I am a new chicken owner, I got new day old chicks is September, 10 Red Rangers, 3 Rhode Island Reds, 3 Americanas, and a surprise rare breed that turned out to be a rooster Arucana. I culled 9 of the Rangers in December but kept one that was sweet. Starting this month the rooster has started breeding her, still no interest in the other birds and they aren't acting at all breedy. So today I went out to the coop and low and behold my first eggs, one broken but they were definitely from my Ranger. So I brought it in and broke it to inspect and of course eat my first egg. and it had been fertilized, not surprising but wanted to check. My question is if I let her incubate or incubate them in the house will I get viable chicks. I guess to me it is a stretch to think a Ranger which is a high bred would have viable eggs??? I guess if I could breed my own meat chickens that would be great. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
Do not consider chicken hybrids to be the same as a mule. A mule is a hybrid cross of two species, a donkey and a horse, and is normally infertile. Normally, though there have been very rare cases. Chicken breeds are not normal and natural. They were created by mankind by selective breeding by crossing other chickens. They are all the same species and can interbreed as long as there is not too much size difference or a specific one is too big. If the eggs are fertile, they are viable. When you hatch and raise those chicks, don’t expect them to be exactly like the Red Rangers. They will be a cross between your Araucana rooster and Red Ranger hen. They will inherit traits from both. They should still make a very nice meat bird, not as good as a Red Ranger but better than the Araucana. I have no idea if any of your hens will go broody. All of them don’t. The only way you can really control hatching the eggs is to get an incubator. I really enjoy having a broody hen hatch and raise the chicks but I’ll be putting eggs in my incubator in a couple of weeks to assure some to butcher later. Welcome to the forum! Glad you joined us.
