Rotating roosters?

[Paymoo]

Considering rotational roosters… I have 3 currently, 3 different breeds. Should I leave certain hens with certain roos? Could I rotate them out or is that asking for trouble?

I’m seeking some interesting colors on plumage and eggs. Breeds listed below, what do you think?
I’m hoping to end up with a mainly white roo (I know it’s far fetched without bringing in different breeds)
Not a huge fan of barring in the birds like the barred rock or cuckoo marans.



I have 23 chickens at this second.
I have 3 roos, a cream legbar, salmon faverolle (he’s pretty dark), and a rainbow (he’s pretty red but with some patterns starting to peak out. He’s a baby at 4 weeks)

My hens consist of the following
3 black australorps (1 lays a pretty pink egg, 1 lays a very very light almost white egg)
1 barred rock
(No eggs from Here on. All too young)
1 starlight green egger (Haven’t got an egg yet. She’s white and red)
1 cream legbar - pure bred
1 ameraucana (Easter egger) black with gold leakage (definitely want a favucana)
2 midnight majesty marans
1 olive egger (looks like BCM hen with ameraucana tail. No egg yet)
1 maybe olive egger, maybe blue copper maran (no egg yet. She’s blue with a copper head and neck)
1 Smokey pearl
1 appenzeller
2 blue laced red Wyandotte (1 is more splash than blue)
1 prairie blue bell (primarily white with almost splash looking black)
1 salmon faverolle (she has some pretty significant black leakage)
2 Easter eggers (mainly red / they look like baby hawks)
1 wellsummer


I know that’s A LOT of breeds but even if you have thoughts on 1 or 2 combos, I’d love to hear it!

Thanks!

 

[Tonyroo]

If your doing a breeding project, it's best to keep the roosters and hens separated from each other. Then pick 1 rooster and the hens you want babies from in a pen with just them in it. This way you have more control of the ending results.

 

[Paymoo]

If your doing a breeding project, it's best to keep the roosters and hens separated from each other. Then pick 1 rooster and the hens you want babies from in a pen with just them in it. This way you have more control of the ending results.

Could I swap either the roosters for said hens out, our vice versa after let’s say… 3 months?

Like 3 months with rooster A and hens 1-5. Then swap rooster A for Rooster B, OR swap hens for 6-10?
Then 3 months with that group.

 

[Tonyroo]

Could I swap either the roosters for said hens out, our vice versa after let’s say… 3 months?

Like 3 months with rooster A and hens 1-5. Then swap rooster A for Rooster B, OR swap hens for 6-10?
Then 3 months with that group.

Yes you can, but only start when you know the hens are laying regularly. They'll be big enough to deal with immature roosters causing a ruckus. Remember to keep tabs on the well being of the hens.

 

[Paymoo]

Yes you can, but only start when you know the hens are laying regularly. They'll be big enough to deal with immature roosters causing a ruckus. Remember to keep tabs on the well being of the hens.

I absolutely will. Only 1 rooster is with my really small girls 5-9 weeks (he’s 5 weeks)

And then my others are with the other 11. And they grew up together and thank goodness are mellow roosters. The legbar and salmon.

They inevitably will be separated though.

We actually have a 4th Roo.. another legbar.. that we’re going to take to a local farm swap. He’s a little too feather plucky, when my other one isn’t. Not worth keeping.

 

[NatJ]

I'm a bit late here, but I don't yet see an answer for this part of it:

I’m hoping to end up with a mainly white roo (I know it’s far fetched without bringing in different breeds)

I have 23 chickens at this second.
I have 3 roos, a cream legbar, salmon faverolle (he’s pretty dark), and a rainbow (he’s pretty red but with some patterns starting to peak out. He’s a baby at 4 weeks)

My hens consist of the following
3 black australorps (1 lays a pretty pink egg, 1 lays a very very light almost white egg)
1 barred rock
(No eggs from Here on. All too young)
1 starlight green egger (Haven’t got an egg yet. She’s white and red)
1 cream legbar - pure bred
1 ameraucana (Easter egger) black with gold leakage (definitely want a favucana)
2 midnight majesty marans
1 olive egger (looks like BCM hen with ameraucana tail. No egg yet)
1 maybe olive egger, maybe blue copper maran (no egg yet. She’s blue with a copper head and neck)
1 Smokey pearl
1 appenzeller
2 blue laced red Wyandotte (1 is more splash than blue)
1 prairie blue bell (primarily white with almost splash looking black)
1 salmon faverolle (she has some pretty significant black leakage)
2 Easter eggers (mainly red / they look like baby hawks)
1 wellsummer

If you want to produce a mainly-white chicken (either sex), probably the easiest way is to cross the Starlight Egger hen (white & red) to any of your roosters, then pick a son that shows white & red coloring and cross him to a Black Australorp hen. Some of the chicks should be pretty close to solid white (likely a few black dots and/or bits of red leakage when they grow up.)

The way it works: the Starlight Egger hen has a gene called Dominant White, that turns black into white. So you produce a son with that same gene. Crossing him to a Black Australorp will give some chicks that are black all over, and some that are black-turned-white all over.

