In reality, the breeding process is fairly aggressive in appearance.
In other words, they may unintentionally harm your hens with their spurs and beaks. Some roosters are more aggressive than others, and some are just overly eager to be the man of the coop. That’s just how a hens reproductive cycle works. If he’s not, something may be wrong.įor the next 2-3 weeks, your hens will continue to lay eggs fertilized by any previous roosters you’ve housed them with.įurthermore, if you’ve just introduced a rooster, don’t expect fertile eggs for at least 2 weeks. Keep watch and make sure he is doing his job. If your rooster is lazy, obese, or injured, he may not mount your hens. He will dance for the ladies, win them over, and eventually mate with them without any extra effort from you. Leave your rooster with your hens indefinitely. Keep Your Rooster With Your HensĪs soon as you’ve decided which roosters you want to breed to your hens, make sure you remove all other roosters before adding your chosen roo. There is a benefit to having more than one rooster in a breeding flock, and that’s a higher fertility rate. Generally, each rooster should have access to 4-5 hens of their own. However, if you’ve raised your roosters together, they can probably coexist just fine as long as you’ve given them enough hens. Usually, this is due to the competition more than one roo creates for hens. Rooster to Hen RatioĬommon knowledge will tell you that keeping more than one rooster in a flock is a big no-no. Chickens spend most of their energy keeping warm during the winter months and less time mating. This is especially true if you live in a cold climate. Plan for SpringĬhickens can produce fertilized eggs year-round, but they tend to be more prolific during the springtime. Flock With Columbian Wyandotte For Size Comparison 2. In general, don’t breed birds with poor characteristics or health, and you’ll be golden. See our chicken breeds guide here to make your breed selection. If you are looking to promote a certain breed, choose specimens that represent the desirable characteristics of your chosen breed.
Birds should be healthy, meet your production goals, and hopefully have decent temperaments. It doesn’t matter why you want to breed your chicken, but what does matter is the selections you choose to be your breeders. It may have depended on whether you were breeding your two favorite birds or increasing or developing a certain breed further. When you chose your breeding stock, you probably had a plan in mind. I know this is probably pretty obvious to most, but just in case you weren’t sure, an egg produced without a rooster mating will not be fertilized and will never produce a chick. To have a baby chick, you need a rooster and a hen.
Instead, this article focuses on how to plan to breed your chickens successfully and safely:įirst a Special Note About The Birds and The Bees I’m assuming you already have your breeding flock chosen so that we won’t go into genetics here. In general, most of the work is done by the rooster, but when it comes to the logistics of breeding chickens, there are certain things you can do to control the end product (chicks) and make sure the actual breeding process goes smoothly. Whether you want more chickens in your flock or you want to turn a profit by selling chicks, you’ll need to learn how to breed chickens.