Greetings from California

[dani4287]

Hello! I'm from California and will soon be moving to a chicken friendly house and plan on getting some chickens but like a good pet owner plan on doing my research first.. I'm not new to the chicken world I had them growing up as well as several other farm animals my current critters are my 10 year old teeny tiny chihuahua, my 3 month old pot belly pig and several snakes also my mothers 13lb chi-what (chihuahua mix). I've done research and have decided on what breeds of chickens I would like but I have questions on breeding chickens so any answers or information that an be given would be greatly appreciated. My main question about breeding is how often can or will a chicken reproduce? I now chickens lay eggs every few hours but how often will that egg contain a baby chick? I would like baby chicks occasionally but i dont want to be over run with chickens lol. Also do i have to keep the baby chicks seperated from the rooster so they dont breed? or does that not matter in the chicken world? I still have lots of questions but I think this is a good start. Thanks for any help you can give

 

[ronmauldin]

Welcome from the Ocean State!

Start with the Learning Center and then post any questions you still have. Lots of great info and people on BYC.

 

[dani4287]

Thank you

 

[Kelsie2290]

Hello and Welcome To BYC! X2 on you might like to check out the BYC Learning Center to start with, lots of good articles on all aspects of chickens and chicken keeping you will find helpful. https://www.backyardchickens.com/atype/1/Learning_Center
A couple of basic answers to your questions. At most chickens lay an egg about every 24 hours, a very good layer will lay 300 or so eggs a year. If you have a rooster with the hens, most of the eggs will probably be fertilized, but you will not get baby chicks out of them unless they are incubated ... either by a broody hen sitting on them or you using an incubator.
For breeding the chicks again later on most people don't care if chickens inbreed somewhat (ie father to daughter or sister etc) for a generation or two as long as they are good healthy productive chickens.

 

[TwoCrows]

Welcome to BYC!

Definitely stop by our learning center. Lots of basic information on chickens, how to raise them and keep them happy and healthy.

As Kelsie said, chickens lay every 26 to 27 hours. And not every chicken does lay every day. The eggs are not fertile unless you keep a rooster. When the rooster mates with the hens, the eggs become fertile. You don't need a rooster for the hens to lay. They will lay regardless and at the same rate without a rooster. Roosters can be mean and cranky, so if you are only in this for eggs and pets, skip on the rooster. If you do keep a rooster, you can incubate the hens eggs yourself or wait for one of the hens to go broody to incubate them herself.

All this is talked about in our learning center. Enjoy this new adventure you are on and welcome to our flock!

 

[gander007]

 

[drumstick diva]

Your got some good information already. When I started on here I had no idea that chickens could still lay eggs without a rooster. Glad to find out I wasn't the only one.