Rendezvous Pad Breeding Method

If I could I would breed DKB 05 3501 #30, my new import German Roller Male, to every roller hen in my aviary!! He has the beautiful hollow roll that will enhance my roller lines which I originally started breeding in 1982!!

With Border colony breeding taking up my small flights, I will have to use my regular cages 30 inches long by 16 inches high and 16 inches wide for the German rollers and Staffords. Each of these cages will comfortably hold two hens with two nests and a breeder male. In the straight colony breeding method, some of the males are moved on to other hens when the second hen has laid three eggs. This is fine for my Staffords but this year with the new blood, I need to get more production from the two breeding ready German import males.

So for this special male and #34, my second choice from the same breeder, I am using what I call the Rendezvous Pad Method! Each male is established in his own pad. This is important especially with these males as they are not tame like my own birds who hardly resist my catching them. These guys fly frantically resisting me and once moved to a hen cage, either from fright or exhaustion, ignored the breeding ready hens!

In my rendezvous pad method, initially three hens are put in breeder cages with three nests. The first two to start building their nests, will remain in the cage while the lager will be moved to a new cage group.

As the breeding ready hen starts to build her nest, she is moved at 5 pm to one of the males pad and left there until 10 am when she is returned to her breeding cage with her nest. When the hen is placed with the male, if she is ready, he can sense it and will immediately begin singing his macho mating song. Hearing it, she will assume a mating position and all is well. It takes less than a minute, if she is truly ready!! The breeding ready hen will be returned to his cage on the next day for a final rendezvous and then left in the colony cage to finish her nest and lay her clutch of eggs.

In some cases, I have seen the male ignore the hen, even though she was building a nest, or in a case or two, he chased her but in neither case does he sing or court her. These hens are flirting with nesting and are not ready yet and will be tried at a later date. They can be returned to their cage to continue building. They can fool me by building a nest but not the male, he can separate them quickly!! If possible, I would like to give him a day off between rendezvous but so far, they have a back log of ready hens!!

I did experiments to see if he would be interested in the hens he had courted and mated with earlier once they were laying but in each case, he ignored her and she him. Once a number of years ago, I wanted to breed one of my hens to a special hollow roll male of my friend Janis Klein. I took the hen with me to her house and put her in a flight with her male that Saturday morning while we drank Dr. Pepper and talked birds for a couple of hours. When I left, I took the hen home and put her in a breeding cage with a nest and two weeks later she laid five eggs, all of which were fertile!!



Beautiful Pap Orchid