Fertile for a Month?

[sarabeth53]

My white wyandotte girl was bred on January 31st. I've been told they will stay fertile for a month, I've also heard 6 days.

I just started getting eggs and I want to know....Is she still fertile?

 

[thechickenchick]

I can't say 100% but I have heard its 2 weeks.

 

[ranchhand]

If she wasn't already laying then probably not. Slim chance, but with chickens you never say never!

Usually about a month, but it does vary. The 6 days? Maybe it was about how long before hatchability starts going down? That's usually 10 days or thereabouts.

 

[sarabeth53]

Thanks for the feedback! (I'm always amazed at how fast I get responses LOL) I'll throw 'em in the incubator and see what happens! It's worth a shot, right?

 

[thechickenchick]

Quote:
Definitely! Keep us posted and good luck!

 

[FortWorthChicks]

Mine were all fertile eggs for a couple weeks after

 

[Chic Chick]

Quote:
How do you know your hen was bred?

First of all...do you have a rooster with her? Was it a young one just starting to breed or was it an older experienced one? If you "borrowed" a rooster to breed her did you quarentine it to make sure it won't spread any pests or diseases to your chickens?

Did you break open any of her eggs and check if they were fertilized? You should be able to see a white doughnut shaped circle on the egg yolk - if you just see a white dot it's probably not fertilized.

Usuallly it isn't a good idea to try hatching the young Small pullet eggs.

But Good luck anyway!

 

[Ridgerunner]

While it is possible she is still fertile, I'd consider it unlikely. From what I've been able to determine, the average time a hen stays fertile after a mating is 2 weeks. It can be less and it can be longer. Most breeders wait at least three weeks after removing a specific rooster and introducing another to be pretty sure the hen is still not fertile from the first rooster. There have been reports of eggs hatching where it had been a bit more than three weeks since the hen was with a rooster, but in about a year on this forum, I've seen that reported exactly twice. It is rare.

 

[Scoop]

Well, I'm one of those who can say it was almost a month after rooster was put in seperate coop that I did see a fertile egg. I was like NO WAY!!! Then I counted back when he'd been there and yes it was at least 3 weeks. I only saw it in one of the breeds tho. I have 6 different breeds and the other 5 were not fertile. If I hadn't seen it I wouldn't have believed it!