Partial Roo

[cluckcrazy]

I was wondering if it would be okay to keep the rooster in a separate cage as the hens, but if I want chicks, then I can let him in easily. Maybe by unlocking a few things, hopefully pics to come about the design. Because the thing is, I probably could NOT stand eating eggs that might have baby chicks in them. It would be like

.

!!!! I just can't imagine it!

 

[Mrs. K]

well it is very difficult to know if the eggs are fertilized. Technically none of them will have baby chicks in them. Fertilized eggs are held in a state of flux until combined with heat.

In the wild situation, or even in the backyard the natural way is a hen will hide her nest. In the spring, when (my theory) the daylength gets long enough, she will return to the same nest each day, laying an egg. Then when the clutch suits her, she will begin to brood and set on the nest, getting off only briefly each day. It is at that time, 24 hours after the egg has been warmed to nearly 100 degrees for a consistent time period, does the egg begin to develop into a chick. Until the heat is applied, there is no baby. This way even the eggs that she laid maybe a week earlier, will hatch at the same time as the last egg she laid.

In my opinion, you should keep your flock together, or get rid of the roo. They will be much happier and healthier this way. And they will fight you everyday to get together. Separation is not a good way to have a chicken, they are a flock animal. However, you can certainly have a flock of just hens. And then you would not have fertilized eggs.

Mrs K

 

[Clackclack]

Would you like to live in a cage with a bunch of humans (of the other sex) on the other side...

Do unto chickens as....

 

[salt and pepper]

I was wondering if it would be okay to keep the rooster in a separate cage as the hens, but if I want chicks, then I can let him in easily. Maybe by unlocking a few things, hopefully pics to come about the design. Because the thing is, I probably could NOT stand eating eggs that might have baby chicks in them. It would be like

.

!!!! I just can't imagine it!

Unless you eggs have the perfect humidity and temperature for over 24 hours, there will be no chance of the eggs developing. If you don't want fertilized eggs, get rid of your rooster, but PLEASE don't keep him in a cage by himself, he will be stressed, unhappy, and putting him in with hen only the odd time would disrupt the pecking order, making the hens stressed as well.

 

[cluckcrazy]

Okay.

 

[bugglesmommy]

I could not have said it any better than Mrs. K

A simply fertilized egg will not contain an embryo or taste any differently.

 

[cluckcrazy]

Thanks for the feedback! I don't have any chickens yet, so I'm glad that I asked before I did this. I would hate to put stress on any of the chickens, so I will either keep the hens and rooster together, or not have a rooster.

 

[farmer boy]

i have my roosters locked up but with one hen each for breeding and it works fine ... hens need each other they need a friend and a rooster can be alone and he will be fine ... hens will get stressed out if their by their self and alone all the time and a rooster it wont effect him at all he would be fine but i wouldn't keep him where he could see the hens that would be mean to do

 

[Clackclack]

How do you know that it doesn't affect the rooster to be alone? Did you ask him? Did you give him a choice and he went into the cage by himself? No, you stuck him in the cage and he survived and was 'fine'. Chickens evolved to be flock animals, flock as in 'more than one'...

 

[cluckcrazy]

I don't think I want a rooster, because I can't deal with an aggressive rooster. Maybe later down the road.