anyone doing artificial insemination with chickens?

[OCchickens]

Seems like it may be an option for producing fertile eggs in a suburban area. Anyone doing this at home? What does it involve?

 

[MaranDude]

i have no idea but it sounds really interesting!

 

[Dirt Road]

I believe you would still need access to the rooster, which would pretty much negate your reason for trying it. Even if you could buy frozen/shipped semen, the costs would be prohibitive. I think it would be much easier and cheaper to buy fertile eggs.

Jim

 

[sebright guy]

we do it with our cochin bantams. we have little glass eye droppers. i think you hold then on your knee with ther butt facing upward. and stroke there back and collect what you can get. then you do the same to the hen and drop it into her vent. stroking may not be needed for the hen. look it up on youtube. they show a little better. googleing it may even be better than the advice i can give.

 

[scbatz33]

When I was in college I had to do "poultry production". We had to collect semen from roosters - It was interesting ( I got an A

but I digress)

Anywho, they artificially inseminate because it is easier in mass production to make sure each hen is getting bred. In a small production it would be much more work than worth the effort.

There is the collection, storage, shipping, etc. you're better off just buying eggs and hatching them then trying to do all that.

 

[OCchickens]

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Thanks for that -- I'll try youtube. When I googled, I just came up with a lot of veterinary research & commercial operations type stuff.

 

[OCchickens]

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Would you want to elaborate on the process? Congrats on the A, by the way!

 

[Poulets De Cajun]

I will try to briefly explain as best I can.

You basically take the roo and sit in a chair. I'm right handed, so I took the roo and placed his breast on my left lap, and held him by his legs (as close to the body as possible) with my right hand. Then I took my left hand and formed a "C" with my fingers and wrapped them over his back, placing my fingers behind, and under the wings. I then rubbed a few times briskly and putting slight pressure on each side by SLIGHTY pinching my fingers and thumb together. Rub in the direction of his rear, pushing your fingers from the wings to his vent. After a few brisk rubs applying slight pressure, take your left hand and with the backside of your hand lift his tail so that your index finger and thumb are close to the vent area. Then with your right hand grab a spoon, or have someone hold the spoon for you, and place it just under the vent. When the spoon is in place, take your left hand and with your index finger and thumb squeeze on each side of the vent. (the best way to explain is its kinda like trying to pop a zit, and the vent would be the zit) If you squeeze just right, the semen will come out of the vent just as if he were pooping. Catch the semen with the spoon.

At this point you'll either keep the semen in the spoon, or suck it up with a syringe with the needle taken off.

Then you grab a hen who is laying. You position her on your leg the same way you did the roo. You position your hands the same way on her body and you rub her the same way you do the roo. You also squeeze her vent the same way, except instead of semen coming out, she "pushes" her oviduct out, which resembles a the end of a tube. You either take the spoon, or the syringe and GENTLY place the semen on or slightly in the oviduct, taking care not to tear or injur her. Once the semen is deposited correctly, she will "wink" at you with her vent.

And your done! Wait a day or two and you should then start getting fertilized eggs.

 

[scbatz33]

what our friend from Texas said....at University we had a holder and a "stroker" - for lack of a better term. We collected in a little tube. They used a pipette to inseminate the hen.

It's really something you have to see to understand the technique. Seriously, not trying to be funny here.

On a lighter note, I did learn how to hypnotize a chicken with a pencil!! Those Ag boys have A LOT of free time!!

 

[Poulets De Cajun]

It is DEFINITELY something you want to observe before you do it!