How does fertilization work for hens?

[FrostyWind]

Good day.
I've always wondered and had people asked me how fertilization work in hens?
I know the basics, Rooster and hen mates and the egg gets fertilized? But?
This is the question:
When a Rooster mates with a hen, does the sperm go to every egg she releases? Or 1 egg is sent and is fertilized one at a time from different roosters mating with 1 hen?
If what I'm saying makes any sense?
I've never known what happens in there since Hens will go hide and just start laying 5-10 eggs, sitting on them and hatching them?

 

[R2elk]

Good day.
I've always wondered and had people asked me how fertilization work in hens?
I know the basics, Rooster and hen mates and the egg gets fertilized? But?
This is the question:
When a Rooster mates with a hen, does the sperm go to every egg she releases? Or 1 egg is sent and is fertilized one at a time from different roosters mating with 1 hen?
If what I'm saying makes any sense?
I've never known what happens in there since Hens will go hide and just start laying 5-10 eggs, sitting on them and hatching them?

How are chicken eggs fertilized?

Scroll down to Chicken Reproductive Anatomy.

 

[nuthatched]

I know that a hen can lay fertilized eggs for about 2 weeks after she's been bred.
After that, I have no clue, I imagine one at a time as yolks are released.

 

[sourland]

Sperm remains viable in the reproductive tract with high viability at 2 weeks, moderate viability at 3 weeks, and occasional viability at 4 weeks. The egg is fertilized as it matures,

 

[FrostyWind]

Sperm remains viable in the reproductive tract with high viability at 2 weeks, moderate viability at 3 weeks, and occasional viability at 4 weeks. The egg is fertilized as it matures,

Wow,
A hen mates once and she can use the sperm from that 1 rooster to fertilize the eggs that are developing in her?
So if I want her to breed with multiple roosters cause they have amazing feathers and she also is pretty? How would that work?
Literally been trying to mate 1 of my yard hens with a silkie rooster and out of 9 chicks, only 1 had silkie rooster Gene in him/her (that's the extra toe)

 

[Ridgerunner]

Sorry R2elk but there is a to of misinformation in that article. I'm not going to try to go point by point, but just want to warn the OP to not believe everything said in that article.

Frostywind, I'll go through a typical mating behavior between mature consenting adults. Immature cockerels and pullets usually don't go through all this. Even mature chickens don't always, the rooster might not dance and there might be some running away and chasing involved.. As long as the hen squats and none are injured it's good.

The rooster dances for a specific hen. He lowers one wing and sort of circles her. This signals his intent.

The hen squats. This gets her body onto the ground so the rooster’s weight goes into the ground through her entire body and not just her legs. That way she can support a much heavier rooster without hurting her joints.

The rooster hops on and grabs the back of her head. The head grab helps him get in the right position to hit the target and helps him to keep his balance, but its major purpose is to tell the hen to raise her tail out of the way to expose the target. A mating will not be successful if she does not raise her tail and expose the target. The head grab is necessary.

The rooster touches vents and hops off. This may be over in the blink of an eye or it may take a few seconds. But when this is over the rooster’s part is done.

The hen then stands up, fluffs up, and shakes. This fluffy shake gets the sperm into a special container inside the hen near where the egg starts its internal journey through her internal egg making factory.

Now a little bit on timing. It might help you plan.

It takes about 25 hours for an egg to go through the hen's internal egg making factory. That egg cannot be fertilized until the yolk starts that journey and fertilization can only take place in the first few minutes of that journey. That means 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 depending on timing. Wednesday's egg will be.

A rooster does not necessarily mate with every hen in the flock every day but he doesn't have to.. The hen's shake at the end of mating gets the sperm into a special container near where the yolk starts it's journey. The sperm can remain viable for many days. Maybe as few as 9 days, maybe over three weeks as Sourland said. This means if you want to make sure the rooster of your choice is the father you have to keep the hen away from any other rooster for three or more weeks.

A poultry science college professor that specializes in poultry reproduction said that the sperm generally acts on a last in - first out basis. That means the last rooster to mate with that hen will probably be the father as long as enough time has passed. I'm not going to give you any guarantees about that but it can help your odds, maybe a lot.

I consider this a good video on how the egg grows as it passes through the hen's internal egg making factory. Fertilization is mentioned around 3:45.

I don't know if this answers all your questions or not. If you have any more I'll try to answer.