Two Breeds of Chickens and Hens?

[wildflowerrun]

Ok, first, I haven't done this and I keep my pens pure for pure breeds. I would like to put another coop in, but we'll see. But I have an honest question about how chicken fertilization works and how two roosters over a set of chickens could work.

With rabbits, if you breed a doe of breed a to a buck of breed a and a buck of breed b, knowing genetics and colors, etc., you can easily pick out which kits are pure and which aren't.

Do chickens not work this way? Theoretically, if you had two chicken breeds that were different enough (including egg color) in one pen with two different roosters, would you not be able to hatch out the chicks and tell at hatch based on down and other factors that the chick was pure or not?

Did that question make sense?

 

[rainbowrooster]

Sure you could do it. What breeds are you thinking of?

 

[wildflowerrun]

BBS Ameraucana and Salmon Faverolles. I don't know enough about the Faverolles at hatch to know if it would be possible, but I'm trying to understand if it would work in theory.

I know I'd need to learn more about genetics (such as feathered feet, color dominance, etc.), but I'm intrigued to see if it's possible.

 

[wildflowerrun]

Based on what I can find, the Faverolle hens will be easiest to pick through by down. Ameraucana/Faverolle would have black down, Faverolle/Faverolle would have yellow down.

For the Ameraucana eggs, all chicks would be black or blue. It would then be dependent on looking at toes and feathering, assuming toes and feathering are dominant.

So in theory would this actually work? As in, 2 roosters can't fertilize the same egg, right? Each egg will either be breed a/breed a or breed a/breed b or breed b/breed b, right?

Either way, it's imperfect and I don't have enough extra coops to raise the question mark chicks to be sure. And if I did, it wouldn't matter anyway

I will stick with separate pens!

 

[Free Feather]

It would be cool if it did work. Then they could free-range together and you would not have to worry about purity.

 

[wildflowerrun]

I think you'd have to be pretty positive about the genetics of the chickens in question. For instance, if the Faverolles had genetics for 4 toes or non-feathered legs, automatically it would be a bust because it's possible you would get 4-toes, non-feathered mutts masquerading as purebred Ameraucanas.

It might work with two other completely different breeds but, I don't have the space to risk it (and if I did, I wouldn't need to!).

But I agree, it would be cool if it worked.

 

[lazy gardener]

Wildflowerrun: I had to do a bit of googling as I'm not familiar with SF, but I found an article that could help you. While Sf bears some similarity to Ameraucanas, there are some traits which, if your stock is pure will help you to differentiate. Pea comb is dominant. And I believe that feathered feet are dominant. Then you have the yellow legs of the SF, and the slate colored legs of the Ameraucana. So, these differences could help you to tell who the daddy was, at least for the first generation.

http://www.extension.org/pages/6536...backyard-flocks:-an-introduction#.VLWYSSvF_zA

 

[keesmom]

Faverolles have white legs. Extra toes and some leg feathering are likely in crosses as well.

 

[donrae]

So you'd have a rooster and hens of each breed? With those two breeds it should be easy peasy to tell them apart. Some of the mixes you might have to grow out a bit, but those two breeds are quite different.

 

[wildflowerrun]

My Ameraucanas are purebred. The Salmon Faverolles are supposed to be purebred.

My concern isn't with the crosses so much as being able to pick out the purebred chicks without a doubt. So if I hatched all the SF eggs in one section and all the AM eggs in one section, I would want to be sure of which were the pure chicks. I would then only keep the good-quality pure stock to put in the pen. I don't want to leave the OE/EEs in there to confuse things?

It seems the pure SF will be easy to tell just based on down, the pure Ameraucanas less so.

But thank you for reminding me of the legs! If I understand the genetics properly, the AM/AM chicks will be black/blue/splash slate legs (which at hatch are kind of yellow streaked with slate), and have 4 toes.

The AM/SF crosses hatched from AM eggs would be black/blue/splash but with white legs. Assuming the SF rooster carries no recessives, they should also have 5 toes and feathering soon after hatch.

Does that sound about right? I would want to separate them at hatch into 3 bins (OE, Am and SF) so there'd be no confusion as they grew.

The biggest issue is if the SF carries any recessives for slate legs, four toes or no feathering.