Fertility and Roosters

[atm21]

I have a rooster with about 40 hens right now. I want to be able to separate him out and about 12 hens because I want to hatch chicks from those 12 and him. How long should I leave him in the pen with the 12 so that he covers them all? My goal is to hatch eggs from these 12 and two separate roosters and be able to have the chicks close in age from both. I was thinking once I take the first rooster out leave the hens alone collect eggs on days 13 and 14 since 2 weeks they are usually still fertile. Then add in the second rooster and collect eggs after a week or so. My main question is how long does the first rooster have to stay with them?

 

[peaceisgreen]

put him in the pen, put four females in there for one week, collect the eggs at the end of the week, and incubate immediately, then put the next four in and repeat this is your best chance of the highest % of fertilized eggs

 

[aart]

I have a rooster with about 40 hens right now. I want to be able to separate him out and about 12 hens because I want to hatch chicks from those 12 and him. How long should I leave him in the pen with the 12 so that he covers them all? My goal is to hatch eggs from these 12 and two separate roosters and be able to have the chicks close in age from both. I was thinking once I take the first rooster out leave the hens alone collect eggs on days 13 and 14 since 2 weeks they are usually still fertile. Then add in the second rooster and collect eggs after a week or so. My main question is how long does the first rooster have to stay with them?

There is more than one male involved?

If the females in question have been exposed to more than one male,
it will take 3-4 weeks for the 'unwanted' sperm to clear from the females systems.

If there is only one male involved,
shouldn't take more than a few day to a week for that one male to inseminate the females,
if they'll let him mount.

 

[peaceisgreen]

that makes things much more complicated and theres much more left to chance a rooster will likely choose 3 or 4 hens to breed and neglect the rest either because they wont have him or they are not high enough in the pecking order and he wont have her which means youll have a 25-33% fertility rate you would have to separate the three rooster from each other and all hens and mark the 12 hens (say four blue four green four red) so you know which is which put a single color group in each pen to begin with after one week release the hens into a rooster free area for 4 weeks then rotate the hens wait another 4 weeks rotate the hens again mark the eggs (say 1 2 & 3 for the roosters and b g & r for the hens so 1b 1g 1r 2b 2g 2r and 3b 3g 3r for example) which is quite the endeavor the way you plan to do it if you have the means to do this however this will guarantee your highest hatch rate and you youll know exactly whats what without a doubt

 

[atm21]

There is more than one male involved? 

If the females in question have been exposed to more than one male,
it will take 3-4 weeks for the 'unwanted' sperm to clear from the females systems.

If there is only one male involved,
shouldn't take more than a few day to a week for that one male to inseminate the females,
if they'll let him mount.

Yes there will be two males but not at once. I want to collect eggs around 10-14 days after the first rooster is out then add in the new rooster and wait about a week to get a second batch. Im just wondering how many days the first should stay with them.

 

[atm21]

that makes things much more complicated and theres much more left to chance a rooster will likely choose 3 or 4 hens to breed and neglect the rest either because they wont have him or they are not high enough in the pecking order and he wont have her which means youll have a 25-33% fertility rate you would have to separate the three rooster from each other and all hens and mark the 12 hens (say four blue four green four red) so you know which is which put a single color group in each pen to begin with after one week release the hens into a rooster free area for 4 weeks then rotate the hens wait another 4 weeks rotate the hens again mark the eggs (say 1 2 & 3 for the roosters and b g & r for the hens so 1b 1g 1r 2b 2g 2r and 3b 3g 3r for example) which is quite the endeavor the way you plan to do it if you have the means to do this however this will guarantee your highest hatch rate and you youll know exactly whats what without a doubt

That does sound like quite the endeavor lol. The roosters are about a year old so they are very active breeders so I might try the 12 , test and see how his fertility is with the 12. If it is low I will definitely have to try your way. It'll be two roosters so that no doubt will take some time but would get a desirable outcome.

 

[peaceisgreen]

just make sure you dont forget to candle your eggs and discard non fertilized eggs they will go bad in the incubator good luck

 

[atm21]

just make sure you dont forget to candle your eggs and discard non fertilized eggs they will go bad in the incubator good luck

Ok thanks

. If I want to check eggs before incubating is it possible to collect and crack open an egg without incubating to see if my rooster is "working"?

 

[peaceisgreen]

you can theres actually a forum on here dedicated to spotting a embryo on the yolk you can use these pictures as a reference
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/16008/how-to-tell-a-fertile-vs-infertile-egg-pictures

 

[Ridgerunner]

Something to help you with your planning. It takes an egg about 25 hours to make its way through the hen’s internal egg making factory. It can only be fertilized during the first few minutes of that journey. That means if a successful mating takes place on a Sunday, Sunday’s egg is not fertile from that mating. Monday’s egg might be but don’t count on it. Tuesday’s egg will be fertile. That timing is pretty specific.

The last part of the mating act is after the rooster hops off the hen stands up, fluffs up, and shakes. This fluffy shake gets the sperm into a special container inside the hen near where the egg starts that journey. That sperm normally stays effective for anywhere from 9 days to over three weeks. Most of us count on two weeks. There have been cases where a hen laid a fertile egg over three weeks after the rooster was gone, but it’s fairly rare. Most people use three weeks as a pretty safe length of time for that sperm to clear out. A month can be a long wait.

As mentioned a rooster does not usually mate with every hen in the flock every day. In a normal flock situation he doesn’t have to, once every two weeks is enough. You are not in that situation though. How often he mates and with which hens will depend on different things. Part of it is how vigorous the rooster is. Some roosters have no problems keeping over 20 hens fertile. Some may struggle to keep 4 hens fertile. Age can be a factor. Younger roosters can be more vigorous than older roosters.

Flock dynamics has a lot to do with it. A rooster needs to be dominant enough that the hens accept him as flock master. Otherwise they may run away when he dances instead of squatting. Not all roosters chase them down and force the issue.

Roosters do not carry a little black book to keep track. “Oh, I haven’t mated her for a couple of weeks, it’s time”. It’s a lot of opportunity. If the flock splits up where some hens stay with the rooster while others avoid him, certain ones are more likely to be bred.

In other words there is no guarantee a rooster will even keep all hens fertile, let alone how long it takes for him to fertilize the flock to start with.

The way I understand it, you have two roosters and 12 hens you want to hatch eggs from. You want the chicks to be about the same age. You feel you can collect enough eggs from 12 hens in two days from each rooster.

My suggestion would be to split the hens into two groups of six each. Put each group with one rooster. After the appropriate amount of time, collect eggs over a 4 or 5 day period to hatch. That way the chicks will be exactly the same age, not just close together. One rooster is more likely to have all eggs fertile with six hens than 12. I don’t know if you have one incubator or two, but either way you can keep the chicks separated at hatch. We can discuss that if you wish. If you only have one incubator, do you want a staggered hatch?

I don’t know all your goals or whether this could work for you (you may not want to split the hens) but it seems it would give you more control over the situation that waiting and hoping the second rooster does his job in a reasonable amount of time. I think you are kind of putting all your eggs in one basket if you count on days 13 and 14 to be good days for egg laying, plus on occasion the sperm may not be as viable then as sooner in the cycle.