How long before I have fertile eggs?

[t/m]

I have a 31 week old Welsummer rooster and a 31 week old Easter Egger who I have put together for breeding. How long before I have fertilized eggs to incubate? I've not seen any mating but we're not out there that much. Before I separated the roosters from the girls (about 4 weeks ago) there was lots of action... is that because the boys were competing? FYI, I have them in a 25x25 garden during the day and at dusk they are in a tractor/coop together until the next morning around 7 am. Thanks.

 

[CarolJ]

If the rooster was mating with hens before putting him with the Easter Egger hen, then he is almost certainly mating with her. You should have fertile eggs pretty much immediately. You can always crack one to see.

 

[t/m]

He was. I'm assuming her first egg since being together will not be fertile as it was already forming etc. inside her? I really don't want to 'waste' an egg checking as she lays 5 in a row, breaks on day 6 and lays again and I didn't want to have the eggs 'waiting' too long. It's quite a hassle moving them around like we are so the sooner the better!! Thanks for the reply.

 

[CarolJ]

If she was with another rooster earlier, then it can be up to a month before you could be sure that the Welsummer roo would be the one fertilizing the eggs. There are some threads with more detailed information about how that all works. Just do a search of the forum.

 

[Den in Penn]

The other way to tell if they are fertile is to incubate and see if any develop. May waste a few eggs and time if they aren't fertile. Four weeks is enough time separation to be sure they are his.

 

[t/m]

Thanx ya'll for your help. My Brinsea mini advance arrived this morning so I'll be giving it a test as soon as I read the directions and I guess this weekend we'll incubate her eggs from this week. I'm hoping these are good ones as I've got 3, 1 day olds coming and I was hoping to have them close in age and size etc. Oh well, we'll see what happens and go from there. Thanks again!