Hatching Egss w/ RIR, Buff Orpingtons, ISA Browns

[Saraley]

We are just getting started with incubating and hatching. We currently have RIR roosters, RIR hens, ISA Brown hens, and Buff Orpington hens (we also have white Longhorns hens, and Americauna hens- but those are easy to differentiate eggs ). We have the pen ability to separate out chickens if we wanted to only hatch the RIR's since we have both hens and roosters of those - but is there any issues with leaving them together and hatching eggs that could be from RIR/ISA Browns, RIR/ Buff Orpingtons, or RIR/ RIR - together since it is difficult to tell the difference between eggs? We mostly do it for our own benefit (keeping our flock going) - but we do sell/ give away when we have more than we need.

 

[NatJ]

is there any issues with leaving them together and hatching eggs that could be from RIR/ISA Browns, RIR/ Buff Orpingtons, or RIR/ RIR - together since it is difficult to tell the difference between eggs?

The only issue I see is that you would have to sell chicks as mixed breed, rather than purebred. But you've probably thought of that already

All of your parent breeds are dual-purpose types, and reasonably good layers, so I would expect the chicks to have similar qualities.

Some of the mixed-breed chicks may look very much like Rhode Island Reds, so do not count on being able to pick out the purebreds by sight, either at hatch or when they've grown up.