator.

 

[123RedBeard]

Pictures of your chickens would help ... we may be able to guess breeds, and if they tend to be "broody" ... which I think is what your calling "roosting" ... what we generally call "roosting" is when they perch on a branch or board to sleep ...

Depending on what breeds you have, and your patience level you may be better off getting an incubator ...

Four weeks of seperation from the males you don't want fathering the chicks is probably, safe ... checking a cracked open egg for a "bullseye" is also a good way to make sure others haven't bred the hens, then just add the cock you want ...

 

[sourland]

Welcome to BYC. Place the rooster and hens you want to hatch eggs from in an area separate from other roosters. After 4 weeks all eggs laid will have been fertilized by the rooster of choice. Not all hens go broody so you may need to obtain an incubator for your project. Good luck.

 

[Mrs. K]

If you have not had a hen go broody in 7 years, I don't think they will, you will need an incubator.

 

[MeyerRay]

QUOTE="123RedBeard, post: 20843396, member: 313268"]Pictures of your chickens would help ... we may be able to guess breeds, and if they tend to be "broody" ... which I think is what your calling "roosting" ... what we generally call "roosting" is when they perch on a branch or board to sleep ...

Depending on what breeds you have, and your patience level you may be better off getting an incubator ...

Four weeks of seperation from the males you don't want fathering the chicks is probably, safe ... checking a cracked open egg for a "bullseye" is also a good way to make sure others haven't bred the hens, then just add the cock you want ...[/QUOTE]

 

[MeyerRay]

Here are some pictures. We also have some dwarf, all white, Japanese breed and black Livornese.
The big rooster is our regional breed, called the "bionda Piemontese" or Piedmont blond.

Non of them have shown themselves to be broody (sorry for previous post, I got my chicken lingo all wrong)

The last time we hatched we didn't separate them, our friend gave us a chicken that was broody, we didn't collect the eggs for a couple of days and she did the rest. The other chickens didn't bother her, she hung out inside while the others were out and about. She sat on everyone's eggs. I think there were about 15.

I guess i like the idea of separating just the chicken until her eggs are no longer fertile, then let her be fertilized by the rooster of choice and go back. I feel bad that she won't be able to run around for a whole month! I guess we can seperate her in march, it is still cold here and nothing too interesting to do or eat in the garden, that way she won't miss out on much. We can put one in the dog crate and one free in the shed, that way the others still have a warm place to cuddle up at night. That way this year we can breed the piedmont blond and the one more couple. Here they sell for about EUR 50 a pair (60 for the piedmont blond) how much does a pair (male female) go for in the US?

Thank you all for your answers!!

 

[123RedBeard]

The poofy headed two at the top are Polish ... the black neck & tail are Vorwerk's ... the buff in front in the group picture could be a Plymouth Rock which is the only one which might go broody ... but only if it is actually a hen ... but since none of them have gone broody in the past ... you should probably just get an incubator.

I'm not sure what the others are.