Whether you're a budding homesteader or just looking for a way to take your chicken flock to the next level, breeding chickens can help turn a personal backyard egg supply into profit. But before you start to get some fluffy yellow chicks, there are a couple of essential items you should invest in to keep your flock happy, healthy, and laying!
Finding the Right Coop for Your Flock
First things first, you'll need some space in your backyard for your new flock. Designate a space for a chicken run, fencing it off to help protect against predators. Next, you'll want to spend some time browsing options for large chicken coops to make sure you find the one that fits your chickens, your aesthetic senses, and your backyard! You should plan for about half a square meter per chicken. A good coop has plenty of space for nesting, feeding, and roosting. The coop should be set up so that the roost isn't above the area for food and water, as where chickens roost is where they poop. There should also be a number of nesting boxes so that hens have comfortable (and, most importantly for you, accessible) places to lay their eggs. Some coops even come with small doors linked to nesting boxes to make collecting eggs easier. Lay down comfy bedding within the coop--chickens love anything from pine shavings to straw and recycled paper--and make sure to change the bedding regularly to help prevent diseases and stop parasite growth.
What Breed Should I Choose?
Assuming you've heard about the birds and the bees, you'll know that you need at least one hen and a rooster to get started. Many people choose to source a rooster from breeders, especially when breeding for show purposes. But with hundreds of commercial breeds available, choosing the right one can be quite a challenge. One breed that receives a lot of attention as a go-to beginner's breed is Orpington chickens. Not only are Orpington chickens docile and friendly when hand-raised, but they can also be bred both for their meat or their eggs. In general, when choosing breeding pairs, make sure to select healthy birds with positive physical characteristics and, ideally, a good temperament.
A Balanced Meal for a Growing Chicken
Of course, your flock will need plenty of nutrition to stay well-fed and disease-free. That being said, chickens are surprisingly omnivorous, so there are many options for feeding them. Free-range chickens will get plenty of nutrition from seeds and insects. Chickens make a great waste disposal option and are more than content to help you get rid of scraps from your kitchen. In fact, recent studies have even suggested that yeast protein concentrate, or YPC, one of the potential byproducts of producing biofuel, could serve as a nutritious, high protein feed for chicken flocks. In addition to food, make sure that the flock has access to grit to help with digestion and diatomaceous earth for dust bathing. This will ward off mites and other parasites
For hydration options, consider purchasing a water font with a rounded top to discourage them from roosting on it so that your flock's water supply can stay contaminant free. Similarly, if you opt for a feeder in the coop, choose a feeder with rotating bars that'll keep their food supply clean of feathers and excrement.
Considerations for Breeding Time
Once you have the basics, it's time to start the breeding process! Breeding starts in spring when the roosters are at their friskiest. If you have other chickens, especially other roosters, you'll need to keep your breeding flock in a separate pen. This keeps your breeding chickens healthier and prevents any fights between competing roosters. Keep a ration of one rooster to anywhere from four to fifteen hens. Breeding can also be a rough affair, especially if your rooster isn't the cuddliest critter in the barnyard, and can result in wounds and lost feathers. You can fit your hens with poultry saddles to better protect them if necessary.
Selecting an Egg Box
Once the hens start laying fertilized eggs, about 2 weeks after the breeding season begins, you can collect them for incubation. It's recommended that you store fertilized eggs in an egg box for at least 24 hours and up to 7 days before you start incubating them. The eggs should be clean, regularly sized and without cracks, and stored pointy-side down. Make sure to set up the egg box so that you can turn the eggs regularly, and consider marking the eggs so you know when they were laid.
Incubation Time!
With a good supply of fertilized eggs set up, you're only a couple steps away from becoming a successful chicken breeder! Here's where things get a tad more complicated, however, as you have a couple of different options when choosing how to best hatch your chicks.
If your hens are not particularly motherly, as many breeds have the brooding instinct bred out of them, you might decide to incubate the eggs yourself. This process is slightly slower but also more reliable, and you'll need to purchase an incubator. Make sure to incubate eggs collected at the same time together.
If your hens exhibit brooding, or motherly behavior, an alternative to an incubator is housing a broody hen in a separate nesting box, called a broody box, with plenty of privacy. One hen can care for 6 to 12 eggs at a time, with the added bonus of protecting and teaching the chicks the ropes once they hatch.
You've got chicks! Now what?
Once your chicks have hatched, keep them separate from the flock for about six weeks, until they are big enough to fend for themselves. You may keep them in a specialized area with extra soft bedding with a chick waterer and plenty of chick crumbs. You want to make sure they're warm and protected from predators, so inside is often the safest option. Soon your chicks will be old enough to become a part of the flock and you'll have successfully bred your first generation of chickens!
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