Can a Chapter produce gene seed?

[Sqallum]

In Imperial Armour 9

Huron Blackheart manages to build the Astral Claws up to over 3000 warriors. I understand how he incepted a company of the Tiger Claws into his army.

This suggests the Tiger Claws had some spare gene seed, but where would Huron have got the gene seed to produce 2000 over warriors? How could he/and other chapters produce new gene seed? I also know new gene seed is produced on Terra but Huron would not have used that as he wanted to keep his plans secret from the High Council.

So how could he/or other chapters produce new gene seed apart from their dead brethren?

[Poncho160]

Chapters and the Mechanium do keep stores of Gene Seed. I also think in this case, that it was over a period of time that Huron built his troop numbers up.

[All Cing Eye]

All SM chapters keep a store of geneseed to be used in new recruits, and in case of emergency, they are also required to send some to the mechanicus for testing. Part of Huron's rebellion was that he stopped sending his tithe of geneseed for testing, presumably using it to create more marines instead.

Geneseed can also be created by implanting it into hosts to let it mature and then harvesting it.

[shadowhawk2008]

Each Marine is implanted with two pairs of zygotic gene-seed that mature over a period of ten years. One set is removed at the end of that 10 years, the other set is harvested only at death or should the marines be off on a dangerous, extremely high risk mission which negates gene-seed retrieval. 5% of all gene-seed is sent to the Mechanicus for purity testing. The rest is stored and tested by the chapter itself for mutation over time. Huron built his chapter to 3500 warriors in two ways: he suborned the surviving Tiger Claws (who were the successors to the Astral Claws) and he ignored the 1000-company level Marines restriction.

[Spetulhu]

Huron built his chapter to 3500 warriors in two ways: he suborned the surviving Tiger Claws (who were the successors to the Astral Claws) and he ignored the 1000-company level Marines restriction.

I'd suggest a third point to that: he probably also stopped responding to calls for aid or sent only token forces, ignoring his duties as a defender of the Imperium in favor of preserving his marines. Any Chapter that fights regularly will have no problem keeping to the 1000 marine limit since they'll be taking losses. Indeed many are badly understrength, some so bad they're likely to go extinct while others might build up to a full thousand if they spend a century or two rebuilding.

[shadowhawk2008]

Yes, but. The Astral Claws were placed in the Maelstrom as the premier SM chapter. Their chapter master has a special remit to defend the Maelstrom however he sees fit and it is his big responsibility. The Mantis Warriors and the Lamenters were there as support, although that term doesnt entirely do them justice.