Suprise! its a rooster!

[john]

help! we purchased 10 chicks in March. 4 rhode island reds, 2 barred rocks, 2 araucanas, and 2 isa browns. we were told one in ten may be a rooster.
Lost one rir immediately to our papillion.

oops. One of the rir's is a rooster. our intentions were to have pets and some fresh eggs. They all live together in a manion that my husband and son built together. they are all beautiful and healthy. My questions are: can they stay living together with rooster? If we take eggs out everyday can we continue eating them? if we want to hatch a few, will we have weird breeds?(My 10 yr old son wants baby chicks) why do we have so many double yolks?
Is it true that if you put fake eggs in with a couple of real eggs a hen will set on them? they have a 12 room mansion but they only lay eggs in 4. Why? will one hen set on others eggs? Is there a how to raise chickens for dummies book?

 

[pkeeler]

They can certainly live with a rooster, but can you? They are noisy, and RIR roosters are well known as one of the more aggressive roos. The eggs are edible, they will not taste any different. If you collect them and put them in the fridge, any developing embryo would be killed. Your rooster will mate all the girls he can catch and you will have mutts. There are many books about raising chickens but I don't think the Dummy series has done one.