Elderly Stock

H

Hen-Gen

Well-known member
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1,241
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Island of Fetlar, Shetland Islands
It would be really handy to run on some birds until they are four years old (both hens and cock) before breeding from them because of other projects. But I don't want to lose the strain. Has anyone bred from birds of this age, are they viable etc etc? I've never tried to breed from birds over three years of age before. I've been told that the hens are good for it but that cocks go downhill really quickly. What say you?
 
chrismahon

chrismahon

Active member
Messages
5,085
Location
Gascony, France
Breeding from elderly stock is a good idea as any latent weaknesses in the strain will have been weeded out. Breeding from young stock has the opposite effect and creates weaknesses which many have experienced with early deaths and poor laying.

We bred from our remaining Wyandotte hens at 6 years and had great results -11 hatched from 12 with one dead-in-shell. However our original cock died at 3 years and the next was infertile at 18 months. The replacement was less than a year old.

Breeding with a 4 year old leghorn cock resulted in just 50% egg fertility. So I would say that cocks go downhill quickly so you would need to plan for a replacement Hen-Gen, which means bringing one in from another breeder if necessary.
 
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