A good time to get a rooster? And other breeding questions!

This is completely overwhelming! But I am up to the task of learning. Whew! Thanks!

And since they, I do not think, are true RIRs, but Productions, that still works?
 
I just found the link you spoke of, donrae. Thanks! It looks like I can get the Sussex male OR the Buff Orp and mate them with the Dels for Sex Linked chicks! Good to know! :)
 
If you want to find out about sex links read the very first post in this thread. It takes a bit of thought and study but once you grasp the concept, it is not that hard to follow. There is a chart there that tells you which rooster will make red sex links over your Delaware hens.

Tadkerson’s Sex Link Thread
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=261208

Some people think there is something magical about sex links. There’s not but some hatcheries sell commercial egg laying chickens as their sex links and a myth is born about sex link egg laying ability.

If you put a buff rooster or any other red rooster over your Delaware hen, the chicks that hatch will be yellow it they are male and red if they are female. That way you could sell day old chicks and guarantee that they are female. Your customers might like that.

One problem for you is that the same rooster over your red hens will also give you red colored down on their chicks. If you hatch eggs from both, you won’t know which red chicks are pullets from the Delaware and which could be either sex from your reds. I’ve done that. You really can’t tell. But the yellow ones will definitely be male.

Every chicken breed was created by inbreeding. Every grand champion chicken at a major chicken show is created by inbreeding. Practically every pioneer family that settled this country kept flocks with a lot of inbreeding. Inbreeding chickens is not as horrible as some people believe.

When you inbreed you find out what genetics may be hiding in your chickens. These may be good genes or they may be bad. Often you have some of both. By carefully selecting your breeding birds to be the ones you want and by ruthlessly making sure the birds with bad traits don’t breed, you can improve your flock. You may also find out that your flock has some really bad genes and you really need to start over with new birds.

Inbreeding can cause problems if you don’t know what you are doing. Championship breeders carefully select their breeders and can keep going with inbreeding for decades or longer. Most of us are not that good or don’t have the facilities to use the techniques they use. One standard method, spiral breeding, involves keeping three different flocks and keeping really good records of which birds breed with which, for example. A real standard way to handle this for many of us is to bring in new blood every five years or so to keep the genetic diversity up. You still watch which breeding birds you keep and you don’t know what genes you may bring into your flock with a new rooster, but this technique has kept a lot of flocks healthy and producing for thousands of years without spending a lot of time and effort on tracking genetics.

As far as timing, whenever you can do it. People will argue that this is better or that is better and they may have a good point, but to me the best time to do something is when you can.
 
Yes! I did realize that. We would plan to sequester the Dels with the rooster for a bit for those chicks. Here is a question...how long after mating can the chicken produce fertile eggs? Someone said up to a month. If that is so, how soon are their eggs fertile. Does it take a few days to produce fertile eggs because of the process it takes and because there can be no shell on the egg in order to be fertilized?
 
The rooster can effectively keep up with 6-8 hens and your fertility rate will be quite high. Once the flock gets up to a dozen females under one rooster, you risk fertility rates, depending on how "active" shall we say, that rooster is.

After 3 days of being mounted effectively, the average hen will begin to lay fertile eggs. She'll likely receive enough sperm to stay fertile for two weeks. Fertility will drop after two weeks if she isn't mated again. Roosters tend to mate their favorites quite often, like every day or two or three, but once every two weeks is adequate. Once you remove the rooster, again, the hens will begin losing fertility after a couple weeks of separation, although she'll lay mostly fertile eggs up to three weeks, on average.

Some hens will never be fertile from your rooster because she has the ability to reject his sperm. It happens. Also, some hens are rejected by some roosters as well. It's pretty rare that there is 100% compatibility.

Hope that helps.
 
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So is it worth getting two roosters and separating them into two groups for best fertilization?

That is so weird that she can reject his sperm!
 
Well, one Red type rooster will give you more red chicks with your red hens. A red rooster will also give you sex links (hopefully) with your Dels. So, if you are happy with that, then one would do. You could breed and hatch from one flock then rotate the rooster and breed and hatch from the other.

Or, you could breed red/red and Del/Del with the addition of a Del rooster. It's your choice, really. A lot depends on your facilities as well.
 

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