All natural hatching.

[Phelanite]

I am going to try something and I wanted input from all the experts or anyone! I want to breed out my White Leghorns and cross them with an Ameraucana (trying to get rid of white eggs). First I think it could be a good cross since the Leghorns are egg producers and Ameraucana's not so much. My idea is to let the chickens do all the work such as taking care of the whole process until hatching which I will remove the chicks and then reintroduce them after a few weeks. Is this wise? Also I was wondering that if I were to let the Rooster have his way for say a week with my Leghorns and keep the egg's I think are fertilized by marking them with a marker for dating purpose's would they reject them if they have a mark on them? And last has anyone seen what the eggs look like crossing a Leghorn with a Ameraucana? Such as size, color?

 

[SilverPhoenix]

There's one thing you're leaving out, and that's...do you even have a broody hen? Keep in mind you can't force hens to become broody, they do it on their own arbitrary schedule and won't necessarily take care of the eggs unless they're in that mode. Even then, sometimes they go broody and then suddenly go out of broodiness, and leave the eggs. Do you have an incubator you could use instead? If you're planning on breeding birds, it's best to have an incubator for those fairly common times where you don't have a broody hen to rely on. Silkies often go broody if you want to invest in getting some of those and seeing if they'll take the eggs in, but again you can't force a hen to go broody for you.

Good luck with your breeding, I hope you find a way that works for you! I think it's fun to cross birds and see what happens myself, but just keep in mind you won't always get what you want out of your crosses. They aren't always going to be just how you want them to be because you don't know what traits of each breed will be passed and which won't.

 

[muddyhorse]

Are you using leghorn hens or americana hens ? Leghorns have had the "broodiness" bred out of them. It is very rare for them to go broody. How many hens per roo ? most roos can handle 6-8 hens and you should get good fertility without having to mark the eggs. are the leghorn hens with a leghorn roo now? it takes up to 21 days for the hen to st
(stupid computer likes to double post)

 

[muddyhorse]

Are you using leghorn hens or americana hens ? Leghorns have had the "broodiness" bred out of them. It is very rare for them to go broody. How many hens per roo ? most roos can handle 6-8 hens and you should get good fertility without having to mark the eggs. are the leghorn hens with a leghorn roo now? it takes up to 21 days for the hen to start laying eggs from the new roo. et us know how your birds turn out

 

[Phelanite]

I am using Leghorn hens. It appears to me that at least half of my hens will set on the eggs. However I probably will have to stop free ranging them or they all leave the coup. I have 14 hen's. Here is another thing I could put in 2 Roosters but will that cause problems? Both are Amerucana's (the Roosters). I really like the colors of the roosters and they eggs. I am just trying to experiment with this as I am no expert. I thought of a incubator, but then I figured nature has done it much better for years so why noty try it that way. Do you think marking the eggs will be a problem? I have to collect several through the day up to 47 some times as I have a total of 48 Hens of different breeds.