This seems like a simple question but I've had a very hard time getting it answered. I understand that a hen will lay an egg about every day- with or without a rooster having bred her. That isn't my question. What I would like to know is whether a hen has to be bred after every single egg (ie before the next egg) in order for an egg to be fertile. Or can she be bred and therefore lay fertile eggs for 2 or 3 days or even more. Specifically, if my hen is bred on Monday at noon, and then she lays an egg on tuesday at 10 am, I assume that egg will be fertile. But what if the rooster is killed by a predator at 1 pm on Monday. The tuesday egg would still, I presume, be fertile since she was bred the day before at noon and hasn't laid an egg since. But what about Wednesday? If she wasn't bred on Tueday at all and she already laid the tuesday egg which was fertilized Monday, would the Wed egg still be fertile as well? Obviously if there is no rooster then the eggs can't be fertile more than a few days, but it seems possible that some residual sperm/fertility could remain for at least a day or two. But that is my question. I'm sorry if I'm being too specific and lengthy here, but I've been asking this for a while and have a hard time getting people to understand my question and/or give an answer that is anything beyond a guess. I'd really like to know the correct answer to this. Thanks so much everyone!
