Getting purebred eggs in a mixed flock

[angorawoman]

I have speckled Sussex , wyandottes, buff. How long do I need to put the roo in with the hens to know that the eggs are " pure bred" as opposed to mixed breed?

 

[LindaB220]

I have speckled Sussex , wyandottes, buff. How long do I need to put the roo in with the hens to know that the eggs are " pure bred" as opposed to mixed breed?

Hello,

It takes up to 3 wks before the new roo can take effect. I'd wait that long before trying to breed for hatching eggs. Good luck.

 

[Mister B]

I didn't know that. I feel better about my hatch then. I incubated 18 eggs (24 went in, but a clumsy me dropped eggs when turning) and only got 8 hatched. But, I collected the eggs for them hens right after I put them all together in the pen. The rooster was not with the hens perviously. Maybe that's what happened. 24 eggs in again, we will see.

 

[donrae]

It's not that it can take up to 3 weeks for the new rooster to take effect, it's that it can take up to three weeks for a previous rooster's sperm to clear out of the hen's system. OP doesn't make it clear if the birds are with roosters now and would need to clear out unwanted sperm or not.

If your hens aren't with any rooster now, you can put hens and the desired rooster in a breeding pen and just watch. He'll usually mate them right off, but some guys take a while. If you don't see mating soon, you can wait a few days and check for bullseyes in a cracked egg. But say your rooster mates the hen on Monday...then Monday's egg isn't fertile. Depending on time of day and where she is in her laying cycle, Tuesday's egg may not be either, but Wednesday's egg should be good to go.

If your hens are with roosters of the undesirable breed, you'll just have to separate them into the breeds you want, wait at least 2 weeks (more is better, if you're really, really not wanting any chance of mixed breed birds) and then collect eggs to incubate.