Yes, they can! There are no problems associated with hatching mixed breed chickens. If you have a rooster in your flock, he will try to breed ALL your hens, nevermind if he is a different breed or even if the hens are different sizes,
Bantams roosters (small breeds) can successfully mate with large fowl hens.
Chickens have their own battle of the sexes, and scientists have discovered a secret strategy used by hens to control who fertilizes their eggs: After mating, hens can eject the sperm of less desirable, low-status roosters.
The short answer to this is, yes. Different chicken breeds can live successfully together in what's called a mixed flock. But a mixed flock does take some consideration. For instance, some breeds are known to be very docile and calm, while others have a more dominant personality.
See how a hen makes an egg. A rooster is needed, however, if your goal is to produce chicks. Roosters needs to mate with a hen two or three times a week in order for the hen to lay fertile eggs. You can then incubate the eggs to hatch out chicks.
Many people think that roosters fertilize the egg after it has been laid. This is not correct. Understanding how chicken courtship, mating, and egg fertilization works is important for backyard chicken keepers. Many roosters frequently mate with hens regardless of whether you want to breed them.
Ideally you should have at least 10 hens for each rooster in your flock. Having a proper hen to rooster ratio in your flock will prevent rooster fights and keep the hens from becoming stressed out by too much rooster attention.
Hybrid chickens are being sold commercially to- day, and an important phase in the breed- ing program is the development and maintenance of inbred lines. The primary effect of inbreeding is to produce homozygosis. As a consequence of this increased homozygosis, the indi- viduals may show a decline in perform- ance.
Hens don't need a rooster in the flock to lay eggs, but they do need a rooster in the flock to lay fertile eggs. Roosters of all types will breed hens, but when picking your best rooster breed, there are a few things to consider. Fertility rates vary from breed to breed, and from bloodline (family) to bloodline.
Male chicks are killed for two reasons: they cannot lay eggs and they are not suitable for chicken-meat production. This is because layer hens — and therefore their chicks — are a different breed of poultry to chickens that are bred and raised for meat production.
Because of the presence of this structure, once ejaculated sperm have entered the female reproductive tract, they can survive up to 2–15 weeks in domestic birds, including chickens, turkeys, quails and ducks, depending on the species [14, 15] in contrast to the relatively short life span of mammalian spermatozoa (i.e., ...
But it's worth the wait: her eggs will remain fertile (even if she does not mate again) for around two to three weeks after mating, although fertility will drop after 2 weeks. But not all roosters have fertile sperm.
Generally---and especially when you want to keep multiple roosters---there should be 10 or 12 hens for each male in your flock. That will enable the roosters to have plenty of hens each, without worrying too much about competition from their rivals, and it will also be enough so that the hens dont' get too overbred.
How many hens per rooster for fertile eggs? To make fertile eggs a rooster should be kept with no more than 12 hens. Any more than this and he will struggle to fertilize the eggs. If you are having problems with fertility there are a couple of things to check on.
Many roosters can co-exsist peacefully in one pen as long as there are no hens to fight over. Don't separate the boys from each other or they might forget that they know each other and start fighting when they are re-introduced. That would guarantee you would need to re-home one of them.
On average, roosters can live between 5-8 years. However, in captivity when they are properly cared for, their average lifespan increases to 10-15 years. Unlike hens, roosters are less tame and spend the majority of their life on high alert to defend the other birds.
Studies have confirmed an increase in several genetic disorders due to inbreeding such as blindness, hearing loss, neonatal diabetes, limb malformations, disorders of sex development, schizophrenia and several others.
There are two breeds in the blue egg laying world currently accepted by the American Poultry Association — Araucanas and Ameraucanas.
So while the answer to the question of "Do you need a Rooster to lay eggs?" is no, you can certainly have a happier flock with a rooster. Although uncrowded hens generally get along with each other, a flock with a rooster is usually more peaceful. There is less fighting for the top spot by the hens.
A rooster may mate from 10 to 30 or more times per day, depending on the availability of hens and competition from other roosters. However, the number of sperm per ejaculate is seldom less than 100 million which is the minimum required to maintain high fertility.
A rooster often has his favorite girl, with whom he spends most of his time. She is not necessarily at the top of the pecking order, but he will treat her like a queen. It's possible that other hens might be envious of her role, because when the rooster is removed, his favorite hen is sometimes picked on by the others.
They've got two bean-shaped testes located against their backbone in front of the kidneys. Rooster testicles vary in size based on their age and time of year. If you butcher a rooster in the winter his testicles will be smaller than during the spring mating season, when they swell up considerably.
Roosters will start to crow before sunrise and he will be one of the first out of the coop in the morning to check the area for predators and sound the all clear for the rest of the flock. This early morning call encourages the flock to get moving and start foraging for food.
Did you know you can determine if an egg is fertile or not by looking at the germ spot? The germ spot is the white spot on the yolk. The non-fertile germ spot contains only the female's cells and looks like a solid white spot. In a fertile egg the germ spot contains both the female and male cells.