rooster was killed last night how long will my hens eggs stay fertile?

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leeboyz337

leeboyz337

Chirping
11 Years
Jun 14, 2011
24
1
87
i had a beautiful jersey giant rooster until last night when he was attacked and killed. he was free range with a few jersey giant hens and 2 rhode island hens. he was always doing his job with the girls and he was a mellow rooster. but what i want to know is id like to incubate some eggs to get another rooster. how long will the eggs the girls are laying stay fertile after his passing?

95961_jersey_giant_flock.jpg
 
I have heard anywhere from 2-3 days upwards to 2 weeks +.
How are you planning on incubating ? Incubator or broody hen?

I would collect eggs for 3-4 days. Put them in incubator. Collect for another 3-4 day etc. Collect for as long as you want. Once you have candled you will know how long they were fertile. Rembering that each hen may be different.

That way you will have seperate batches that you will know when you put them in. You will have staggered hatches but what you don't want to do is keep the first freshest eggs out of the bator for to long which will decrease their chance of hatching.

After 5 days you can candle the first ones you put in to see if they are fertile and continue checking the others at 5 days.


Good Luck and I'm sorry to hear about your rooster !!
hugs.gif
 
2 months!!!??? Way off sorry..up to 3 weeks...after two weeks fertility starts to decrease dramatically if not gone..Im sorry about your roo:(
 
Quote:
I'm sorry to hear about losing your nice roo.
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But to answer your question, the hens should continue to lay fertile eggs for about 2 weeks, maybe a little longer. I recently collected eggs laid from some new hens I purchased that had been with a roo until the day before I brought them home. The last one I collected was 10 or 11 days after the hens had been removed from the rooster, and it hatched (as well as all but 1 of the others)!! Certainly you have better odds of having more fertile eggs the sooner you do it, as it depends on how recently he had bred the individual hen, and then how long after you collect the eggs. Also, if you collect the first ones and then don't start incubating them for for 10-14 days, you will start losing viability of those too. So my suggestion would be to collect eggs for about 5-6 days max and then incubate them if you want the best chance of fertile, hatchable eggs. Good luck!!
 
Sorry about your boy! ;~(

Personal experience, the last year i set eggs under a broody, i waited almost three weeks after i caged all the roosters but the blue Ameraucana that i wanted for a daddy, and all the eggs i set were green.

When the chicks grew out, I had a roo that was half buff Orp, one that was half blue Orp, and a black Am hen that lays brown eggs...
 

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