Okay another silly question...Early this past spring I bought a dozen fertilized green eggs from a fella who free ranges ALL his chickens...different breeds..(first time for the kids and I )..I put six eggs under my broody and 5 hatched and four survived.....three black hens ...one is black and some white feathers ....one is a smaller black bantam size..and one is black and a sexlink size....and plus I have a black Roo.....all are approx. 6 months old....My Roo is starting to become the BIG GUY of all the whole flock(he's the only Roo) does his dance ...puffs his neck feathers out....Crows.....My three black hens are not laying yet so I am not sure what colour their eggs are...going to put a light in coop middle of January....There all on Vacation now.... My question ...come spring can I seperate the three black hens and my Roo into a differnet run and coop and hopefully have fertilized eggs to hatch out by my good ole broody hen.... What if there brother and sister / connected by blood somehow...would that matter... I am covering my face in shame not knowing this answer?
You don;t have to worry about inbreeding in chickens like you do in mammals.... line breeding... offspring to parent, etc is a common practice. It 'sets' traits in your line... which can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on your birds genetic makeup But, being that you are not interesting in strict and deliberate breeding for show etc... you have nothing to worry about Don;t feel bad... you're not the first to ask and I myself wasn't sure... you hear so many bad things about dogs and such... you can't help but wonder Not sure what you mean by the other question... separate the roo FROM the hens? They are usually fertile for 2-3 weeks on average after being bred by the roo. Or are you asking if you move them (the hens and the roo) to a new coop together will you be able to take the fertile eggs from those hens and hatch under a broody? Yes
It won't matter. You can actually go several generations of interbreeding without affecting fertility.
Thanks so much...Yes I wanted to separate my three black hens and the black roo together in one coop...to get fertilized eggs whenever my little bantam goes broody...or who knows maybe hubby got me a incubator for Xmas !!! hahaha!!! probably not....hee hee hee !!! I feel better now....Now i can plan the next coop....a project for the spring....
