Fertilization period

[whychicksmatter]

Hi,

Could someone please tell me how long you have to separate a hen from a rooster for all the eggs fertilized by that rooster are laid? I have three roosters of different colours & would like to just use one so that I know which colour will be produced. They are 3 varieties of Blue Laced Red Wyandottes. Thanks in advance.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Lets attack both ends of that question. It takes about 25 hours for an egg to make its way thought the hen's internal egg making factory. The egg can only be fertilized in the first few minutes of that journey. That means if a mating takes place on a Thursday, Thursday's egg will not be fertile. Friday''s egg might or might not be, depending on timing, but do not count on it. Saturday's egg will be fertile. This is after a successful mating. Not all roosters mate with every hen in the flock every day but they don't have to.

The eggs are not fertilized during the mating act. The sperm is stored and the eggs are only fertilized once the yolk is released to start it's journey through that egg making factory.

The last part of the mating act is that the rooster hops off and the hen stands up and fluffs up. Then she shakes. This fluffy shake moves the sperm to a special container near where the egg yolk starts its journey where it is there to fertilize the egg as the yolk starts its journey. That sperm can remain viable in tat special container anywhere from 9 days until more than three weeks. Most of us count on the hen laying fertile eggs for two weeks after a mating, that's a pretty safe bet.

Many people wait three weeks and consider the hen "clean". On rare occasions the sperm can remain viable for over three weeks so to be absolutely safe you need to wait four weeks but many serious breeders consider that overkill. They consider three weeks sufficient.