food and sex

[oswegoscott]

Can chickens digest whole dried corn kernels? Also, can all chickens inter-breed?

 

[zazouse]

Yes X 2

 

[sashurlow]

wow... those are completely different questions. You might want to try posing the interbreeding question on another section, the short answer it you will get a chicken mutt, but they are all the same specie. Corn... I'm guessing that they can digest it fine, but if in doubt, moderation is a good thing.

 

[dsqard]

I feed my small flock whole corn kernels every day as part of their "scratch". During the warmer months you don't want to give a lot of corn because it keeps their body temperatures up (I think it is the starch in the corn that does this). Now that it is getting really cold out I am giving them more to help keep them warm. For my flock of eight I give them 5 handfuls of corn in the scratch that I mix up. Corn does not have a lot of protien so you do not want it to be their main source of food. More of a treat item. As long as they either free range or have access to grit, they can eat whole kernels. Now for the interbreeding question. If you mean can different breeds of chickens be bred, the answer to that is yes. To get the sex linked chickens you have to breed different breeds of chickens. If you think about it, it is the same as any other animal. You can breed different breeds of dogs and still get a dog. It might be a mutt or a "designer" breed

but it is still a dog. Now if your question is can chickens be bred with other types of birds, there are some threads on here about that happening as well. I don't know all the different kinds that a chicken can cross with but I know they can cross with Guinees (sp?). If that was your question, I am sure other people with more knowledge will chime in on that.

 

[oswegoscott]

Your analogy about dogs isn't quite true. I've never heard of a Toy Poodle/Great Dane mix or Yorkie/Newfoundland.
I should've worded my question differently. OK- a 12 pound rooster and a 2 pound Banty - if they can breed,will egg size be such that it will injure or kill the pullet?

 

[teach1rusl]

Quote:
Well in either case it COULD happen...it's only physically difficult to carry out and critters (in both cases) might get hurt in the process. I mean, it would be physically difficult for a great dane to breed with a toy dog of any species simply because body parts don't line up. Same with your chicken example, plus there could be physical damage due to the weight/size difference. A 12 pound rooster would physically damage a 2 lb banty jumping on top of her (since he has no "thing", no issues there). A banty rooster trying to mate a jersey giant hen...no damage, but body parts just don't line up right, so most likely the eggs would not be fertile... But otherwise, yes.

 

[HorizonSon]

Correct! Just like the Kinder goat: bred via a tiny lil opportunistic Pygmy Buck over a much much larger Nubian doe... This DOES bring up a good point: it is generally safest to breed with the smaller being the male and the larger being the female; when there is a large size difference involved.