newbie - need some basic info on chickens

[chirpchirp]

hi, i am researching getting my own chickens and i need to know a couple basic things from some experienced chicken owners. first, in order to have pure bred chicks, must i always have the males separated from the females of other breeds? i want a variety of breeds, but i dont want a million mutt chicks running around. what i want to do is have 5 assorted hens for eggs and then a couple breeding meat birds that i can keep a running supply of. also, can you eat fertilized eggs? something about the thought of that freaks me out though - i would like to try to avoid that! i need to figure out how to set up my coop, and ultimately decide which breeds of chickens i can get, and knowing if i will have to keep some separate will be a major factor in both those decisions. any info or advice would be greatly appreciated. thnks!

 

[loverOFchickens]

You will find this a very informative and addictive website.

Yes you will have to keep the roos of other breeds seperate to get purebred chickens.If you want you can just seperate them for a month before you collect hte eggs to hatch and run them togather the rest of the year.

Yes fertalized eggs are edible and in my opinion taste no different than those unfertalized. Keep in mind that ither way this egg has the potential to be a chick given the right circumstances.

Hope that helps,
Lover Of Chickens

 

[Ridgerunner]

first, in order to have pure bred chicks, must i always have the males separated from the females of other breeds? i want a variety of breeds, but i dont want a million mutt chicks running around.

The way I read your question, you do not need to separate the rooster from your egg birds. You need to have your rooster with your meat birds. If you can tell which hen is laying which egg, you just hatch the eggs from the meat birds. One way to do this may be to have white egg layers for the egg birds and brown egg layers for the meat birds. If you cannot tell which eggs are laid by which hen, yes you need to keep them separate to make sure you are collecting eggs for hatching from the meat hens.

also, can you eat fertilized eggs?

If you keep your egg hens separate from the rooster, the eggs will not be fertilized. There is no difference in taste of fertilized eggs versus unfertilized eggs and no difference in how long they can be stored. The difference is only in your mind, but that may be important to you.

 

[chirpchirp]

thanks, that is pretty much what i thought, thank you for your advice and answers!