Fertilize egg

I don't understand the question. A chicken lays eggs whether they are fertilized or not. A rooster is not needed for a hen to lay.

 

Are you asking if they will lay more if fertilized? The fact that you have a rooster fertilizing eggs does not change the hens laying pattern. A hen can only lay one egg per day. It takes a lot of energy to produce an egg.

 

Welcome to BYC! It's great to have you.

Aside from very rare freak occurrences, a hen will not lay more than one egg a day. Having a rooster nearby or being mated by a rooster will not effect a hen's natural laying cycle, it will simply make the eggs fertile.

 

Here's a 101 on chicken reproduction.....

Hens will lay an egg basically every day, usually taking off 1-2 days a week, depending on breed.

If a rooster mates a hen, she stores the sperm inside. Her body fertilizes each egg from that mating for about 2 weeks, give or take.

In birds that are naturally broody, a hen will lay an egg a day until she has a clutch of about a dozen eggs. This will vary a lot depending on the bird, a dozen is a rough average.

The fertile eggs are in a kind of stasis at this point. they don't start to develop chicks until she sets on them.

At some point around there, her hormones will trigger the instinct to brood or set on those eggs. Once she sets and her body heats them up to around 100 degrees for a few days, the blood vessels and chick starts to develop. She sets on them for 21 days and then chicks hatch, usually all over the course of 1-2 days.

Momma waits a day or so after the first chick hatches, to give everyone time to hatch. Some point on the second or third day she'll leave the nest and any eggs that haven't hatched yet, to show the chicks food and water.


In a lot of hatchery breeds, a hen won't go broody no matter how many eggs build up in a clutch. It's been bred out of them and just won't happen.

 

Maybe you've seen a hen with a lot of eggs under her, and wondered if she laid them all in one day. No, if this is the question. They will lay an egg a day only, stay on the eggs until she has finished with what will be a long 3 week wait for the chicks to hatch. She could lay one egg a day while going broody for a week, or, for only a few days. They are all different.