Breeding

[shy]

Just had a silly question. Does the rooster need to mate the hen each time for that particular egg to be fertile? If so, does that mean you can actually have one clutch of eggs from one hen and several roosters? Anyone know?

 

[speckledhen]

From one successful mating, her eggs will stay fertile for about two weeks, sometimes a bit more.

And that's not a silly question!

 

[wclawrence]

but you can still have eggs fertilized by different roosters in the same clutch.

 

[speckledhen]

Yep, that's true.

 

[tadkerson]

Hens have little pouches(sperm host glands) that line the junction of the shell gland and the vagina (near the end of the oviduct). When a female copulates with a male, the sperm released by the male are stored inside the pouches. The pouches discharge some of the sperm when an egg passes out of the body of the hen. The sperm then swim up the oviduct and fertilize the next egg produced by the hen's ovary. The pouches can hold sperm from more than one rooster. Sperm can live for up to 3 weeks inside a pouch but usually will only be active for 10 to 14 days. For some reason (I do not know why or how it works) the hen will most often fertilize the eggs with the sperm from the last rooster that donated sperm to the hen.

Tim

 

[shy]

Thanks everyone for the great info. I had no clue. It's kind of amazing actually.

 

[halo]

That guy is amazing.....