Chicken Breeding Question...

[ElizH]

This is a silly question... but if a hen has been with a single rooster for a few days/a week and they have mated - If she is moved into a pen with a different rooster, and he mates her, will she continue to lay only eggs fertilized from the first rooster, or a mix of the two roosters?

I know dogs can have litters with multiple fathers, and even humans can have twins with two different fathers... but I'm still learning about how this chicken process works.

 

[Kusanar]

It should be a mix for, I believe, around 3 weeks and then they should all be the new rooster.

 

[ElizH]

That's what I was figuring, it makes the most sense with what I know about other animals.

Hmmm that just means I'll need to build more coops! I already have two big runs and coops, but if I need to isolate a few couples, I'll need to build some more.

 

[Ridgerunner]

This may help you with your planning. 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 minutes of that journey. That means if a mating takes place on a Monday, Monday's egg will not be fertile from that mating. Can't be. Tuesday's egg might or might not be, depending on timing. Don't count on it. Wednesday's egg will be fertile.

This is after a mating. A rooster does not mate with every hen in the flock every day, but he doesn't have to. At the end of the mating, the rooster hops off, the hen stands up, fluffs up, and gives a shake. That fluffy shake gets the sperm in a special container near where the egg starts its journey. That sperm can remain viable for quite a while in that container, usually from 9 days to more than 3 weeks.

That's where the unknown comes in You just don't know how long it will remain viable. Waiting two weeks is usually not enough. Three weeks is in the majority of cases but there have been cases where three weeks wasn't enough. Four week s is about as sure as you can get. Whether you wait three or four depends on how sure you want to be.