Hi everyone! This is my first post here.Ive had some hens for 18months and about 9 months ago i was given some fertile eggs which my broody RIRed happily hatched.I ended up with 4 roosters and 3 hens.I kept one rooster who is now 8 months old and is mounting the hens(11 in total) with gusto.My question is at what age is a rooster able to fertilise my hens.Many thanks,Todd.
One of my Light Sussex hens..
and one of my Rhode island reds.
I couldn't believe you had Light Sussex and then I saw where you live. They're hard to find here: probably under 200 in the whole country. Lovely birds! If your rooster's covering the hens, I'd guess he's fertile. What is he? Standard breed, or banty?
Beautiful chickens! I'd suppose that if he's... ahem... using it... there's a reason. Please post pics of the chicks!
Thanks Zeppy,the Light Sussex are great birds,very friendly and good layers in the warmer months.They can be found fairly easily here but do command a fair price.As for Rodney the rooster i have no idea what his background is.He is fairly small with a couple of feathers on his feet.Maybe a Leghorn cross?
Hi bridgidlily! I will post some pics as soon as we have chicks.We are just at the end of winter here so the hens should be broody soon:)
Sorry to dig up an old thread,but there is no doubt he was fertile! My little bantam hen sat on 10 eggs and 6 hatched.Joy oh joy.The sad ending is he became so aggressive that he had to take a holiday.I have since replaced him with a Light Sussex roo and have another hen sitting on his eggs.
GREAT pic, nuts! What a great little family. Too bad about the aggression, though. Ah, well. That's life.
