fertilization time?

[Hatch me if you can]

I just placed my americana bantam hen in with her new man. She has been laying for about a week now. I was wondering how long should I expect to wait until the eggs are fertile for incubation?

Thank you in advance!!

 

[Ridgerunner]

It takes about 25 hours for an egg to go through the hen's internal egg laying factory from start to finish. That egg can only be fertilized in the first 15 minutes of that journey. This means that if the mating took place on a Friday, Friday's egg would not be fertile. It started its journey on Thursday. Saturday's egg might be fertile, depending on what time the mating took place and what time the egg started its journey. Sunday's egg would almost certainly be fertile.

Notice that this is after a mating, not just after they were put together. You might look at the pictures in this thread to see what a fertile egg looks like.

Fertile Egg Photos
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=16008&p=6

 

[sourland]

Ridgerunner is right on the money. If she was with another rooster before this new rooster, understand that she can retain sperm from that rooster 3 weeks + after seperation. As a result any eggs collected during that time period have a possibility of having been fertilized by the first rooser.

 

[Hatch me if you can]

thank you very much for the info!!! Now I just have to wait a few days and we will put some eggs in the incubator for a test run. I love this part of chicken raising!!