Does size matter...

[kathyd]

Sorry, bit personal I know! But I'm wondering about buying a cockerel at some point with a view to doing an occasional hatch, and I'd like to know whether say a copper black maran cockerel would be too big for a smaller hen like my araucana crosses, or my shetland? Would he squash them? Would the resulting eggs be too big for them? The shetland hen lays what I'd describe as a 'normal' small egg, but the araucana cross who started laying a couple of weeks ago lays really tiny bantie sized eggs, and I'm guessing her pal will be the same when she starts to lay too.

I was originally going to buy an araucana cockerel, but given the size of the eggs the girls are producing, I'm thinking I may have to try a different route to keep OH happy!

Thx.

[jessmorris]

I'm not sure the size of cockerel will affect the size of the eggs! Or do you just want bigger hens further down the line? Pullets will lay small eggs until they develop into bigger hens. I still think banty eggs are better value given the food/egg ratio.

Good point about the cockerel being too big for the hen. Big boys can make a real mess of smaller hens, with their weight and their spurs, so probably best to try and match them as closely as you can. Probably easier just to but in hatching eggs if you want to hatch only occasionally. No point feeding a boy all year for a couple of weeks of action. though I prefer to see a cockerel running with the hens. get an auracana boy!

Good luck!

[kathyd]

Hi JM - not desperate about bigger hens, but I'd like some bigger eggs! It's tricky even getting a teaspoon into the little araucana eggs at the moment, lol . I was planning to breed from my 2 araucana crosses with an aracauna cockerel, but Tony just laughs at the eggs and goes for the giant sized dark brown maran eggs. My other POLs have never laid small pullet type eggs, they've always started as they meant to go on, so I thought these might as well.... Hence I wondered about trying to mix them up a bit and cross the blue eggs with the big brown ones and get maybe a mucky green of a size to keep his lordship happy?? Then I worried about a big cockerel with a small hen. So maybe I'll go back to my original plan and go for an araucana as you say - if I use him with the maran crosses, I expect we'll get a similar result anyway .

Just out of interest... if a big cockerel does breed with a smaller hen, presumably the resulting birds would be bigger than the hen - so isn't the egg bigger to hold a bigger chick? Or doesn't it work like that... Soz, I'm very ignorant about these things .

I'm not sure the size of cockerel will affect the size of the eggs! Or do you just want bigger hens further down the line? Pullets will lay small eggs until they develop into bigger hens. I still think banty eggs are better value given the food/egg ratio.

Good point about the cockerel being too big for the hen. Big boys can make a real mess of smaller hens, with their weight and their spurs, so probably best to try and match them as closely as you can. Probably easier just to but in hatching eggs if you want to hatch only occasionally. No point feeding a boy all year for a couple of weeks of action. though I prefer to see a cockerel running with the hens. get an auracana boy!

Good luck!

[petal]

Araucana eggs are normally a good size- bigger than bantam wyandottes but smaller than a hybrids. the araucana crosses might lay blue or olive eggs, so any spare pullets will be popular with customers. A big cockerel could actually kill a small hen so think carefully about the one you get.

[kathyd]

Thx Petal - that sounds like the kind of size that my shetland produces. I think I'll stick to an araucana cockerel then, much safer all round . I can build a little mini ladder for him to reach the big girls

[Cidermaker]

IMO, size does matter for a couple of reasons. A large cockerel could very well damage a small hen during the act of mating and the other thing you need to look at, is the reason why you want to breed some of your own chickens?
If you want the offspring to lay a goodly amount of eggs, then you need to do some research. There are some very good crosses out there that will see you breed some very useful birds. The crossing of pure bred birds, is the basis on which just about all the commercial hybrids are based.
I wouldn't have a problem with crossing an Araucana with a Maran ( I have some very similar crosses here at home) but would certainly hesitate about doing it the other way around.









The Legbar cross Maran is the one on the left with the top knot. These pictures were taken a couple of months ago but she's yet to lay an egg. I'm expecting her eggs to be olive green in colour.

[kathyd]

Hi Cidermaker. Why do I want to breed my own chickens? Well... it seems to be quite hard over here to find a reliable source of quality birds, especially if you want blue egg layers - or perhaps I just don't know where to look. I've got 9 birds at the moment, 5 of which I'd be happy to breed from, including one which seems to be a reliable broody. 3 of these 5 lay blue eggs (a shetland and 2 araucana crosses), and 2 lay big dark brown eggs (copper maran crosses). Ideally we'd like to have about 6 regular laying birds on the go at any one time, along with maybe 2 OAPs and 2 POLs. So we figured that hatching once a year, or every couple of years, could potentially help us to keep this balance, and produce the eggs we enjoy eating... I want to keep the blue in there, and Tony likes the big eggs (blues are a bit small for him..ppfftt) - so I started thinking about crossing them, hence the original post. Unwanted birds will be sold, or if necessary given away - there are always takers for a freebie. I've long given up the idea of breeding pure-breed araucanas - I can't find anyone selling them so I couldn't get started even if I wanted to! But I'd be quite happy with blue and green and dark brown eggs, and having chicks is fun . Your birds look lovely by the way .

[RichmondHens]

Just out of interest... if a big cockerel does breed with a smaller hen, presumably the resulting birds would be bigger than the hen - so isn't the egg bigger to hold a bigger chick? Or doesn't it work like that... Soz, I'm very ignorant about these things .

A hen will lay the same size egg regardless of which size cockerel has fathered the embryo. The chick will just grow into a bigger bird.

If you want larger eggs JM's suggestion of buying in fertile eggs of a different breed is your best bet. Putting your small hens to a larger cock would produce larger offspring, but there is no guarantee they would lay larger eggs.

[kathyd]

OK thx RH. I've definitely been put off the idea of a larger cockerel anyway. As for egg sizes, Tony may just have to get used to the idea of portion control .

[rustylady]

If they're turned into omelettes or scrambled eggs he won't know how big they were to start with

[kathyd]

Lol RL, I like it .