theuglychick
Crowing
I have been on a life quest to find a gentlemanly rooster- the criteria being good with the girls and doesn't attack people. Note: Monogamy was NOT in the criteria.
Well, after going through 6 roosters in the past few years, I have one (so far) who is, for my situation, a very good boy.
I bought him, a Crested Cream Legbar, along with another cockeral (rehomed), and two pullets as day olds. Raised them to feathering then put them in with my established flock (all about 1.5 years old). He and the two pullets are now just at a year old.
I had 40 eggs in my incubator from him and the other hens; 4 Cream Legbars (2 his sister pullets, 2 unrelated), as well as 2 marans, an Ameraucana, and a buff orpington (so 8 hens total, not too many for one rooster).
When I candled the eggs at 7 days, I saw development in only a few, so I suspected low-fertility in that rooster, as I've had fertile eggs from these same hens before with the other roosters.
But then I noticed a pattern... every single one of the light tan (Buff Orpington) eggs were fertilized and developing well, while only a few other blue eggs and one dark brown egg had development. Then I realized something, I don't think it's low fertility, I think he's simply not breeding the other hens!
My flock leader, Nugget, the Buff Orpington was the least accepting of him and gave him at least three kinds of hell, including flat out sparring with him regularly. It has only been in the last few months that she has allowed him to breed her. Well, apparently all of her rejection had only fueled his fire to be with her and only her, and he's become fixated on her. He's basically become monogamous. In any other relationship, I'd say this is great, but I need chicken babies! He will occasionally breed the other hens, but it's few in far between.
This monogamous relationship was confirmed when I candled all of the eggs. Nuggets, and only Nuggets, eggs (she's my only light tan layer) were the only ones with a 100% fertility rate, which make sense since I just put her eggs in there for poops and giggles and didn't really need a BO / CL cross in my life. What I really wanted was to hatch out the purebred blue-eggers and olive eggers, so of course, most all of my blue eggs and just one chocolate egg (all the ones I actually WANTED to hatch) were blanks.
The hens are all fertile, as I've used them in other hatches before (save for the 2 new pullets). I know that the rooster IS fertile, as ALL of the BO's eggs are fertilized. So it has to be that he's mostly only breeding that one hen, right?
Anyone have any similar experience with a rooster saving himself for one hen?
Well, after going through 6 roosters in the past few years, I have one (so far) who is, for my situation, a very good boy.
I bought him, a Crested Cream Legbar, along with another cockeral (rehomed), and two pullets as day olds. Raised them to feathering then put them in with my established flock (all about 1.5 years old). He and the two pullets are now just at a year old.
I had 40 eggs in my incubator from him and the other hens; 4 Cream Legbars (2 his sister pullets, 2 unrelated), as well as 2 marans, an Ameraucana, and a buff orpington (so 8 hens total, not too many for one rooster).
When I candled the eggs at 7 days, I saw development in only a few, so I suspected low-fertility in that rooster, as I've had fertile eggs from these same hens before with the other roosters.
But then I noticed a pattern... every single one of the light tan (Buff Orpington) eggs were fertilized and developing well, while only a few other blue eggs and one dark brown egg had development. Then I realized something, I don't think it's low fertility, I think he's simply not breeding the other hens!
My flock leader, Nugget, the Buff Orpington was the least accepting of him and gave him at least three kinds of hell, including flat out sparring with him regularly. It has only been in the last few months that she has allowed him to breed her. Well, apparently all of her rejection had only fueled his fire to be with her and only her, and he's become fixated on her. He's basically become monogamous. In any other relationship, I'd say this is great, but I need chicken babies! He will occasionally breed the other hens, but it's few in far between.
This monogamous relationship was confirmed when I candled all of the eggs. Nuggets, and only Nuggets, eggs (she's my only light tan layer) were the only ones with a 100% fertility rate, which make sense since I just put her eggs in there for poops and giggles and didn't really need a BO / CL cross in my life. What I really wanted was to hatch out the purebred blue-eggers and olive eggers, so of course, most all of my blue eggs and just one chocolate egg (all the ones I actually WANTED to hatch) were blanks.
The hens are all fertile, as I've used them in other hatches before (save for the 2 new pullets). I know that the rooster IS fertile, as ALL of the BO's eggs are fertilized. So it has to be that he's mostly only breeding that one hen, right?
Anyone have any similar experience with a rooster saving himself for one hen?
