Amount of time needed to insure breeding to certain rooster

[calthage]

In situations where different breeds are together, how long after segregation of same breed rooster and hens to insure fertility not from another roo? Thanks!

 

[mithious]

That's really hard to say, as some hens will retain the sperm ( viably ) for quite some time....if you can, it's best to have them separated,...even a hoop house would do, for breeding pens ( with runs attached )...I would guess that 2-3 months would make it fairly certain, but that is just a guess...you might want to check out the breeding threads on here...there is tons of info and many people sharing that kind of info...best of luck to you!

 

[mithious]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/f/14/breeds-genetics-showing

This is the thread I was talking about...many many great breeders on here.

 

[donrae]

Hens can retain sperm a good 2 weeks after a single mating, if you really want to be sure to get chicks with a specific rooster it's best to wait 3 weeks after removing her from other roosters to collect eggs for incubating.

 

[mithious]

Hens can retain sperm a good 2 weeks after a single mating, if you really want to be sure to get chicks with a specific rooster it's best to wait 3 weeks after removing her from other roosters to collect eggs for incubating.

I was gonna give the OP a story, mights well, since you gave a great response to the question

Had a hen disappear once...thought she got taken by a predator...she came back eventually, with 16 chicks in tow. Hunted and found the nest with 4 eggs that didn't hatch but had baby chicks in them...they just didn't develop right, for whatever reason....so that was 20 days she laid fertile eggs, in the woods, under a nice little hidy hole. Nature is sooo neat and wonderful

 

[Ridgerunner]

First I’ll give you some information you did not ask for, but it might come in handy to know it.

It takes an egg about 25 hours to go through a hen’s internal egg making factory. That egg can only be fertilized in the first few moments of that journey. That means if a mating takes place on a Sunday, Sunday’s egg is not fertile. Monday’s egg might be but I would not count on it. Tuesday’s egg is almost certainly fertile.

The last part of the mating ritual is that after the rooster hops off, the hen fluffs up and shakes. This fluffy shake gets the sperm in a special container near where the egg starts its journey.

That sperm can stay viable for quite a while. Most of us assume a hen is still fertile two weeks after a mating. So look at two weeks as a general minimum. Many breeders wait three weeks after a mating to give enough time for the sperm to not be viable, but there have been cases where an egg was fertile even a couple of days longer than three weeks. So three weeks is pretty safe but four weeks is safer.

A professor that teaches poultry science and is an expert on chicken reproduction said that the special container to store the sperm operates on a last in – first out basis. That means the last rooster to mate with the hen will father her chicks. I understand it would take a leap of faith for you to trust a stranger over the internet in something like that. Personally I trust that professor. When I last saved eggs, I took the roosters I did not want to be the sire out on a Monday and started saving eggs that next Friday, trying to give that rooster enough time to mate with each hen in the flock. If you don’t trust me on that I’m certainly not offended.

 

[Loriemarler]

Very interesting info!