OMG They are breeding!

[arlee453]

The 3 week thing relates to the length of time a hen could possibly lay eggs once she has had a successful mating.

She stores up the sperm so one mating can produce fertile eggs for up to 3 weeks, even if the hen is separated from the roo.

For example, if you have a hen that you want to breed to a particular rooster, you would isolate that hen and roo together, but would NOT incubate any eggs for the first 3 weeks they are together, to make sure that the roo you want is the baby daddy and that any old 'other roo' sperm is gone.

MOST hens will not go broody (ie, want to sit on their eggs) on a regular basis. Just because she lays eggs does not mean she will sit on them. The trait to go 'broody' and want to hatch out eggs has basically been bred out of most breeds of chickens because they have been bred to lay eggs continually. A broody hen stops laying eggs for several weeks - that's not good for the egg farmer - so over years of selective breeding, most standard breeds do not go broody at all, or only seldomly.

To ensure you don't have any baby chicks, just collect the eggs and don't incubate them. Eat them or throw them out. Problem solved.

The eggs may be fertile, but they do not begin to develop AT ALL until they have been incubated, either by a broody hen or artifically in an incubator. As others have posted, they do not look or taste any different - the baby chick has not begun to develop so there won't be any noticable difference between fertile and infertile eggs to the untrained eye.

 

[akcskye]

I think you may be inadvertently mixing up the concept of fertilization vs. actually being incubated and having an embryo.

I have had a ROO with the hens I have now. Just don't let them sit on the eggs and there is nothing to worry about.

There is, that I have seen, absolutely no difference between fertlized eggs that were collected immediately vs. non-fertilized eggs.

If no hen sits on them and keeps them incubated, there will not be a "viable life" inside...if that makes sense.

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[Midol]

Question,

So if two chickens mate, the female will lay a few fertile ones (I am generally reading 12?) then sit on them?

So if one was using an incubator would they take each egg as it pops out or would they wait and take all of them at once?

Just making sure I understand this, I don't want to breed chickens but it is interesting.

 

[silkiechicken]

Most hens we have now will not set and just lay eggs again and again. Sometimes though, there are broodys, which will lay a pile, and then sit on them. Sometimes they will sit on an empty nest. It's 100% hormonal on when they set.

As for incubating. You can collect eggs and store them for about a week without loss in hatchability. That means you can set them all on one day.

An egg has ZERO potential for life even if fertilized, if nothing is there to incubate it.

 

[Midol]

Ahhhk, so was my 12 fertalised eggs roughly correct?

I have a pretty outdated book here - 1974, so a lot has probably changed since then.

I've got some books being sent up from UQ on duck and chicken breeding though (the joys of going to an agricultural uni).

Hrmm, interesting with the sitting on them. I thought they all did it (in chickens, I knew ducks dont).

 

[silkiechicken]

Some ducks too are more prone to be broody than other ducks.

The production strains of chickens often don't set, while ones like orpingtons and silkies like to sit and are often prone to wanting to hatch air. Be warned though that those books you will be getting, will be tuned for the production of birds if they are university based. Small backyard type birds often don't fit well with what books say.

Depending on the size of the bird 12 may be too many too. Most of our chickens won't be able to survive on their own as they are very domesticated. There are exceptions though as in birds in Hawaii and the Key West. Those have gone feral and most have more game breed blood in them.

 

[Midol]

Thanks for that!

Yeah, the books are for animal production science, so production based but should give some basic insight and coupled with researching on this forum I should get some decent knowledge!

 

[silkiechicken]

Production based. So you will find white leghorns and cornish x's being talked about. Maybe some Production Red's too if you are lucky. Good luck with the books. They do contain decent info, but have to keep in mind the type of bird they are talking about.

 

[nccatnip]

This may help- even if you roo is mounting the hens, not all eggs will be fertile. Without proper knowledge, when cracked open you will never be able to tell which eggs are fertile and which are not.
I would stongly recommend you not seperate the roo from the hens, especially when freeranging. He is the protector of the flock and will alert them to seek cover when threatened by predators.

 

[Wynette]

Pattycake is correct on the roo mounting in front of you issue. That is one way they show their dominance over you. In my case, it only took a few times of me GENTLY pushing him off a pullet, and he no longer mounts them in front of me now. I also loudly said "SSSSHHHHHH!!!!" when I did it; he quickly learned that the shhhhh sound means he needs to stop whatever it is he's doing. It's been quite helpful, as I didn't want to have to get rid of my roo; he's a sweet fellow now!!