Chicken Breeding Pens

[RWD]

If he is a young rooster then 8 would be ok, if he is 3yrs. old or more 5 is max for him. Usually breeding pens hold 3 or 4 top hens with a rooster, for specialized breeding. Just to have fertile eggs you could run up to 10 per rooster, but every egg may not be fertile. We make a breeder pen for up to 4+1, check out my facebook page below for ideas.

 

[cwalsh2]

I have hatched a lot of eggs under the hen that laid them. Usually 12 or so eggs and they usually hatch 100%. It takes at least 12 days to lay 12 eggs, but then hens typically hatch eggs very well. One time a friends Guinea was found sitting on a real deep nest with about 30 eggs in it. She hatched off 12 and left the nest. I put the rest in my incubator and every day 1 or 2 more would hatch for a week. 9 more. I had a pekin duck lay way more eggs than she could keep warm in another deep nest, and I did the same thing. She left with 13 ducklings and I hatched 5 more in the incubator in the next 3 days. That is 18 ducklings and I only had 1 hen duck. Eggs stay good a lot longer than 5 or 7 days. Shipping is hard on them so the older eggs don't make it. On your own farm12 days is ok.

 

[Ramblin Rooster]

Interesting thought, I will take that into consideration.