If I have hens I want to breed to a rooster, but the hens I want to breed have been cooped with another rooster that I don't want them to breed with, but off course they did. How long will I have to separate those hens from the old rooster to make sure the new rooster is what i am getting chicks from? Would I just put the hens with the new rooster and discard the first week worth of eggs and then hatch out the second week worth of eggs. I just want to make sure I get the new roosters baby chicks not the old roosters.
Most hen will store sperm for at least two weeks, so two weeks is not enough. Many people use three weeks but there have been cases where three weeks is still not enough. To be pretty sure wait three weeks but to be very sure, wait four. It takes about 25 hours for an egg to make its way through a hen's internal egg making factory. That egg can only be fertilized during the first 15 minutes or so of that journey. So if a mating takes place on a Sunday, Sunday's egg is not fertile. Monday's egg might be but that depends on what time of day the mating took place and what time the egg started its journey. Tuesday's egg is almost certainly fertile. This is after a mating. A rooster does not necessarily mate with each hen in the flock every day, but if you have only one or two hens with him, it will probably happen.
I have heard 3 weeks minimum. Our experience has unexpectedly coincided with that.. Best wait 4, IMO.
