Fertile eggs?

[NatJ]

Hopefully, ive heard it can sometimes last up to 4 weeks. But I hope I wont have to keep trying. I just want two hens from him. (Very high chances the one under the first hen is a boy) so fingers crossed!

Yes, I've also heard of eggs being fertile for up to 3 or 4 weeks after removing the rooster, but that seems to be fairly rare. So it really matters if you are introducing a new rooster and need to be sure he's the father of chicks, but I wouldn't want to count on it if I was trying to get a good hatch rate after all roosters are gone.

 

[Cool_Catrules456]

In future, if you are able to move the broody to a place with only one nest, that would prevent this kind of problem. Of course moving her is no guarantee of a problem-free hatch. It just tends to change what kind of problems you have (like whether you have a suitable place to move her to, and whether that broody is willing to be moved.)

Ive tried it with this hen, she refused to sit there. She keeps screaming her head off until put back into the big coop. The first hen is the easy one. She does not mind. Then again the first one is more experienced. This one has only hatched ducks before. And they had to be taken away after. So first time letting her be a mom. So im going to have to have her raise them in the coop. (Fun fact about this hen. She has spurs) so thats going to be a headache.

 

[Cool_Catrules456]

Yes, I've also heard of eggs being fertile for up to 3 or 4 weeks after removing the rooster, but that seems to be fairly rare. So it really matters if you are introducing a new rooster and need to be sure he's the father of chicks, but I wouldn't want to count on it if I was trying to get a good hatch rate after all roosters are gone.

I am not, he is and will be the only rooster in this pen. (Unless the eggs hatch and end up being cockerels)

 

[Cool_Catrules456]

Yes, I've also heard of eggs being fertile for up to 3 or 4 weeks after removing the rooster, but that seems to be fairly rare. So it really matters if you are introducing a new rooster and need to be sure he's the father of chicks, but I wouldn't want to count on it if I was trying to get a good hatch rate after all roosters are gone.

I have another question, will the chicks be feather sexed? Like if the father is a slower feathering out breed. And the mother is not. They they be able to be sexed off of that? Ive heard that the males will take after the father and be slower feathering chicks, while the females are normal. (Im actually curious about this.)

 

[NatJ]

I have another question, will the chicks be feather sexed? Like if the father is a slower feathering out breed. And the mother is not. They they be able to be sexed off of that? Ive heard that the males will take after the father and be slower feathering chicks, while the females are normal. (Im actually curious about this.)

For feather sexing to work:
--the father must be fast feathering. His daughters will also have fast feathering.
--the mother must be slow feathering. Her sons will have slow feathering.

It looks like you've heard some wrong information.

If you're interested in the reasons it works this way, it's the same for all the sex-linked traits we find useful for sexing chickens:

Males have ZZ sex chromosomes. Each son or daughter inherits one Z chromosome from the father.

Females have ZW sex chromosomes. Each son inherits Z from the mother, each daughter inherits W from the mother.

Because a female only has one Z chromosome, she must show whatever gene is on it.
Because a male has two Z chromosomes, if they do not match, he will show the trait that is dominant.

So you pick a rooster with the recessive trait. Because it is recessive, if he shows the trait, you know he has two copies of the gene (one on each of his Z chromosomes.) He will pass that trait to his daughters (who show it, because they only have one Z chromosome), and to his sons (who may show it or not, depending on what they inherit from their mother.)

And you pick a hen with the dominant trait. Because she only has one Z chromosome, you know she cannot be carrying any recessive form of it to mess up your plans. She passes the dominant trait only to her sons, because her daughters get a W chromosome to make them female.

The sons get the dominant trait from the mother and the recessive from the father, so they show the dominant. The daughters get the recessive from the father and W chromosome from the mother, so they show the recessive trait. That makes sexable chicks.

The three common traits that are used:
Silver vs. gold
Barred vs. not-barred
Slow feathering vs. fast feathering
(I listed the dominant trait first for each one. So the mother must be silver, barred, or slow feathering; and the father must be gold, not-barred, or fast feathering.)

There are a few other traits on the Z sex chromosome, but for various reasons they are less useful for sexing newly-hatched chicks.

 

[Cool_Catrules456]

For feather sexing to work:
--the father must be fast feathering. His daughters will also have fast feathering.
--the mother must be slow feathering. Her sons will have slow feathering.

It looks like you've heard some wrong information.

If you're interested in the reasons it works this way, it's the same for all the sex-linked traits we find useful for sexing chickens:

Males have ZZ sex chromosomes. Each son or daughter inherits one Z chromosome from the father.

Females have ZW sex chromosomes. Each son inherits Z from the mother, each daughter inherits W from the mother.

Because a female only has one Z chromosome, she must show whatever gene is on it.
Because a male has two Z chromosomes, if they do not match, he will show the trait that is dominant.

So you pick a rooster with the recessive trait. Because it is recessive, if he shows the trait, you know he has two copies of the gene (one on each of his Z chromosomes.) He will pass that trait to his daughters (who show it, because they only have one Z chromosome), and to his sons (who may show it or not, depending on what they inherit from their mother.)

And you pick a hen with the dominant trait. Because she only has one Z chromosome, you know she cannot be carrying any recessive form of it to mess up your plans. She passes the dominant trait only to her sons, because her daughters get a W chromosome to make them female.

The sons get the dominant trait from the mother and the recessive from the father, so they show the dominant. The daughters get the recessive from the father and W chromosome from the mother, so they show the recessive trait. That makes sexable chicks.

The three common traits that are used:
Silver vs. gold
Barred vs. not-barred
Slow feathering vs. fast feathering
(I listed the dominant trait first for each one. So the mother must be silver, barred, or slow feathering; and the father must be gold, not-barred, or fast feathering.)

There are a few other traits on the Z sex chromosome, but for various reasons they are less useful for sexing newly-hatched chicks.

Ah makes sense, so I have to wait and see what genes he carries.

 

[Cool_Catrules456]

I wanted to test my white legiorns eggs again. So dont mind that its in a solo cup. This is yesterday’s egg, I put todays egg under my second hen. It looks off to what her eggs normally look like. So I can’t tell if this is a false alarm or if it is fertile.

The only reason I cracked it into here, is because it had a crack in it, and I did not notice it. Dont want to eat a cracked egg a day after it was layed. Incase of bacteria.

 

[Cool_Catrules456]

No internal pip yet, anyone want to make guesses on what color, and gender they will be? The egg came from a SLW and the roo is the EE boy. Guess away! Who ever wins, gets to name them! (If they hatch.) (if not, we will do this to the other eggs instead.)

 

[Cool_Catrules456]

The eggs under the second hen where covered in poop and egg bits. (One of the eggs I put under her whent missing, and probably was broken and eaten.) So I cracked them open to replace them with fresh ones, as I was not seeing anything, one of them had veins in it. Oops. So I replaced them with fresh, and moved her to a different coop alone. I gave her one more egg than before. So hopefully these eggs do well.

On the one hand I'm sad that I did that. But on the other, it was only one, I wanted two hens. And theres a really high chance that this egg will be a roo. So better to have 2 fertile eggs start developing then one. Still sad about it though.

 

[Idaho Chicken Bungalow]

Yes, I've also heard of eggs being fertile for up to 3 or 4 weeks after removing the rooster, but that seems to be fairly rare. So it really matters if you are introducing a new rooster and need to be sure he's the father of chicks, but I wouldn't want to count on it if I was trying to get a good hatch rate after all roosters are gone.

I removed my cockerel on Aug. 14th, I had a hen go broody at/about the same time. She is on a large clutch. I want to give her time but how long?