Breeding and fertility

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Tracydr

Tracydr

Songster
8 Years
Jul 3, 2011
2,233
23
161
North Carolina, poultry for 25 years or more
Id like to get a few fertile banty eggs for my broody banty. I have two OEGB hens and one roo. The roo has been too busy with his 16 large girls to get his little girls fertile. Before the big girls started to lay last month, all my banty eggs were fertile. Now, none of my eggs are fertile, my boy is far too small to breed the big girls.
If I put him in a large dog crate with my one other banty hen, how many days do they need to be together to be assured that her eggs are fertile? I only want to collect a few for my broody but don't want her sitting on infertile eggs.
Thanks!
 
It takes about 25 hours for an egg to go through the hen's internal egg laying factory. The egg can only be fertilized in the first 15 minutes or so of that journey.

If the mating occurs on a Saturday, Saturday's egg is definitely not fertile. Sunday's egg may or may not not be fertile, depending on the time the mating occurred and the egg started its journey. Usually, they are not fertile. I sure would not count on it. Monday's egg will almost certainly be fertile.

Note that this is after a mating, not just after they are introduced to each other. With a larger flock this might be a concern, but one on one, I don't think it will be a problem. And it does assume that the rooster is still fertile.

A hen will stay fertile for quite a while after a mating. It can be as short as say 9 days or as long as 3-1/2 weeks, but most of us use 2 weeks and it works out pretty well.
 
Excellent, thanks! I knew they stayed fertile a long time but didn't know how long it took to clean out the infertile eggs from the system. I'm going to make up a small breeding cage for the one hen and roo today and get some little banty eggs for the other girl. It's a perfect time for chick raising in AZ, unlike other parts of the country.
 

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