New rooster in with 24 hens...

[Ted Brown]

I separated my roos from the coop/run for almost a year, now want to integrate one of them back in with the hens.

I believe I can do this without any process to introduce but would be interested in thoughts from anyone who has been through a similar situation.

Thank you.

 

[Ted Brown]

24 hens.

 

[Ridgerunner]

As long as the rooster and hens are all mature I'd just stick him in. It will go extremely great or he and the head hen will settle things.

 

[Ted Brown]

Done

 

[Ted Brown]

Does not seem to be any conflict although roo is mostly on his own.

 

[Ted Brown]

How long should I expect to wait before eggs begin to be fertilized?

 

[Ridgerunner]

It takes about 25 hours for an egg to pass through the internal egg making machine. That egg can only be fertilized during the first few moments of that journey. That means if a mating takes place on a Tuesday, Tuesday's egg is not fertilized from that mating. Wednesday's egg might or night not be, depending on timing. Thursday's egg should be fertile.

Note that this is after a mating. A rooster does not necessarily mate every hen in his flock every day, especially with 24 hens. But he doesn't have to. The hen stores the sperm in a special "container" near where the egg starts it internal journey. That sperm can stay viable for 9 days to over three weeks. It varies exactly how long it stays viable.

I'd start opening eggs on Friday. When you see a sufficient percentage of them as fertile start saving eggs to hatch.

 

[Ted Brown]

@Ridgerunner thank you. Most of what you relayed I was aware of just a bit clueless on timing.

I have just added supplemental light, getting only a few eggs at the moment. Hoping to see that change soon so should give Wilfred time to get acquainted with the flock. I have Chanteclers, Barred Rock and Marans; at the moment only interested in Chant eggs.

 

[Mrs. K]

One time I worried about just adding a new rooster. I had him in a small cage. Something came up, and I was called back to the house for an hour or so.

When I came back to the coop, he had gotten out, and was strutting his stuff.

Seriously for me, adding a rooster has always been the easiest integrations.

But once, I added this rooster that had really been at the bottom of the neighbors flock, he was missing feathers, and generally beat up when I brought him home. I swear the hens looked at me and said, "this is the best you can do?" The head hen, chest bumped once, and everyone was in love by morning.

Mrs K