Rooster age and fertility

[BeardedLadyFarm]

How long after a cockerel starts mounting hens is he usually fertile?

I'm getting a cockerel who has been mounting some pullets for a couple of weeks now. I hear he's pretty steady, and has figured it out. He hasn't crowed yet, and his father never crowed either.

I can't really have one for long, but I'm going to "borrow" him until he starts crowing, and hope to get a few fertile eggs before he goes back to the farm.

(and before the quarantine comments begin, I got my birds from the same source, and we trade back and forth. It's essentially the same flock in two places. I'm not worried about disease in this situation)

 

[Sasquatch]

If he is six months old, he should be up to the chore. His fertility will continue to increase for about six months, it will then beging to wane.

 

[BeardedLadyFarm]

Cool! He's probably about that old. His father was precocious too. He fertilized a few girls before the owner even knew he was mounting.

Fingers crossed for some Olive Eggers this spring!

 

[greathorse]

Quote:
If you have a non crowing son of a non crower you might have something there, breed the heck out of him LOL. You will be rich.

I think there are a number of things that go into fertilty, I have some 9 month old RIR that show all the signs of being of breeding age, but the eggs are still very lacking in fertiltiy. I think the cold weather has something to do with it also. I think a lot of the eggs may have been too chilled to start in the incubator

 

[chicknmania]

Wow, we must've had a casa nova then. Whitey was 10 years old and still going strong. All of our other roos seem plenty fertile too and they are, for the most part, two years old and up.

 

[BeardedLadyFarm]

I bet he'll start crowing when he gets out of the pen with other roos, but I hope it will take him a several weeks to start.

If he turns out to be crow-less you bet I'll breed him. He's a third generation Olive egger (at least has the pea comb, and hopefully carries the blue egg gene). I'm hoping to breed him to my Marans, and get some pullets that are 7/8 Marans with the blue egg gene. Fingers crossed, I'll get some DARK olive eggs.

 

[SevenChickMO]

I have had a cockerel for about 3 years and he isn't showing signs of waning. Produced a clutch of 10 fertile eggs just 4 months ago.