How Do I Go About Chicken Mating.

[song of joy]

When a hen goes broody she stops laying eggs to start the incubation process, so getting a rooster for her would be pointless. As others have said, if you want her to raise chicks, you could buy some fertile hatching eggs, mark them with a pencil line around the middle so that you can easily identify them and remove any others that your hens might lay and put the fertile eggs in her nest. It takes 21 days for chicken eggs to hatch.
That said, if you are in the northern hemisphere and it is approaching winter, then it is not a good time to buy hatching eggs as fertility is usually low at this time of year and also not a good time to hatch chicks because they can easily get chilled and die. Spring and summer are the natural seasons for raising chicks with a broody hen.
Before you decide to hatch chicks you should also give consideration to what you will do with the 50% cockerels that will almost certainly result from any hatch.... a member of this forum recently found out that 100% of his chicks that hatched 7 weeks ago are cockerels.... 6 out of 6 little boys.... how is that for bad luck! Are you prepared to butcher the excess boys for meat or give them away to someone else who will probably eat them?

Excellent advice!

Wait until spring regardless of the option you decide on. Another alternative is to buy day-old chicks and put them under the broody hen, provided she has been broody for 3 weeks. In most cases she will accept the chicks and raise them, but sometimes she will ignore them or attack them, in which case you'll have to raise the chicks yourself.

 

[ChickenGirl555]

Why do they need to be isolated? She has 3 hens. A breeding set is 6 hens 1 rooster. Also after quarantine as soon as introductions are made I guarantee he will get straight down to business. That means fertile eggs immidatly. So why the 6 weeks before she can set a clutch? I don't understand. Besides the roo is irrelevant if she buys fertile eggs or day olds.

As someone said, the sperm takes a little bit to go through her, so you won’t wake up the next day with tons of fertile eggs

 

[kesrchicky16]

The way i read the question the OP was trying to get fertile eggs from a particular hen therefore ... how long it was take for the roo to get down to business is not black and white and differs depending on how accepting the hen or hens are of the rooster ... if she decides to get day olds or fertile eggs then the rooster becomes irrelevant as you said !!!

Oh that's true I didn't look at it as wanting that particular hens offspring. And he is male the bigger question the her acceptance is his gentlemanlyness. My roos are a last ditch line of protection against predators. As they age I'm seeing more patience, but there has been plenty of squawking in protest at mating when she hadn't fully squatted for him.

 

[kesrchicky16]

As someone said, the sperm takes a little bit to go through her, so you won’t wake up the next day with tons of fertile eggs

I can only speak from my experience. 2 days after intros I had 50% fertility or 6 eggs (all laid in 24 hours) and 2 hatched into healthy chicks. Small sample and isolated case but that's my experience.

 

[Ridgerunner]

There is a lot of misinformation in this thread. They probably read a lot of that on this forum.

It takes about 25 hours for an egg to go through a hen’s internal egg making factory from when the yolk is released until the egg is laid. That egg can only be fertilized during the first few minutes of that journey. If a mating takes place on a Monday, Monday’s egg will not be fertile from that mating. Tuesday’s egg might or might not be, don’t count on it. Wednesday’s egg should be fertile.

The last part of the mating act after the rooster hops off is that the hen stands up, fluffs up, and shakes. That fluffy shake gets the sperm in a container near where the egg starts its journey. Normally that sperm will stay viable for two weeks. Sometimes it will stay viable for over three but don’t count on it.

That means if your hen was mated by a rooster you do not want to be the father of her chicks you need to keep her away from him at least three weeks. Four would be better. But if you are OK with him being the father no separation is necessary.

 

[sourland]

There is a lot of misinformation in this thread. They probably read a lot of that on this forum.

.

@Ridgerunner, that is the quote of the month. I applaud you. Misinformation is worse than no information at all, and the true measure of intelligence is knowing your limitations.

 

[kesrchicky16]

That makes more sense. 4 weeks for "no babies from you".

 

[Wickedchicken6]

There is a lot of misinformation in this thread. They probably read a lot of that on this forum.

It takes about 25 hours for an egg to go through a hen’s internal egg making factory from when the yolk is released until the egg is laid. That egg can only be fertilized during the first few minutes of that journey. If a mating takes place on a Monday, Monday’s egg will not be fertile from that mating. Tuesday’s egg might or might not be, don’t count on it. Wednesday’s egg should be fertile.

The last part of the mating act after the rooster hops off is that the hen stands up, fluffs up, and shakes. That fluffy shake gets the sperm in a container near where the egg starts its journey. Normally that sperm will stay viable for two weeks. Sometimes it will stay viable for over three but don’t count on it.

That means if your hen was mated by a rooster you do not want to be the father of her chicks you need to keep her away from him at least three weeks. Four would be better. But if you are OK with him being the father no separation is necessary.

Thank you for posting and correcting the misinformation!

 

[Wickedchicken6]

@Ridgerunner, that is the quote of the month. I applaud you. Misinformation is worse than no information at all, and the true measure of intelligence is knowing your limitations.

Well said!