does ANYBODY know when(IF?) cockerels are viable for being dads?

[chooniecat]

want to breed my BA cockerel with some hens/older pullets I have. WHEN ,appx., are BA cockerels able to provide viable sperm for said purpose? thanks!

 

[Highlander]

He looks perfectly capable to me.

 

[gvntofly05]

My BCM roos were doing their job at 4 months of age! Most roos are good to go anywhere between 4 and 6 months! If he is breeding with the hens, start checking the eggs for fertility!

 

[chooniecat]

well,of course, he's jumping on them (forgive me, I am trying to be silly, NOT sarcastic!) I just don't know enuf about his actual ability to produce fertile eggs yet and although I ate 2 this a.m. I forgot to check. I only eat eggs every couple of weeks(been selling the rest!) and wanted to know if theres actually a time frame for viability. so ya'll think at 6 months of age he can actually produce young'uns? I am going out today to seperate(well,build an area in shed) a couple previously broody hens and him and start the process. thanks.

 

[gvntofly05]

If he is 6 months old, I'm pretty sure your eggs will be fertile! Start hatching!!!

 

[chooniecat]

I had my son look up the question of scientific viability. it appears that if they(the said cockerel) are mounting then more than likely they're capable of producing. was also concerned with the female involved so am using my older girls. I DID check the eggs I cooked for my son earlier and one of them (couldn't see the white spot on the other one) DID have a perfectly round white spot which would indicate fertility, I believe?It was an egg from one of the "recently started laying" layers so I won't use THOSE small eggs.

 

[gryeyes]

The sign of fertility is actually a "bulls-eye" - not just a round white spot. Once you see it on an egg yolk, you know exactly what it is.

I know that before I saw one on one of MY eggs (well, the eggs my chickens lay for me), the pictures were really helpful but I still wondered. And then one day, there was a bulls-eye on an egg.... and from then on, I was able to tell the difference between the white spot and the white bulls-eye.

My incubator only hold 7 eggs, so when I got extra eggs in an hatching eggs order, I'd open the extras and check before feeding them to my cat and/or dogs. Yup, I can see the bulls-eye in other folks' eggs, too!

My newest layer is still laying fairly small eggs, and apparently the rooster has managed to get to her, too.

 

[chooniecat]

well-obviously I do NOT know how to tell fertile from unfertile. I confused the rules for cancerous vs noncancerous moles. seriously.sorry. I looked at the pics on here a couple of days ago and thought I had it correct. oh well. its a moot point because I won't know what what anyhow until a few weeks later when, hopefully, one of my girls has incubated the eggs and hopefully I get future layers (or, the others).

 

[gryeyes]

Gosh, I didn't mean to come off snarky in my last post. Please forgive me if that's how it seemed. I was trying to be helpful - because until I saw an actual bulls-eye on a real egg, right in front of me in a dish, I just didn't get it. "Bulls-eye? Where's that? Is that one? Maybe I don't see the bit in the center because ....

...oh WOW! THAT'S a bulls-eye!!!!"

And after that, I just happen to check when I break open an egg. It makes me smirk.

Again, please forgive me if I sounded superior or snooty!!

 

[chooniecat]

no no- you were not snarky-I appreciated the correction. I thought I had it right. NOW I know. I learn the hard way by screwing up. will check tomorrow(I'll just have to eat more eggs!) seirously-thank you for bringing it up!