Length of fertilization

[Shawneegyrl]

Shawneegyrl, that defies logic and reason. So what’s new with chickens?

The feather-legged gene is supposed to be partially dominant. That means if you have two feather-legged genes in that gene pair you get the full effect, but if you only have one gene at that gene pair you still see feathered legs, even if they are not as full. So if you cannot see any feathers on the legs of either the hen or the rooster, the chick should be clean legged too. I trust you’ve really looked hard, otherwise you would not have posted.

You are dealing with living animals. That means strange things can happen. Most hens will stay fertile about two weeks after a mating. There have been cases where some stayed fertile for over three weeks. I’ve never heard of any going longer than four weeks, but maybe it is possible. Who would even bother to incubate the eggs?

There is something else working against that though. After a mating, the hen shakes to get the sperm into a special container near where the egg yolk starts its journey. A poultry reproduction specialist at the University of Arkansas was pretty adamant that the container operates on a last in – first out basis. The last rooster to mate with a hen has his sperm on top so his sperm will be the first out. Everything points to that Ameraucana rooster being the father, except the feathered legs.

So that leaves two possible conclusions. You have witnessed something really strange that by the general laws of chickens breeding should not have happened but did. Or that both that hen and that rooster are not the parents. There is another chicken involved somewhere.

Yes, I thought after 7 weeks that there could be no way that that feather legged roo's presence could be hanging around. He has been off the property for that 7 weeks. They do not free range any. I have a secure run in an urban area and no roosters that I know of around here. Yes, and I did go out and inspect the hen's legs just to make sure I did not miss anything. Gonna incubate some more eggs and see what happens. These are still EEs even with an Ameraucana rooster so it is what it is. It was just such a surprise, I was floored. The feathering is skimpy on the legs.

My AM boy is from a respected breeder and has produced Ameraucana Wheatens that are ribbon winners and I trust his breeding practices (at this point) but I sure will be watching the EEs my AM is associating with

and will carefully evaluate chicks from the Wheaten Ameraucana ladies for any possible oddity

.

BTW, I always wondered why the hens shook after mating, Thank you

 

[Ridgerunner]

You might find this interesting. I wrote it for another post.

Typical mating behavior between mature consenting adults.

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 legs.

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.