can a batch of chicks from one mother hen have different fathers ?

[Gypsy07]

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Wow. That is extremely weird. The things you never knew about, huh! Chickens never fail to amaze me.

 

[chickchicks]

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I've heard the world is flat too. But I've flown a lot of places and don't believe that one either. Haven't made it to Australia yet. I'd like to.

A hen does not determine which sperm fertilizes an egg. If both roosters are mating with her, either could fertilize her eggs.

There are people that have nothing better to do all day than to watch chickens in flocks mating and keep count who does what with whom. I think a lot of these might be college kids collecting data for advanced degree projects, and they may be sponsored by companies that provide fertile hatching eggs. It may sound funny but there is a business reason to study this kind of thing.

Anyway, they have determined that a rooster that is not dominant will mate with a hen just as often as a dominant one. Some hens may be mated more by one than the other, but each rooster gets his fair share of having offspring.

Gritsar hatched out some eggs earlier this year that she thought were going to be fathered by her dominant rooster since she pretty much runs two separate but free ranging flocks. Oh, no. Impy had been meeting behind the woodshed with some of Thor's girls. Ranchy can vouch for me that I predicted it.

Seriously, expect them to be random.

iveheard that too ! it was in the bbc last week i think . it made me laugh a little with the idea of that happening it he he

 

[BoutrosBoutrosGalusGalus]

Don't forget too that the mechanisms that the noble Jungle Fowl has for this or that reason may be hopelessly screwed up by our meddling. Especially with reproduction issues as we monkey with that constantly so we can get more & bigger eggs.

 

[silkiechicken]

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And all it takes is ONE sperm to escape ejection. LOL Like how the human practice of douching? Does not work reliably.


That said, for more intersting facts you might not know about chickens. They can regenerate ear hair cells. In other words, if they go deaf for some reason, they can re-gain hearing unlike humans.

 

[Gypsy07]

This post just gets stranger and stranger. Ear hair regenerators. Is there no end to their secret abilities?

Can they perhaps read minds? Perform feats of telekinesis? Levitation? Mesmerism? Where will it all end!?!

 

[gryeyes]

Hey, just the ability to lay an egg which I could either eat (Yummy!) or incubate and get another whole chicken for the flock

is amazing to me!

 

[LilyWhite]

Can one egg be fertilized by 2 different roosters?

 

[meepANDpeep]

Can one egg be fertilized by 2 different roosters?

That’s known as microchimerism. Where one sperm cell stays alive in the batch of fertilized cells and becomes part of some of the individual’s genetic makeup. With sex cells I believe it’s more rare though. But if there were a double holler egg I would think there could be double fertilization and then a true chimera or twins could be born (I know this is an old post but was reading and enjoying it)