Red sexlink pullets - Rooster?

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bailout00

bailout00

Hatching
May 26, 2016
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Hello, this is my first post but I've been lurking for a while. I got 18 red/brown sexlink pullets, and randomly ended up with one white chicken. They are 11 weeks old, and this morning I could swear I heard a faint crow from the coup just after I let them out. This is the second time I think I heard it. It definitely wasn't a cluck, it was fairly clear.

I'm wondering what the likelyhood is that it might be a roo.

Second, if it does happen to be a roo, what does that do in terms of egg production, I'm not against having a single roo but I also don't want fertilized eggs.
 
400


Sorry for the poor quality I'll grab a better pic later
 
The picture is too far away to be certain, but at 11 weeks with comb and wattles that size and red, I'm fairly sure that is a cockerel.

Roosters do nothing to egg production. They fertilize the eggs, which is nice if you'd like to hatch chicks sometime in the future. The taste of the eggs is the same, they are perfectly edible and the chicks don't develop unless you let them get incubated for a couple days. I would personally never have hens without a rooster. Not only do roosters fertilize eggs, but they protect the other chickens, alert them when there are predators around, find food for the hens - and a lot more. If you can, go for it! A good rooster is definitely worth his feed.
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TheKindaFarmGal said:
The picture is too far away to be certain, but at 11 weeks with comb and wattles that size and red, I'm fairly sure that is a cockerel.

Roosters do nothing to egg production. They fertilize the eggs, which is nice if you'd like to hatch chicks sometime in the future. The taste of the eggs is the same, they are perfectly edible and the chicks don't develop unless you let them get incubated for a couple days. I would personally never have hens without a rooster. Not only do roosters fertilize eggs, but they protect the other chickens, alert them when there are predators around, find food for the hens - and a lot more. If you can, go for it! A good rooster is definitely worth his feed.
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Click to expand...
This was the answer I was looking for, I'm not too concerned about them being fertilized, just wondered what exactly happens at that point, i.e. can they be safely stored for a while. Is it better to refrigerate them or no?

I am all for having a rooster for the sake of protection, I am most likely going to free-range them in a month or two when I'm home so that will give me some sense of security. My only concern is the noise, I'm not supposed to have a "Crowing bird" in my muni, but I'm on 7 acres so we'll see.

Thanks for the info!

Also sorry for the double picture post, it wasn't showing up on my phone.
 
That's definitely a red sex link cockerel. When you're dealing with sex links, the odd bird out is usually a male
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.

Folks have run males with their layers for centuries and had no issues with the eggs. A fertile egg has to be held at 100 degrees for 3 days for embryonic development to start. So, collect the eggs every day or so and you'll be fine. I've kept males with my flock for 20+ years and never cracked a nasty surprise (well, the one time I was sick and my teenage boy didn't recognize one hen was broody, but that's a whole nother story
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).
 

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