Question about flocks' reproductive fitness now that fertile rooster is gone

[goats-n-oats]

Hi all, My flock had one dominant rooster for a year or so. He was a Swedish Flower, and very engaged and gentle with all my 25 hens. They produced 250+ live chicks last year. Unfortunately, due to him constantly injuring me, I made the difficult decision to butcher him. There are now several adult roosters, 4 are his offspring, and two purebred (Buckeye and Marans). I never heard the hens complaining when the Swedish Flower mounted them, but the hens do cry a lot when the others mount them. Locals have made inquiries about buying hatching eggs from me. Question: without this fertile Swedish rooster, will the hatch rate be as good with the remaining crew? For example, I only see the Marans rooster mount another Marans hen. I'm concerned about offering the hatching eggs now that my prime breeder is gone. Thanks.

 

[Isadora]

I would grab some eggs and start cracking a few to check for the fertile bulls-eye mark on the yolk. Otherwise it's anyone's guess.

 

[Iluveggers]

Hi all, My flock had one dominant rooster for a year or so. He was a Swedish Flower, and very engaged and gentle with all my 25 hens. They produced 250+ live chicks last year. Unfortunately, due to him constantly injuring me, I made the difficult decision to butcher him. There are now several adult roosters, 4 are his offspring, and two purebred (Buckeye and Marans). I never heard the hens complaining when the Swedish Flower mounted them, but the hens do cry a lot when the others mount them. Locals have made inquiries about buying hatching eggs from me. Question: without this fertile Swedish rooster, will the hatch rate be as good with the remaining crew? For example, I only see the Marans rooster mount another Marans hen. I'm concerned about offering the hatching eggs now that my prime breeder is gone. Thanks.

If you have an incubator, you could throw some in to see how many develop. If not, you might find someone on FB or CL who is willing to take some eggs and incubate for you to check In exchange for giving them the eggs for free (obviously screen the person & get their contact info).

 

[Mohawkandmaggie]

if you have the time you could take a few diverse eggs that are from the group and incubate to see which are viable and which aren't, plus you'll get some chicks out of it!

 

[goats-n-oats]

I would grab some eggs and start cracking a few to check for the fertile bulls-eye mark on the yolk. Otherwise it's anyone's guess.

OK! Might I ask more detail what the bullseye looks like? I've seen blood in some of the yolks.

 

[goats-n-oats]

If you have an incubator, you could throw some in to see how many develop. If not, you might find someone on FB or CL who is willing to take some eggs and incubate for you to check In exchange for giving them the eggs for free (obviously screen the person & get their contact info).

@Mohawkandmaggie the issue is, lots of locals are interested in buying hatching eggs, like, now. I was confident they were all fertilized before, now not 100% sure.

 

[SourRoses]

They complain when the non-dominant rooster is trying to mate with them. There's a study about fowl that explains how this is to get the attention of the dominant rooster so he can come knock the subordinate roo off.

There's no way around it, if you want to breed you will need to refine the flock or pen somehow.
Whether that means separating a smaller breeding group of 1 roo and 3-5 hens or so... or making changes to the main flock... whatever way you do it, customers are much happier with known genetics.

 

[Isadora]

OK! Might I ask more detail what the bullseye looks like? I've seen blood in some of the yolks.

Take a look at this thread.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/how-to-tell-a-fertile-vs-infertile-egg-pictures.16008/

The 1st picture is infertile and the 2nd is fertile.
blood in the egg is not a sign of fertility.

 

[Ridgerunner]

@Isadora You beat me to SpeckledHen's thread.

I'm concerned about offering the hatching eggs now that my prime breeder is gone.

You can look for the bull's eye now or incubate eggs for four or so days and open them to see if there is any development. If you are comfortable with your candling you can try that. You do not have to wait until they hatch to see if they are fertile.

I don't know your flock dynamics or what is going on. Sometimes too many boys can be a problem with fertility. You might try isolating all but two or three of the boys and see if you like the flock interaction better. One rooster was able to keep all those hens fertile. There is no reason one or two other roosters could not do the same thing.

I don't know how old those boys are. They may need to grow up to make the girls happy. I feel that a lot of "rooster" problems on this forum are really due to immature cockerels that don't act mature. I'd still reduce the number of boys. That doesn't necessarily mean killing or eating them, given them away or selling them. You can set up a bachelor pen to keep most of them away from the girls and see how the others behave.

One issue with this is that a hen can stay fertile for three weeks after a mating. Whatever fertility information you gather for the next few weeks will reflect today's flock make-up.

 

[Percheron chick]

6 immature boys trying to assert dominance over each other is a recipe for a disaster and will increase the odds of infertile eggs. I would put the 2 best ones with the hens and separate the rest. Stress in the flock never helps.
The change with the old rooster could very well been the result of increased competition with the cockerels and you were low hanging fruit.