roosters and hens

[newbie07210]

So I am very new to raising chickens, right now we have 7 (we started with 10) meat chickens and 4 ducks. We have a huge area for them to run and a huge chicken coop. We are planning on adding 15 laying hens in a separate area with a different coop. I really want to add 5 silkies to the laying hens but from what I have read you can't have them correctly sexed, so my questions is will it be a problem having male silkies in with laying hens? Or should we put them in with the meat chickens since we aren't planning on using the eggs form the silkies? We are planning on using the eggs from the laying hens to eat.

 

[bobbi-j]

So, you just want the silkies as pets? A rooster of any breed is going to mate whatever females you have him with. You can still eat the eggs from the laying hens if they are fertile. Most people don't even know they're eating fertile eggs. There is no chance of them developing into chicks unless they have been incubated at a certain temperature for a certain amount of time. You may want to think about what you are going to do if you end up with several silkie roosters who may fight or harass your hens to the point of stressing them so they don't lay.

 

[newbie07210]

Yes, sorry I didn't clarify that I just wanted to make sure I was wording it correctly. The silkies will be pets. From what I was told if you have a rooster in with the hens and the eggs become fertile there will be blood in the eggs when cracked open, and we were keeping the laying hens separate and will strictly be hens. Do you know if is a way for silkies to be sexed? From what I've read there is only one hatchery that offers sexed and it's an extra $8.75 meaning each chick is $12.00 which is totally fine but I want to make sure it is possible because I have seen a lot of people pay the extra money and end up with numerous roosters when they were suppose to be all hens. From the research I have done silkies are pretty layed back birds and don't seem to fight I just want to make sure I'm doing the right thing before I purchase them.

 

[JadedPhoenix]

Blood has nothing to do with a rooster. Any hen can have blood spots. You've been misinformed. And no, the blood spot won't make the egg crack. A hen stepping on the egg or nudging it around with the beak will crack the egg.

Also, your "pet" chickens can still be put in with your others. You just give them a bit more personal attention everyday, particularly when they are young. I have hens that are "pets" who were never intended as such but they just ended up that way.

As for silkies, they are notoriously difficult to sex young. I'd just go with unsexed. Even the boys are easy going.

 

[bobbi-j]

As JP said, blood spots can also occur in non-fertile eggs. The reason you don't see those in your store bought eggs is because they are "candled" before being sent off to the store. Producers won't ship the imperfect ones. FYI, "meat spots" can also show up in your home-grown eggs. It's not a chick, it's perfectly harmless, just maybe not very nice looking in your fried egg. Scoop it out if you don't like the looks of it - the egg is still edible.

 

[newbie07210]

Thank you guys so much you are all so very helpful!!! I am so glad that I joined and asked. I am more thankful because I can get silkies without having to worry about them. I had no idea that blood spots could happen without a rooster, I was always told the blood stop meant it was fertile and basically a baby chick. I also had no idea that you could eat fertile eggs because I was told the they were bloody when fertile. I learned this information from someone that actually had chickens which is even worse. Thank you for being so helpful.

 

[JadedPhoenix]

Nope. A blood spot is just from a popped blood vessel during the laying process. A non-fertile egg will have a plain white dot in the yoke. A fertilized egg will have a bull-eye ring around that white dot. Still, there is no reason to not eat the fertilized eggs.

The longer you have chickens, the more you'll realize that just because someone has chickens doesn't mean that the know what they are talking about. I've had people claim that eggs come out soft and have to harden up afterwards. They don't. If you ever butcher a hen you can find a solid egg ready to be laid inside.