Chicken Breeding Question

[elemay17]

We have R.I Reds and Barred Rocks. We would like to keep a few layers and a rooster and butcher the rest. We want to try our hand at incubation but weren't sure if we needed to keep a rooster from each breed or if a R.I. Red would mate with a Barred Rock hen. So I guess my questions are:

Do roosters mate within their own breed or will they mix breeds?

If they mix breeds and we incubate are the chicks automatically half and half or would they take the dominate gene and be either Reds or Barred Rocks?

This will probably be the first of many chicken questions since this is our first try at raising them and we are about 5 weeks out from butchering so please bear with me, TIA! :)

[NCLee]

The hens and roosters don't care. The only way to keep offspring separated by breed is to keep one one in a separate pen.

If you let them all run together, the only thing you need to worry about is to have enough roosters to service the hens each day to get fertile eggs.

The offspring will be a mixture. Depending on who mates with whom at the time the egg is fertizilzed, you'll have some 100% reds, 100% rocks and some that are a hybrid of the two. (Meaning charasterics (sp) of both breeds.) I don't know if one of these two is dominate over the other.

No way to tell ahead of time, unless you keep them separated, what your exact mix will be. That isn't a big issue unless you have a special purpose for keeping them separate. (Selling eggs for incubation for example.). We've always had good luck with mixed flocks. We let the hens go broody and hatch their own eggs. Never tried incubation. Letting the hens do the work is a whole lot easier. :wink:

You might want to let nature take its course for now and try incubation later. Starting that in the early spring (as soon as the weather is warm enough) may be a better option. Let the weather work with you after the eggs hatch.

I'm no expert, but please feel free to post. I'll try to help when I can.

Lee

[momma_to_seven_chi]

Unless you are showing or selling them, barnyard chickens (aka mutts) are just fine. If you could get a couple of bantam hens, they would incubate the eggs for you pretty well. I personally have never had good luck with any full-size hen going broody, but they might if you leave the eggs in the nest a few days.

Roosters will mate with any available hen. They aren't picky or prejudiced in any way.

[elemay17]

Thanks! We are only planning on keeping 5 hens and 1 rooster. From what I have read the 1 rooster should be plenty. No showbirds here, we just wanted some meat in the freezer and eggs in the fridge, we just thought it would be nice to hatch our own so we wouldn't have to rely on someone else for the chicks. Maybe we will try the natural method first and if that dosen't work we can incubate next time around. Thanks again!

[fancyfowl]

barring is a sex linked gene so:: breed a red cock to a barred hen and you will get black females and barred males... the other way gets you some degree of barring in all chicks.. barring gene is actually used in white breeds to help make nicely yellow shanks, leghorns for instance.

[AlchemyAcres]

What fancyfowl said! If it were me...I'd breed a Rhode Island cock to a Barred Rock hen(s) for auto-sexing Black Stars!


~Martin

[Terri]

1 rooster can handle 5 hens with ease.

And, a good laying hen should give you 6 eggs a week, but rather less than that in the winter.

We like to keep enough hens for when they are not laying as well, and fix a few extra egg dishes during peak lay during the summer. Tonight, for instance, we had home made breakfast burritos (12 eggs) and a cake (3 eggs). That brought us down to about a dozen eggs in the fridge: next week (if the kids do not eat up enough eggs) we might need to do it again but with deviled eggs for variety.

[NCLee]

Excess eggs in the summer?

A good way to use a bunch of them is to make an angel food cake. That'll use a dozen in a hurry. :)

Hard boil a bunch for salads - egg salad, potato salad, chicken salad, tuna salad and simply sliced for a tossed greens salad. Plus, a hard boiled egg with a little salt & pepper makes a quick snack.

Make pickled eggs. http://www.cooks.com/rec/search/0,1-00,pickled_eggs,FF.html

And, you can freeze the excess for later use. (Including those left over yokes when you made that angel food cake.) http://whatscookingamerica.net/Eggs/FreezingEgg.htm

Finally, a dozen eggs are a good thank you to a friend or neighbor who has loaned you a helping hand. They're good for swapping for fruit and/or veggies that you don't grow. And, giving them without expecting anything in return is a good friendship builder in the neighborhood.

Lee