Fertility Rate in advanced Senior chickens

[UrbanFarmerC]

First, hope this is in the right section...

When we bought our house in late summer, we inherited chickens.... They came with the house. The previous owner moved to a nursing home and we bought the property from his family, livestock included. In the deal were some hens of various types and a spangled hamburg rooster. He is currently running with a matched hen and a few other hens. We collected eggs from them for the hatch along, but are now questioning the fertility rate due to age.

The best guess of the rooster's age is 9 years plus.... And honestly he looks it. He is still feisty and loves to 'protect' his ladies when given the chance, attacking our cat. The hens are estimated at 4 and up (the hamburg hen maybe closer to the roos age, but idk). They still lay about every other day, the hamburg laying every 3 days on average.

My question- will we see a decrease in fertile rate due to the ages?? Anyone with experience in this field?

 

[Roosters110]

Lots of experience.
Yes you will see them slow down some may even stop completely

I currently have some six year left of hens who are laying better then my five year olds and two year olds,even my year olds.But,the time of year also comes in play.Once spring really kicks the young ones will get back on their game,but that being said your older hens do decrease.The older they get the more you will begin to see a decrease in eggs.Breed also plays apart

 

[aart]

The cocks fertility can decrease with age too.
Best bet is to look at the blastodisc on yolk when you break open eggs to eat.
There used to be a great thread showing lots of examples, but darned if I can find it.

Here's one example:

 

[Roosters110]

Thanks for that I noticed this year my rooster is breeding like he was last year