Author Topic: Breeding pens  (Read 7003 times)

Jess

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Breeding pens
« on: May 17, 2011, 08:19:41 PM »
Evening folks,
I am trying to get my breeding pens set up.
I will have 9 pens about 8\'X8\'.
Is this enough space for about 4 hens and 1 rooster?
Thanks
Jess


Jess

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Breeding pens
« Reply #1 on: May 17, 2011, 08:25:16 PM »
I put 1 inch poultry netting, 2 feet high over the panels and the doors to keep the roosters from fighting through the 2X4 stock panels. I hope this works.
I had 2 roosters fight through the panels until one was almost killed. I had to put it down.
Thanks
Jess

John

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Breeding pens
« Reply #2 on: May 17, 2011, 09:36:31 PM »
You should be able to have many more than a quad of LF in an 8 by 8 pen.  I would shoot for a dozen or at least 7 hens to one cock.
I know you already have the poultry wire up, but having a solid partition, for the bottom two feet, works well.  It eliminates the cock fighting thru the wire.  Also, make sure the roosts don\'t line up with each other from one pen to the other or the birds will be fighting from there.

Jess

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Breeding pens
« Reply #3 on: May 19, 2011, 01:50:56 PM »
Thanks John,
I may go for the 7 hens option.
If 6 of them layed, I could get a dozen eggs every other day.
Thanks
Jess

John

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Breeding pens
« Reply #4 on: May 19, 2011, 04:26:03 PM »
Quote
If 6 of them layed, I could get a dozen eggs every other day.

I am not too optimistic when it comes to eggs and chicks.  I generally figure an egg every other day on average from the hens and chicks from 1/2 the eggs that I set.  
With the hens you also should be ready for those that quit laying because they become broody.  I have 8 Chantecler hens in a coop/pen of 14 that are broody...that really hurts the egg production. :(

Jess

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Breeding pens
« Reply #5 on: May 21, 2011, 05:24:09 PM »
Evening Folks,
Would it be of any benefit to use 2 roosters with 6 hens instead of one? I have enough roosters to put 2 in each pen.
Would the eggs be more likely to be fertile?
Jess wondering.
Jess

John

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Breeding pens
« Reply #6 on: May 21, 2011, 10:00:15 PM »
Quote
Would it be of any benefit to use 2 roosters with 6 hens instead of one?

Yes, in my opinion the more the better.  Even if you had 6 cocks to 6 hens...moving a different one in each day...only one at a time.
If you use two, I suggest you only have one in the pen/coop with the hens at a time.  Put the best one in for 4 or 5 days each week and then rotate the second best in for the other 2 or 3 days.

Beth C

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Breeding pens
« Reply #7 on: May 22, 2011, 08:04:45 AM »
Quote
If you use two, I suggest you only have one in the pen/coop with the hens at a time


Yes, I had 2 cocks in my wheaten pen and got NO fertile eggs. Neither would let the other breed the hens. They didn\'t fight, got along surprisingly well, but every time one would try to mount a hen the other would \"elbow\" him out of the way. It was actually pretty funny, but when I started candling, not so much...

Jess

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Breeding pens
« Reply #8 on: May 23, 2011, 08:17:07 PM »
Evening Folks,
I am getting my roosts up.
I am using hickory poles for the roosts, about 2 inches in diameter. They are 4 feet long.
I think the chickens like them better than just 1 inch by 2 inch boards.
Not to good of pictures but here is what they kinda look like.
Thanks
Jess

Mike Gilbert

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Breeding pens
« Reply #9 on: May 23, 2011, 10:04:55 PM »
Jesse, are you covering those openings between the rafters and the ceiling?   Leaving those spaces open is an invitation to climbing or flying predators.

greeneggsandham

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Breeding pens
« Reply #10 on: May 23, 2011, 11:40:18 PM »
Quote from: Mike Gilbert
Jesse, are you covering those openings between the rafters and the ceiling?   Leaving those spaces open is an invitation to climbing or flying predators.


Not to mention a way for one rooster to reach the other rooster.  I had about 18 inches of space between my fence and rafters and went out one morning to find one of my roosters pretty beat up by the other rooster in the pen with him!  That was the only way he could have possibly got in there.
Sharon
Hubby rues the day he brought the chicks home...

Jess

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Breeding pens
« Reply #11 on: May 30, 2011, 07:51:18 PM »
Evening Folks
I am trying to get my nest boxes built and put in the pens.
They will be 14\"X14\".
I think this will be big enough for a big hen to lay in.
They will mount back to back, I will bolt them to the stock panels.
How high should I place them?
Thanks
Jess

John

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Breeding pens
« Reply #12 on: May 30, 2011, 09:17:29 PM »
14 by 14 is big enough to 2 big hens lay in.
Many suggest the perch on the nest boxes should be lower than the roosts, since the birds like to roost high and that may keep them from roosting on the nest box perches.
I like to keep them high enough that I don\'t have to bend over to collect eggs.