If I were to buy a chicken that has been with a rooster, how long will her eggs be fertile from the rooster? Do they have to breed every day or what?
Fertile egg chicken question
I'm not an expert, far from it actually, and i don't know the answer to your question. I can however, make an educated guess. I know, that to get pure breed chicks, I need to have my hens with only roos of the same breed (and away from all the other roos) for at least 3 weeks. Any shorter length of time, I run the risk that the chicks may have the wrong dad. So, I would guess that a hen could still lay fertile eggs for at least 2 weeks even without a rooster present.
o.. that's nice to know Batflower.. i didn't know I needed to separate mine that long to get pure breed chicks. Thanks for that bit of info!
I don't know how long either... I'm just lurking waiting for someone to answer that does know.
Then with one hen, I might also get many chicks. That'd be neat.
Thank you.
A chicken has the ability to withhold sperm deposits, however that doesn't always mean she has held back enough to fertilize an egg with a high enough sperm count to make an egg viable. Most experts suggest ten days as the most that eggs can fertilized after being removed from a rooster. And four to five days before becoming fertile from a rooster after being away from one. So any eggs for the first several days after mating are just eggs, the collection of eggs therefore should start after day four of the new mating proccess. I'm no authority at all, but do subscribe to two reliable poulty magazines and for the most part the info I have read has been consistent. Haystack.
I can only answer from my own experience - so take this info as such. I have been breeding white amer's and various wyandottes for a few years now and have had chicks hatch that were apparent crosses - even after the breeds had been separated for as many as 4 weeks prior to egg collection for the incubator. I try to separate into breeding pens a minimum of 6 weeks prior to egg collection, which is certainly overkill. If however you end up with crosses they can easily be sold as barnyard crosses - which incidentally seem to be better egg producers than either parent. I have researched "hybrid vigor" and this seems to explain the increase in production - but it is only my theory. Anyhow - it makes for a great selling point if you have an "oops"...
Yeah Maineiac, I can live with that, it certainly is not rockett science and I sure do agree with the production issue also. It really only matters when it comes to breeding for purebreds in places where crosses aren't welcome...I do know though that some of the eggs that don't hatch are due to low sperm count, especially when it comes to older roosters.
I have heard numbers as high as 30 days...generally that was to ensure that no sperm from Rooster A got into the batch of eggs fertilized by Rooster B. The likelihood of a hen keeping it that long however is fairly slim. There may be something on the reference thread and I know we've talked about it. No recollection when or where though :(
Well, I bid but didn't win the chicken. It's really nice to have some answers though, in case it comes up again. I had no idea. Thanks so much for the info.