Poultry Talk Ontario (pto.ca)

Well I am going to move a few birds around tomorrow to set up my first 2 breeding groups.

Group #1:
Rooster:
Black Copper Marans

Hens:
5 BC Marans
2 Barred Rocks - produce black sex-linked chicks
1 Blue Ameraucana - produce green egg layers
1 Olive Eggers (Marans x Amer) - produce dark olive green rggs

Group #2:
Rooster:
Bielefelder

Hens:
2 Bielefelders
2 Delawares - produce red sex-linked chicks
1 Cream Legbar - produce auto-sexing cross chicks lay green egg
1 Black Ameraucana - produce green egg layers

Still a couple breeding groups to figure out in the next couple weeks.

JimW

Wow! I love it! Going to have a tough time telling chicks apart from the first group though, unless you hatch different hens eggs at different times. Are your Marans french, i.e. feather-legged? That will help somewhat with chick i.d.

What the diff between auto-sex link and sex link

Autosexlinked breeds will breed true- every time there are chicks, you can tell the males from the females. With regular sex links it's just a one time thing, you cross the parents and get sex linked chicks. But if you breed those chicks, the offspring won't be sex linked.

JimW how about some photos of your groups? Hint hint!
How will you mark the eggs and chicks, will you be incubating the eggs together ?

Right now my marans are a mix, I have a couple French with feathered legs and a few not feathered. Next year I am replacing most of my marans and all will be French feathered legs.

My plan is to label eggs with china wax marker, and then when I put the eggs in lock down I plan to put the eggs in little wire "hatching compartments" so the chicks are not mixed up when they hatch.

So far the biggest issue in group 2 the Delawares and Bielefelders both lay light brown eggs, but the Bielefelders are long eggs, Delawares rounder.

I will definitely have to take some photos soon, yesterday everyone decided to stand out in the rain to get weather and look awful. Hopefully they dry off today as going to be cold again tonight.

Sounds like great fun, I never managed to make the "breed baskets" work, whatever I did they got mixed at one point or another.
How many eggs are you going to be setting total?

Ontario Chick wrote:QR_BBPOST Sounds like great fun, I never managed to make the "breed baskets" work, whatever I did they got mixed at one point or another.
How many eggs are you going to be setting total?

Not sure on number of eggs, only small numbers, as I have a bunch of hatching eggs on order from other breeders to raise up to improve my flock.

I have 2 Hovabators and a Sportsman Incubator, so I have lots of space to divide up hatching eggs.

If I would only get my shh... err I mean act together, I need to lock up....

1)Blue standard Cochin Rooster with white Cochin hens. (Because I couldn't find a good white Cochin Rooster)
2) Standard Silver Laced Wyandotts, show rooster with Murray hens, plus barred rock hen if I can tell egg apart, to see if I get sex link.
3) Buff Cochin bantams.
4) Barred Rocks bantams.
5) Blue Cochin bantams

Then I am out of breeding pens but I still have Brahma bantams, Silver Laced Wyandott bantams and my Easter egg banties who may go with the Wyandott standard or one of their own. Maybe I will try to cage these smaller groups.

Here's a question on setting up breeding groups that is likely not too important, but I figure I'd come to the pros for a consensus
I am about to set up a breeding group of partridge chanteclers to breed them pure away from my many mixed birds. My main coop where they all are right now has two roosters, my Chantecler and a light brahma roo, which means when I separate the group I know they need a couple weeks of "purge" time to clear him out of their systems. So here it the question...
My chantecler Roo is the dominant rooster over the whole lot, so do I need to bring him along for the two week purge, or can I just separate the hens, give them two weeks, then move him in to breed? I don't want him away from the main flock too long as I don't want any issues with reintroduction.
Opinions welcome Thanks