May sound dumb... but

[chickenltle]

Does a hen have to be fertilized for each egg for that egg to be viable? Or does one breeding take care of several eggs being fertile?

 

[wegotchickens]

I'm sure a rooster would say he needs to fertilize each egg

 

[speckledhen]

After a successful fertilization, every egg that hen lays up to about two weeks should be fertile. Sometimes, longer that that, but mostly around two weeks.

 

[Arklady]

a rooster only has to mate with the hen once to fertilize several eggs in a batch.

They can sometimes be fertilized from 3 to 4 weeks just from one mating..

Arklady

 

[homecatmom]

good to know. Since I can't have a rooster, I can take one of the girls out on a "date" and should be able to collect fertile eggs for a couple of weeks. I hope it doesn't make her feel like a little tramp...

 

[mdbucks]

Quote:
If you know someone with a rooster, I would just exchange eggs with them if they are willing, that way no quaranteen issues would enter into the equation

 

[chickenltle]

Thank you all so very much. We had tried the "date" and our RIR tried to tear our friends BA apart. So we went and got her a Roo of her own.

 

[GreggsEggs]

homecatmom Wrote:
I can take one of the girls out on a "date" and should be able to collect fertile eggs for a couple of weeks. I hope it doesn't make her feel like a little tramp...hmm

Now, dats is funny right there! I don't care who y-are, dats funny rite there!​

 

[GreggsEggs]

Now on a serious side......

Will hatching the first few eggs layed by a fertile hen increase the % of pullets. Like when breeding dogs the first time a male and female are stuck is when you get the better chance of female pups?