Mix Breeding

[AAJ]

If I had 2 silkie hens and 1 silkie rooster along with 4 buff orpington hens and 1 buff orpington rooster in the same pen would there be a lot of cross breeding? If so, how could I stop it without separating them?

 

[Ridgerunner]

You cannot stop it without separating them.

 

[Ducks and Banny hens]

X2

 

[Tanichca]

X3. But if you aren't worried about showing the offspring,or if you discard every non silkie egg, it won't be much of an issue.

 

[Barred Rocker]

Quote:
well it would if the buff roo mated with the silkie hens. Yeah you're going to get some cross breeding and I'm surprised the 2 roosters are getting along, they usually fight to compete for the hens.

 

[Tanichca]

Quote:
well it would if the buff roo mated with the silkie hens. Yeah you're going to get some cross breeding and I'm surprised the 2 roosters are getting along, they usually fight to compete for the hens.

But usually, if the larger rooster breeds with a smaller hen, the weirdly sized chicks can't even make it out of the egg. Ah well.

Not always... I have four roosters to seven hens at the moment, and there isn't any fighting for mating rights at all.

 

[Luke0987654321]

Quote:
well it would if the buff roo mated with the silkie hens. Yeah you're going to get some cross breeding and I'm surprised the 2 roosters are getting along, they usually fight to compete for the hens.

But usually, if the larger rooster breeds with a smaller hen, the weirdly sized chicks can't even make it out of the egg. Ah well.

Not always... I have four roosters to seven hens at the moment, and there isn't any fighting for mating rights at all.

Cross breeding LF to bantam is possible, i have hatched many eggs from my banty hens with 80-90 % hatch rate, and because of the crossbreeding the chicks have more genetic diversity and are very healthy. So if chicks dont hatch right it's probably to do with incubation.


luke.

 

[extraordinaryfowl]

Quote:
They will cross breed, and there is no way to keep them from cross breeding without separating them. I've had large roosters breed bantams for me, and vice-versa. Could you just run a strip of chicken wire down the center of their pen? They just have to have some kind of physical barrier between them. Hope this helps, MW