How to separate breeds to breed purebreds

[Shadrach]

Hello MeyerRay.
Welcome to BYC.
You could build a small coop for a broody hen rather then use an incubator if your hens do in fact go broody.

 

[aart]

I guess i like the idea of separating just the chicken until her eggs are no longer fertile, then let her be fertilized by the rooster of choice and go back. I feel bad that she won't be able to run around for a whole month!

Might be better to separate the cockbirds.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Welcome to the forum, glad you joined.

I can help with two of your questions. It takes about 25 hours for an egg to make its way through the hen's internal egg making factory. The egg can only be fertilized during the first few minute of that journey. That means is a mating tales place on a Thursday, Thursday's egg will not be fertile from that mating. Friday's egg might or might not be, depending on timing. Don't count on it. Saturday's egg should be fertile. You can always confirm by looking for the bull's eye but obviously you cannot incubate that opened egg.

At the end of the mating act the rooster hops off, his part is done. The hen then stands up, fluffs up, and shakes. This fluffy shake gets the sperm into a special container near where the egg starts its internal journey. That sperm can remain viable in that container for quite a while, anywhere from about 9 days to even more than three weeks.

Most of us count on the hen remaining fertile for at least two weeks after a mating, that usually works out. Many people count on the hen not being fertile after three weeks which also usually works out. But there are fairly rare occasions where the sperm remains viable for more than three weeks. So if you wait three weeks you are pretty sure, if you wait more you are even more sure.

So you need to separate the hen from any rooster you do not want to be the father for at least three weeks, more is better. You need to put her with the rooster you want to be the father three or four days before you start collecting eggs. You can put him with her earlier if you desire. You can keep her with other hens if you wish as long as you know which are her eggs for incubation. You have several different options on how to manage this.

As others have said, if you want to control when the eggs hatch (this might be important for a chicken show) you need an incubator. You cannot depend on a hen going broody when it is convenient for you even if you have a flock where the hens go broody a lot.

Many hens will never go broody in their life and you cannot make them. Leaving the eggs to pile up will not make a hen go broody. If a hen tends to go broody I think it can help if the number of eggs in her nest increase slowly as if she were laying them all, but I've tried that a few times and it never did work. My hens tend to go broody a lot but not necessarily when I want them to.

You have a lot of different options if you do get a broody hen and wish to use her. Some people isolate her in all kinds of different ways to incubate, hatch, or even raise the chicks. Others let her do some or all of this with the flock. I don't see that any of these are more right or wrong than others, it's just different ways we do it. If you want more information let me know and I'll discuss it more.

Good luck, you have some beautiful chickens. And once again,

 

[MeyerRay]

Thank you so much for this excellent info! We have decided to get an incubator. We have separated the hens from the roosters. They have been separated for 3 daysnow and we've notice that only the Livornese are laying eggs. My husbands thinks we should let them all out except the Livornese and when the eggs are no longer fertile put in the rooster.
I am worried that wearesecluding them for no reason, if it does take 4 weeks to no longer be fertilized, then we will be attemptinto breed in February, our coldest month, and maybe they won't lay any eggsandit will all have been for nothing. Should we wait until mid february hoping for purebred eggs in March?

This weekendwe went to get a rooster for our Livornese, and the guy also gave us 3 rabbits and 7 quail, so now ihave to figure that out too for now we have them in little cages but i want them to live a better life than that, the only problem iswe don't want a million rabbits. Another problem is that they arecute andsoft andmy boys already named them... And i don't want to kill and skin them. These might end up being pet rabbits

Welcome to the forum, glad you joined.

I can help with two of your questions. It takes about 25 hours for an egg to make its way through the hen's internal egg making factory. The egg can only be fertilized during the first few minute of that journey. That means is a mating tales place on a Thursday, Thursday's egg will not be fertile from that mating. Friday's egg might or might not be, depending on timing. Don't count on it. Saturday's egg should be fertile. You can always confirm by looking for the bull's eye but obviously you cannot incubate that opened egg.

At the end of the mating act the rooster hops off, his part is done. The hen then stands up, fluffs up, and shakes. This fluffy shake gets the sperm into a special container near where the egg starts its internal journey. That sperm can remain viable in that container for quite a while, anywhere from about 9 days to even more than three weeks.

Most of us count on the hen remaining fertile for at least two weeks after a mating, that usually works out. Many people count on the hen not being fertile after three weeks which also usually works out. But there are fairly rare occasions where the sperm remains viable for more than three weeks. So if you wait three weeks you are pretty sure, if you wait more you are even more sure.

So you need to separate the hen from any rooster you do not want to be the father for at least three weeks, more is better. You need to put her with the rooster you want to be the father three or four days before you start collecting eggs. You can put him with her earlier if you desire. You can keep her with other hens if you wish as long as you know which are her eggs for incubation. You have several different options on how to manage this.

As others have said, if you want to control when the eggs hatch (this might be important for a chicken show) you need an incubator. You cannot depend on a hen going broody when it is convenient for you even if you have a flock where the hens go broody a lot.

Many hens will never go broody in their life and you cannot make them. Leaving the eggs to pile up will not make a hen go broody. If a hen tends to go broody I think it can help if the number of eggs in her nest increase slowly as if she were laying them all, but I've tried that a few times and it never did work. My hens tend to go broody a lot but not necessarily when I want them to.

You have a lot of different options if you do get a broody hen and wish to use her. Some people isolate her in all kinds of different ways to incubate, hatch, or even raise the chicks. Others let her do some or all of this with the flock. I don't see that any of these are more right or wrong than others, it's just different ways we do it. If you want more information let me know and I'll discuss it more.

Good luck, you have some beautiful chickens. And once again,

Wow Ridgrunner, so much super useful info, thank you!!

 

[MeyerRay]