Fertilizing Eggs

[JohnTheChickenMan]

From March 29th.

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Yeah mine don't look like that and they still hatch. I'm going to try putting in the incubator for a day then break it

 

[Liz Birdlover]

Some Roos do fine with the ladies & start offering them treats & acting lovey-dovey protective.

Some are a bit rough, mating grabbing back of neck & awkwardly losing balance. Spurs can do damage so you may consider trimming & smoothing the point.

Some actually get bullied by the hens! I have 10 Roos, & my RIR Comet mix Roo is so sweet, those hens pecked & plucked him! He now resembles a naked neck & I had to move him out of there.

The Wyandotte Roo is in there now, he doesn't have a mark on him. The RIR hens pecked his comb at 1st & then he let them know that behavior wouldn't be tolerated, so he is still gorgeous.

You never know who will end up being a little too boisterous or who will get bullied & hen pecked. So make sure you take time to observe, & then continue to check over everyone every morning & every dusk, to make sure all are getting along well. Yes, there's pecking order, but at times, we do need to make sure no one is getting carried away with attitudes.

Sometimes a simple time out works, other times you may need to totally move someone.

Out of 10 Roos, only 1 of mine got hen pecked badly, so I guess most times, things work out fine. Best of luck to ya!

Here's my gorgeous, gentle, huggable Casanova...before the hens & after. Look what those wenches did to my handsome boy! He will be OK, he is in a different area now, gentle hens, feathers growing back.

 

[Lenny loves chickens]

Some Roos do fine with the ladies & start offering them treats & acting lovey-dovey protective.

Some are a bit rough, mating grabbing back of neck & awkwardly losing balance. Spurs can do damage so you may consider trimming & smoothing the point.

Some actually get bullied by the hens! I have 10 Roos, & my RIR Comet mix Roo is so sweet, those hens pecked & plucked him! He now resembles a naked neck & I had to move him out of there.

The Wyandotte Roo is in there now, he doesn't have a mark on him. The RIR hens pecked his comb at 1st & then he let them know that behavior wouldn't be tolerated, so he is still gorgeous.

You never know who will end up being a little too boisterous or who will get bullied & hen pecked. So make sure you take time to observe, & then continue to check over everyone every morning & every dusk, to make sure all are getting along well. Yes, there's pecking order, but at times, we do need to make sure no one is getting carried away with attitudes.

Sometimes a simple time out works, other times you may need to totally move someone.

Out of 10 Roos, only 1 of mine got hen pecked badly, so I guess most times, things work out fine. Best of luck to ya!

Here's my gorgeous, gentle, huggable Casanova...before the hens & after. Look what those wenches did to my handsome boy! He will be OK, he is in a different area now, gentle hens, feathers growing back.

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View attachment 3070491

Poor man....lmao well what a gentleman taking the bs from your ladies

 

[Mrs. K]

I know you have 3 C hens with your rooster, and are reluctant to waste any of those eggs by opening them. You could add one more hen, just a mutt hen out of your layers. She would be exposed to the same rooster, and you could check her eggs without wasting the ones you want to hatch.

Mrs K

 

[Lady of McCamley]

My 3 Chantecler hens are slow to lay. I have 4 eggs after 4 going on 5 days.

I will definitely follow the incubate and candle route to determine fertile state. Will try for a weekly batch.

Very good plan. Everyone has focused on excellent advice about the rooster integration, mating cage, etc.

I personally can see bullseyes easily in my eggs, of which I have an abundance to eat and hatch from, but I like the idea of incubating weekly for you for another reason no one has mentioned. Since you are working with small number of eggs, you will have to hatch in small numbers at first because fertile eggs are best incubated within the first 7 days of being laid. After 7 days, they begin to lose fertility. While I have had 3 week old eggs hatch, I definitely note a fall off by week 2 (statistically the drop off is significant after 10 days).

So frequent weekly brooding is an excellent idea when trying to build a flock from a small group, and only getting about 4 to 5 eggs a week. Since you are artificially incubating and brooding, you should be able to build that flock much faster rather than waiting by cracking eggs.

You probably knew, but I just thought it worth mention that fertile eggs do have an expiration date.

LofMc

 

[Ted Brown]

So I am 3 days removed from a tragedy, I lost Wilfred and two of my Chantecler hens to a fox.

The third hen escaped and is now ostracized back in the coop. She continues to give eggs.

I am still processing this, as you may imagine.

I have 16 Chantecler eggs put into an incubator today, 1 pre Wilfred so not a candidate to keep just test of fertility of my previous rooster. As noted I continue to get eggs, I will incubate these in groups weekly for next 4 weeks.

I am searching for another Chantecler roo and fertile eggs source.

 

[3KillerBs]

So I am 3 days removed from a tragedy, I lost Wilfred and two of my Chantecler hens to a fox.

The third hen escaped and is now ostracized back in the coop. She continues to give eggs.

I am still processing this, as you may imagine.

I have 16 Chantecler eggs put into an incubator today, 1 pre Wilfred so not a candidate to keep just test of fertility of my previous rooster. As noted I continue to get eggs, I will incubate these in groups weekly for next 4 weeks.

I am searching for another Chantecler roo and fertile eggs source.

Oh how awful!

After all that care and effort!

 

[Lady of McCamley]

I'm so sorry for your loss. I personally have suffered a coon set back in my Cream Legbars line which took me months to recover from.

Fortunately you have the one hen left that is fertile and an incubator.

Hopefully you can find good replacements.

LofMc

 

[aart]

So I am 3 days removed from a tragedy, I lost Wilfred and two of my Chantecler hens to a fox.

 

[Mrs. K]

I too have been there, and feel you pain. So darn tough.