Breeding chickens

[Chick143]

Today we bought home three Bantam hens and a Rooster, we already have three Bantam hens and we plan to keep them all in the same, but the rooster has already begun to mate with the chickens, we'd love to have baby chickens but aren't too sure how to do this, our first little Bantams have gotten a bit broody over the last month but how do we tell which hens are broody and which hens are genuinely laying fertilized eggs? and what should we do with the hens laying the fertile eggs?

 

[CochinBrahmaLover]

OK, let me get thi straight > You have 3 hens origanlly. You bought 3 hens today and a rooster. One of your hens is already broody, but your not sure if you want chicks or are you just wondering which eggs are fertile?

If your wondering which eggs are fertile, if the bantam hens have been kept with the rooster then all the eggs they are laying are already fertile (with a few -unable to tell until being incubated- duds inbetween) so if you want to give your broody hen eggs then save up roughly 4or5 eggs from the new hens then give it to her. This is what I'd do.

 

[Vicky2479]

Any hen that has been housed with your rooster is likely to be laying fertile eggs but these eggs will not develop till a hen starts to sit and stays there.
You will be able to tell if you have a broody hen when she starts to sit in the nest box and stays there especially if she chooses to stay in the box rather than roost at night, she may even get nasty if you try to move her off the nest. About 3 days ago my little girl went to get the eggs but there was a hen sitting on them, luckily I was with her as the hen hissed and tried to peck me when I went to move her, I gently pushed her off with a stick and she went off to have something to eat but was back in the box 5mins later despite there being no eggs to sit on, she was still there when I went to lock up for the night.
If you want chicks you can do 2 things, collect the eggs till you have as many as you want then set them in a incubator, hatch them and raise them yourself in a brooder or
Let your hens do all the work, if you have a broody hen then collect some eggs and put them under her all at the same time, wait 21 days and hopefully most of them will hatch.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I'm also having trouble trying to figure out what you are asking. I'll try to pass on some information that may help.

It takes about 25 hours for an egg to make its way through the hen's internal egg laying factory. It can only be fertilized during the first 15 minutes or so of that journey. That means if a mating takes place on a Friday, Friday's egg is not fertile. It started its journey Thursday. Saturday's egg might be fertile, depending on when it started its journey and when the mating took place. Sunday's egg is almost certainly fertile. Most hens will lay fertile eggs for about 2 weeks after a mating.

Not all roosters mate with every hen in the flock every day so every egg laid may not be fertile on Sunday in the above example. But with a small flock like that, it won't take long. If the rooster was introduced on a Friday in the flock you described, I'd be pretty comfortable setting eggs on Monday. But if you want, you can look for the bull's eye. You have to crack an egg to look for the bull's eye so you can't hatch it, but if the eggs you crack are fertile, you can assume the others are too. This thread has photos of what the bull's eye looks like.

Fertile Egg Photos
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=16008&p=6

You don't need to do anything special with hens that are laying fertile eggs except see that they are eating a fairly well balanced diet. If the egg shells are hard, you don't need to do anything about adding calcium. With hard egg shells they are getting enough, but it never hurts to offer oyster shell on the side. If they need it they will eat it. If they don't need it that oyster shell will last a really long time.

I don't know how you are feeding yours. If they are foraging they are getting all kinds of good vitamin and mineral supplements. If you are providing practically everything they eat, the majority of their diet should be chicken feed which will give them a well balanced diet, but some additional greens or kitchen wastes won't hurt at all. Just make sure the majority of what you give them is their regular feed.

Hens can be "partially" broody. They'll walk around fluffed up, making broody sounds, and all that, but they continue to lay eggs and don't spend that much time on the nest. Broodiness is caused by hormones. Those partially broody hens may eventually get the hormones to kick in and go fully broody or they may never reach that point and go back to normal.

My test of when a hen is broody enough to get eggs is that she has to spend two consecutive nights on the nest instead of roosting. Only after two consecutive nights on the nest instead of roosting is she worthy of getting hatching eggs. I have had some hens quit after one night on the nest. Some hens you can tell immediately when you see them, but it takes me a couple of days to gather eggs to hatch anyway.

When saving eggs for a broody or for an incubator, collect the eggs daily and store them pointy side down in a relatively cool place in your house, not in direct sunlight. You can store them about a week this way. If you keep them more than a week, you lose a bit of hatchability and you need to start turning them.

If you are putting eggs under a broody, gather all you want her to have and start them at the same time. Mark the eggs you want her to hatch. I use a Sharpie and draw a couple of circles around the egg so I can instantly see that it belongs. Then check under the broody once a day, preferably later in the day when all eggs have been laid, and remove any that were not marked.

Others will do things differently but this is the way I do it. There are many different methods that can work.
Good luck!

 

[Sweetlilbaby]

After getting a rooster I always wait at least a week before trying to incubate any eggs. If you have a broody hen that is great she can do all the work, otherwise you may need to incubate the eggs if you want chicks.
What to do with hens that lay fertile eggs if you don't want chicks right then? Leave them with the rooster, collect the eggs everyday put the eggs in the fridge to eat. Fertile eggs are just as yummy as non fertile eggs.