If you have a bunch of chickens and roosters running around in the same pen and then want to separate a certain male and female , how long would it take before she starts producing eggs that have only been fertilized by that one rooster. I heard that when a rooster breeds with a chicken that eggs can be fertilized for up to 30 days from that one breeding. Is this true?
I'd also like to know what's the average age of a chicken when it stops laying and is ready for the stew pot LOL
Got a question about chicken breeding
Some things that might be helpful...The hen's reproductive system can be divided into two major components: the ovary and the oviduct. The ovary produces the egg yolk. The oviduct adds the white, shell membranes, and shell to the yolk to complete egg formation.
The hen has only one ovary, which is on the left side of her abdomen. The ovary has several thousand ova (egg yolks) in different stages of development and looks like a bunch of grapes. Very immature yolks contain only genetic material from the hen, and as the yolks grow to around 1 mm in diameter, they become white. If the hen is managed properly, many of these developing egg yolks will mature in about 19 days into large, 35 mm, yellow yolks. As the egg yolk develops it will get water, sugars, fats, proteins, vitamins, and minerals from the hen's blood. These are all necessary for the embryo to develop. The egg yolk is surrounded by the perivitelline membrane. This keeps all of these nutrients in a ball-shaped package. One particularly visible region of the perivitelline membrane is the germinal disc. The germinal disc is a small white dot about half the size of a pencil eraser on the surface of the yellow egg yolk. Fertilization takes place here, and embryonic development begins.
When the egg yolk is mature, it leaves the ovary, and within 20 minutes it is captured by the infundibulum, the first part of the oviduct. Here fertilization takes place. Following mating, sperm enter the hen's oviduct and are stored within sperm storage glands. Only sperm that can swim will enter these sperm storage sites. These glands can store more than half a million sperm. Sperm can remain alive in these glands and fertilize eggs for up to 3 weeks.
A hen will have maximum fertility for only about 3 to 4 days after one mating. For this reason, the male-to-female ratio in a flock must be enough to ensure mating of every hen every 3 days or so. Sperm do not break through the eggshell. Instead they travel up the oviduct to the infundibulum to join with the egg yolk
Thanks, your just full of info. I learned alot with this one post. Thanks
Do you know the last question? How old is a chicken before she stops laying?
Some more about how fertilized eggs develope before being laid...
The sperm bind to the perivitelline membrane and make a hole as they enter the egg. Hundreds of sperm may enter the yolk. As a matter of fact, the more sperm that enter the yolk, the more likely the egg will be fertilized. Around 30 sperm must enter the egg near the germinal disc to insure a 95 percent chance of fertilization. While it is true that only one sperm is necessary to fertilize an egg, the probability of an egg's being fertilized by only one sperm's reaching and penetrating it is very low.
After about 15 minutes, the yolk leaves the infundibulum (fertilized or not) and receives the egg white, shell membranes, and shell over the next several hours from the magnum, isthmus, and uterus sections of the oviduct. When the hen lays a fertilized egg, the chick embryo has already developed for about 25 hours into approximately 20,000 embryonic cells and is a live, breathing organism. If this fertilized egg is handled properly before and during incubation, a healthy baby chick is the result.
Dont give me too much credit, I just found that info on a site. I didnt realize that the embro is considered partially developed at the time the egg is laid. I always thought that the heat of incubation is what actually caused the sperm to enter the 'yolk' and start the growth process. Now I kinda feel bad about eating fertilized eggs!
Oh...I think hens can flucuate on how long they lay for. We have an OEG hen that is about 5 years, and we still get an egg nearly every day. Quality tends to go down after a year or two, and the commercial farms only let hens lay for about one year before they turn them into compost...yeah...I had a friend who worked for one of those.
Anyway...we will keep our hens until they stop, then give them to the hispanics to eat. I wont eat chicken that old.
they have to be seperated min of 3 weeks but usually 4 to be safe to pureify them. i've had them as old as 6 and still lay regular. as they get older they will not cycle to lay so many eggs but i think around 10 or 12 i read somewhere they lay mabe 1-4 times a year by that age. not sure what actual age they would stop but i'd guess around there abouts.
silkie
Thanks Silkie.
I usually isolate my hens for 7-10 days before adding a cockbird
leannex
May 27, 2008
IM GONNA HATCH 6 SILKIE CHICKS 2MOZ HAS ANY1 HAD AND GOOD RESULTS OF THE INTERNET? HAS ANY1 EVA HAD GOOD RESULTS FROM HATCHING THEM IN A HOMEMADE INCUBATOR ? DO SILKIES RUIN UR GARDEN ?
FANX LEANNE
All chickens will ruin your gardens if they run amuck, Mine tear up my flower gardens, it makes me furious LOL I can't answer the questions about theother
Supposedly (and I don't have any experience with this), but supposedly feather-footed chickens are less hard on gardens. Anyone have any real experience with this?
silkie chicks are in cages, but i will ask her. welcome Leanne!
what do u mean by off the net? like getting hatching eggs shipped in and hatching them? can't vouch for homemade bators i've only used still air foam and cabinates. i keep mine in breeder cages due to the location i keep my flock not sure how they'd be in a garden. silkies r a good breed and gentle if u r hatching for the first time.
are these your first chickens leanne? you will fall in love with silkies. some people keep them in their house as pets. you can probalby teach them from a young age where they can't dig, or put a short fence in front of prized flowers.
there is a show called gardengirltv you would really like! she has all kind sof neat videos for instruction on keeping small chickens in your yard! lookd for her on cable TV, farmers almanac tv website, and on youtube.com
meanwhile, we got lots of info here if you have time to search or ask
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