Quote Originally Posted by rabernet View Post
Each female really only needs to be with him once a month, although I know people like to do it more often. Be sure to give the male nice breaks between females, to allow him to eat and rest. At least 4-5 days when you plan to feed him - allow him to digest his food.

I do 3 days with a female, 4 days rest as a cycle. If he hasn't locked with a female in the 3 days, he's not going to during that rotation, so there's no need to keep him in any longer.
Yep. Most people put the males with the females way more than is probably needed. I do once a month for each female and twice a month if it's a female from a project that I really want to go or if I don't have much planned for the male that season. I have not seen any difference from breeding them twice a month and I probably won't bother with it for next season. I have even heard of some breeders that only breed each female once per shed cycle. Really I think the bottom line is that if your females are old enough and large enough almost every female that is bred will lay. Especially if they had the previous year off. I have 3 clutches in the incubator now from females that were only bred one time this year.