 

[Paymoo]

I'm a bit late here, but I don't yet see an answer for this part of it:




If you want to produce a mainly-white chicken (either sex), probably the easiest way is to cross the Starlight Egger hen (white & red) to any of your roosters, then pick a son that shows white & red coloring and cross him to a Black Australorp hen. Some of the chicks should be pretty close to solid white (likely a few black dots and/or bits of red leakage when they grow up.)

The way it works: the Starlight Egger hen has a gene called Dominant White, that turns black into white. So you produce a son with that same gene. Crossing him to a Black Australorp will give some chicks that are black all over, and some that are black-turned-white all over.

This is absolutely awesome info! Thank you so much!

 

[paintedChix]

I realize this is an older thread. But at least it's later 2024. Hopefully, you are still around.

In your 1st post you stated you didn't want barred chicks. Your CLB roos carry 2 barring genes, so every chick they sire will carry one barring gene. Your CLB hen carries one barring gene, but I can't remember which sex gene it is affiliated with... For no barred chicks, I'd remove them from your breeding flock unless you want to go through several generations to remove all barring. You could utilize them to create more CLBs, if they are good birds. Are they Cream, Crele or White?

Your red "rainbow" Roo to your BR hen would normally produce sexlinked chicks. Males would have a "dot" on his head & females will not. All chicks should be black. However, since you may not know his color lineage, this may not hold true.

I don't know enough about your other hens to know what color chicks you'd get...

In Post # 3, you ask about moving roos through your breeding flock. The way your suggesting is different than true spiral breeding.

Spiral breeding is having 3 or more breeding groups. Each group is marked a color, letter or number. The roosters are rotated after a certain amount of time. All chicks hatched from a group are marked w/ the hens group color/letter/number, even though the rooster may have changed. All chicks from one color group, if selected to carry on breeding, returns to that group. This is how genes are more widely dispersed.

During incubating & hatching, you would need to mark your incubators. If doing smaller batches in one incubator, you'd want to have groups in a bag or basket marked w/ the group those eggs are from. You tag the chicks when moved to the brooder so you will know which breeding group they came from. If broody hatching, the chick would stay w/ the hen's flock.

Also, be aware that a hen can carry sperm from one rooster after he is removed from the breeding flock. I have seen here on BYC, that folk say 7-14 days. When I've spoken w/ experienced breeders, they recommend keeping roosters out of the flock for 30 days. Then move a different roo into your hen flocks.

Of course, if you are just keeping one group of breeding hens, you could reverse the color tagging to the roos. Then you'd know which chicks are sired by which roos & decide your "keepers" that way...

Have you hatched any chicks yet? If so, what combos & what type of chicks did you get?

I hope that you update this thread, I would like to follow!!

 

[ChookaPete]

I realize this is an older thread. But at least it's later 2024. Hopefully, you are still around.

In your 1st post you stated you didn't want barred chicks. Your CLB roos carry 2 barring genes, so every chick they sire will carry one barring gene. Your CLB hen carries one barring gene, but I can't remember which sex gene it is affiliated with... For no barred chicks, I'd remove them from your breeding flock unless you want to go through several generations to remove all barring. You could utilize them to create more CLBs, if they are good birds. Are they Cream, Crele or White?

Your red "rainbow" Roo to your BR hen would normally produce sexlinked chicks. Males would have a "dot" on his head & females will not. All chicks should be black. However, since you may not know his color lineage, this may not hold true.

I don't know enough about your other hens to know what color chicks you'd get...

In Post # 3, you ask about moving roos through your breeding flock. The way your suggesting is different than true spiral breeding.

Spiral breeding is having 3 or more breeding groups. Each group is marked a color, letter or number. The roosters are rotated after a certain amount of time. All chicks hatched from a group are marked w/ the hens group color/letter/number, even though the rooster may have changed. All chicks from one color group, if selected to carry on breeding, returns to that group. This is how genes are more widely dispersed.

During incubating & hatching, you would need to mark your incubators. If doing smaller batches in one incubator, you'd want to have groups in a bag or basket marked w/ the group those eggs are from. You tag the chicks when moved to the brooder so you will know which breeding group they came from. If broody hatching, the chick would stay w/ the hen's flock.

Also, be aware that a hen can carry sperm from one rooster after he is removed from the breeding flock. I have seen here on BYC, that folk say 7-14 days. When I've spoken w/ experienced breeders, they recommend keeping roosters out of the flock for 30 days. Then move a different roo into your hen flocks.

Of course, if you are just keeping one group of breeding hens, you could reverse the color tagging to the roos. Then you'd know which chicks are sired by which roos & decide your "keepers" that way...

Have you hatched any chicks yet? If so, what combos & what type of chicks did you get?

I hope that you update this thread, I would like to follow!!

Thanks for this information! I recently tried to hatch four types of heritage breeds so I could get my own roosters to then breed with my Hy-Line hens, but that seems to have not worked out.
Now I am thinking to just lease a different heritage breed rooster every second month or so, to see what sort of chickens I get.
I'm even thinking to build separate pens for the roosters and new chicks!