Breeding
So you have decided to breed some of your own birds firstly picking your breeding stock must be done with a great deal care, choosing bird that have desireable traits and not birds that have any plumage differances over sized combs or wrong colour legs. Every year we keep back pullets from that year and out of around twenty we pick six which we feel are birds fitting the standard we want be it either for egg production or showing. The art of breeding is all about selection, without selection breeding would be standard and the birds produced would be the same across the board, if breeding for show purposes you will probably get one in about thirty birds that has that little bit extra quality so alot of breeding is done by breeders who exhibit birds . Once you have selected a breed and good quality birds I would advise you then to treat all the birds for lice, mites and worms with Barrier products for lice and mites and Flubenvet for woms this covers a wide range of worms in poultry. The birds would then be put in a pen away from other breeds to prevent cross breeding feeding the birds with breeders pellets and providing them with fresh water a good house and fresh bedding . Eggs will be fertile after three days but we recommend that you wait at least fourteen days after been seperated for breeding incase there was other cockerels running with your hens , this allows birds to get fertily pure to the chosen cockerel. Once you start to collect eggs store them pointy end down in a dark room and rotate them 45 degress twice daily , this allows the eggs to be kept in a perfect enviroment . Hatching best done by a broody for maximum return can also be done in an incubator and if you decide this is the way to go we would highly recommend the Brinsea range we have two Octagon 40 dx incubators and one Hatchmaster A and have gotten great results out of all three machines.
