Breeding my flock 101

[Minky]

I have 7 hens, mixed flock. Just got a beautiful Cream Legbar rooster. He's in quarantine- two more weeks to go. All birds are around 8 months old.

All seems to be going well with my new Roo, and he ate some melon from my hand today for the first time. The hens seem very curious about him and sometimes try to follow me into his coop.

I would like to breed him to 3 of my hens. How shall I go about doing this? Shall I put each hen in with him, one at a time, for maybe a few days? All three for a week?
I can tell which hen lays which egg because hey are all different colors. So shall I just let them all mingle, and then after a few weeks check for fertilization, and then only hatch the ones from the three hens I want to breed?

Any advice would be great. Thanks!

 

[Folly's place]

Add him to your flock, and when you are ready to incubate eggs, save the eggs that you plan to hatch. By spring he should be ready to go! As long as you are getting fertile eggs it should work well.
Mary

 

[Minky]

Thanks Mary!

 

[Ridgerunner]

As long as you can tell which eggs are which, let him in with the entire flock. That has to be the simplest way to go about it and it should work. A few days before you want to incubate eggs check them for fertility.

If you are not getting all fertile eggs, isolate him with all three and start checking for fertility. Occasionally with cockerels and pullets you have some maturity and dominance issues that get in the way of fertility but at that age they should be well past those issues.

 

[Minky]

Is the only way to check for fertility, to crack open the egg and look for bullseye?

If Im not seeing fertility in the eggs I want- how many days should I lock them up together? Just a few? Im assuming if they are all free ranging fertility rates will be much less consistant?

 

[Folly's place]

If you check random eggs, for several pullets, and you see him breeding the birds you want, that's a very good indicator.
Mary

 

[Mrs. K]

Always check your eggs as you cook. When you start getting a high number of fertile eggs, you can assume the ones you set will be too.

If the hens are following you in his coop, they are close enough that the quarantine has been broken, no need to wait another 2 weeks unless you want to.

Good luck
Mrs K

 

[Ridgerunner]

It takes an egg about 25 hours to go through the hen's internal egg making factory. The egg can only be fertilized during the first few minutes of that journey. So if a successful mating takes place on a Saturday, Saturday's egg will not be fertile. Sunday's egg might be but don't count on it. Monday's egg will be fertile.

Not every rooster mates with every hen in the flock every day but he doesn't need to. The last part of the mating act is that the rooster hops off, he is done. Then the hen stands up, fluffs up, and shakes. That fluffy shake gets the sperm into a container near where the egg starts it's journey. That sperm can stay viable in that container for anywhere from 9 days to over three weeks. Most of us count on two weeks, that seems to work really well.

You are dealing with living animals and their behaviors. Nobody can give you any guarantees. But most young roosters free ranging with 15 to 20 hens will keep all of them fertile. Dad used one rooster with 25 hens and practically all those eggs hatched.

The only practical ways I'm aware of to check for fertility is to crack them and look for the bull's eye or incubate them and look for development in several days. There used to be a Canadian company that would DNA test eggs for fertility and sex but i don't consider that very practical.

 

[Minky]

Now I now why my hens fluff up their feathers and give a good shake after I pet them in the morning (when they squat down)!! Thats so interesting!
Yes, I quarrantined him in the next stall over (old sheep or goat stalls maybe- that now have chicken wire)... so its quarantine, but they are right there next to each other... they can't swap spit, or share food, or touch each other. I guess if he had something that could be airborne I'd be in trouble... but he came from a home owner with 6 birds (him and 5 sisters) , so I wasn't too worried. I will wait another week and then see what happens!!!

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Cockerels often have dominance issues that negatively effect fertility rates. I have seen people in the Philippines open the door to a rooster pens then hold the hen down and in just seconds he will cover that hen. Then they bring a different hen to the rooster. As a general rule never take the rooster or any other male animal to the female but always carry the female to the male. That reduces dominance or confidence issues. After about 5 days you should start to see signs of life in your hens' eggs. Also the more hens that you ask a cockerel to breed the less he will usually accomplish because he may be beneath the hen in the pecking order. Sperm that is stored inside the hen is not as good as sperm from a resent mating and there may be all types of problems associated with old sperm from birth defects to chicks dying in the shell or failure to hatch.