Question about flocks' reproductive fitness now that fertile rooster is gone

[User635240]

@Isadora You beat me to SpeckledHen's thread.


You can look for the bull's eye now or incubate eggs for four or so days and open them to see if there is any development. If you are comfortable with your candling you can try that. You do not have to wait until they hatch to see if they are fertile.

I don't know your flock dynamics or what is going on. Sometimes too many boys can be a problem with fertility. You might try isolating all but two or three of the boys and see if you like the flock interaction better. One rooster was able to keep all those hens fertile. There is no reason one or two other roosters could not do the same thing.

I don't know how old those boys are. They may need to grow up to make the girls happy. I feel that a lot of "rooster" problems on this forum are really due to immature cockerels that don't act mature. I'd still reduce the number of boys. That doesn't necessarily mean killing or eating them, given them away or selling them. You can set up a bachelor pen to keep most of them away from the girls and see how the others behave.

One issue with this is that a hen can stay fertile for three weeks after a mating. Whatever fertility information you gather for the next few weeks will reflect today's flock make-up.

Hey, thank you @Ridgerunner . That was a very informative post.
Are you saying that hens carry spermatozoa from a rooster for 3 weeks, and keep seeding new eggs daily from the same genetic material?
I currently have 56 chickens (25 adult hens, 20 pullets, 2 young roosters, and 9 cockerels).
I removed 3 of the cockerels who were causing the most ruckus (put them in a different part of the barn), and it seems like things are quiet now. Meaning, one rooster, a large, calm French Marans, took over patrolling the garage door opening, and all the other cockerels, even his flockmate who was challenging him, are now hanging out in the back of the garage. Is this normal?

 

[User635240]

6 immature boys trying to assert dominance over each other is a recipe for a disaster and will increase the odds of infertile eggs. I would put the 2 best ones with the hens and separate the rest. Stress in the flock never helps.
The change with the old rooster could very well been the result of increased competition with the cockerels and you were low hanging fruit.

Thank you @Percheron chick . I really appreciate all the learning from peeps like you on this site. I removed 3 adolescents who were mounting and stressing out the hens, and a natural hierarchy seemed to gel with one French Marans as dominant. Will that work?

 

[User635240]

@Isadora You beat me to SpeckledHen's thread.


You can look for the bull's eye now or incubate eggs for four or so days and open them to see if there is any development. If you are comfortable with your candling you can try that. You do not have to wait until they hatch to see if they are fertile.

I don't know your flock dynamics or what is going on. Sometimes too many boys can be a problem with fertility. You might try isolating all but two or three of the boys and see if you like the flock interaction better. One rooster was able to keep all those hens fertile. There is no reason one or two other roosters could not do the same thing.

I don't know how old those boys are. They may need to grow up to make the girls happy. I feel that a lot of "rooster" problems on this forum are really due to immature cockerels that don't act mature. I'd still reduce the number of boys. That doesn't necessarily mean killing or eating them, given them away or selling them. You can set up a bachelor pen to keep most of them away from the girls and see how the others behave.

One issue with this is that a hen can stay fertile for three weeks after a mating. Whatever fertility information you gather for the next few weeks will reflect today's flock make-up.

Does this mean that if I isolate, for example, a pair of Araucanas from the flock to get Araucana hatching eggs, the eggs might reflect paternal DNA from other roosters for the next three weeks?

 

[FunClucks]

Does this mean that if I isolate, for example, a pair of Araucanas from the flock to get Araucana hatching eggs, the eggs might reflect paternal DNA from other roosters for the next three weeks?

Yes. You should isolate your mating pair for at least 4 weeks before collecting eggs. Or isolate your hen for 4 weeks, then reintroduce her to the rooster you want to breed her and let him do his business for a day or two prior to egg collection. That way you'll be sure of what you have in the egg.

 

[FunClucks]

Hey, thank you @Ridgerunner . That was a very informative post.
Are you saying that hens carry spermatozoa from a rooster for 3 weeks, and keep seeding new eggs daily from the same genetic material?
I currently have 56 chickens (25 adult hens, 20 pullets, 2 young roosters, and 9 cockerels).
I removed 3 of the cockerels who were causing the most ruckus (put them in a different part of the barn), and it seems like things are quiet now. Meaning, one rooster, a large, calm French Marans, took over patrolling the garage door opening, and all the other cockerels, even his flockmate who was challenging him, are now hanging out in the back of the garage. Is this normal?

That sounds great! Sounds like a really good development. As long as the FCM is not human aggressive, sounds like you have a new flockmaster.

I'll let others comment on whether/when to remove or rehome the remaining cockerels. You might have to do something there eventually.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Are you saying that hens carry spermatozoa from a rooster for 3 weeks, and keep seeding new eggs daily from the same genetic material?

In the last part of the mating act the rooster hops off, his part is done. The hen then stands up. fluffs up, and shakes. This fluffy shake gets his sperm in a special container near where the egg starts its internal journey through the hen's internal egg making factory. That sperm can remain viable from one week to possibly more than 3 weeks. If you want to be sure that the eggs are fertilized by the rooster you want you need to keep the hen isolated from any other rooster for maybe 4 weeks. You do not need to keep her isolated from the rooster you want to be the father at all. Just the rooster you do not want.

It takes about 25 hours for an egg to go through a hen's internal egg making factory. That egg can only be fertilized in the first few minutes of that journey. That means if a successful mating takes place on a Thursday, Thursday's egg will not be fertile from that mating. Friday's egg may or may not be, depending in timing. I don't count on it. Saturday's egg will be fertile from that mating. This might help you in your planning.

Is this normal?

Yes. That does not mean it will stay that way however. Things could change as the other cockerels mature.