How long do eggs stay fertile without a rooster?

[Diveks]

So a few days ago we unfortunately lost our rooster. We are not quite sure what happened as he was acting perfectly fine, when checking in the afternoon, we found him dead on top of the eggs. He was the best rooster we’ve ever had and we are not quite sure what happened.

Well I would love to hatch some of his babies but i’m not sure how long hens stay fertile after the rooster is gone. Any info on that would be useful.

 

[nuthatched]

2-4 weeks, sometimes longer.

 

[Diveks]

2-4 weeks, sometimes longer.

Thanks! Ill try hatching out some babies then.

 

[fluffycrow]

Thanks! Ill try hatching out some babies then.

Good luck!

 

[New duck mommy 2021]

Sorry for your loss
Hopefully you get some little ones

 

[Ridgerunner]

Well I would love to hatch some of his babies but i’m not sure how long hens stay fertile after the rooster is gone. Any info on that would be useful.

I'll go through the long answer and include some additional information that might help you later. It takes an egg about 25 hours to go through the hen's internal egg making factory. That egg can only be fertilized during the first few minutes of that journey. That means if a successful mating takes place on a Saturday, Saturday's egg cannot be fertile from that mating. Sunday's egg might or might not be but don't count on it. Monday's egg will be fertile.

Now the part you are interested in. A rooster does not successfully mate with every hen in his flock each day but he doesn't have to. In the last part of the mating act the rooster hops off, his job is done. The hen stands up, fluffs up, and shakes. This fluffy shake gets the sperm in a special container near where the egg starts its internal journey. That sperm typically remains viable there anywhere from 9 days to over two weeks plus a few days. There have been cases where fertile eggs have been laid after 4 weeks but those cases are few. While it is possible to get chicks after three or even four weeks you are unlikely to get many.

Since you don't know the last time he mated with a specific hen and since you do have a window of maximum fertility I would not wait to get started. I'd expect a good hatch rate with eggs laid within 2 weeks. After that I'd expect the hatch rate to drop.