Making sure it's the right rooster's DNA

[Peregrine]

We've got a hen, a Delaware, that gave us a beautiful white rooster. Now that he's full grown, we'd like to try some in-line breeding and mate him back to his mother. The difficulty is that the hen is already part of our origional rooster's "flock" (consists of 4 hen's total. I know that's not enough hens for two roosters, but we've got some pullets that are almost full grown, and we just bought another Delaware hen from a friend. We hope to be up to 12 hens by the end of the summer).

We've isloated the mother and son from the rest of the flock. How long will it take until she becomes "his" hen, and how long do I have to wait to ensure that the eggs I collect from her to incubate have her son's DNA, and not the DNA of the other rooster?

Another problem is that because the rooster was younger, he was at the bottom of the pecking order. So the hen chases HIM around and he runs from her. Will this issue resolve itself in time?

 

[donrae]

I've heard the hen can store a rooster's sperm internally for over two weeks. So, to be on the safe side, I'd wait at least three weeks since she was removed from the other roo before collecting eggs to incubate. As far as her chasing him, his urge to mate should eventually overcome her dominance. You say he's fully grown, how old is he? Our homebred roo was around 7-8 months when we noticed him mating with pretty much all the hens. Go figure, he's now dominant roo over the other two older roos

 

[Peregrine]

Is it OK to keep the hen with the new rooster, or will that keep the old rooster's sperm from being used up as quickly? Is it better to keep th ehen by herself?