does anyone know from experience if it is true that my chickens will be sterile? i havea barred rock roo and the hens are barred rock, rhode ilsand red or black cornish. i am hoping that this years chicks will be able to reproduce the next generation of chicks! peace connie in alaska
Chickens are all the same species...just different varieties, so they're genetically compatible. Your chickens will breed and produce viable offspring...ours have for years. Have fun.
"Be the change you want to see in the world" -Gandhi
thanks much, i thought i remembered that my chickens that i had many years ago were crosed every which direction and we had chicks all summer. peace connie in alaska
i may be adding a buff orpington or astrolorp (?) roo to my young flock. that should add to the color variation *grin* wondering if i do that if i will keep up my egg production? i cant get any better than i am with my purebred rir and barred rock hens but hoep to stay up there in percentage lol. i get 12-14 eggs per day (when i can find them!) from my 14 hens right now i hae 3 mommies not laying and another 2 mommies to be so production is donw. i let them free range and surprisingly we havent lost even one mature hen or baby to predators! my roo is quite the watch-roo and wont let anything or anyone on his property! peace connie in alaska
Also recently discoverd another rooster in the hen house. This one came in w/ a batch of production reds (red sexlinks if i recall correctly) or maybe its a RIR that slipped through.
He is still young, as the hans he was shiped w/ aren't quite up to layng par.
And so far there are enough hens to go around so there hasn't been any fighting either.
He has hopped the fence and is ok with it when I pick him up.
So, all this to say, we'll have good genetic variation should I choose to fianlly raise our own chicks again next spring.
cross bred chickens / sterile or not
Posted - Sep 08 2009 : 09:07:01 AM
