PaigeWells
Chirping
I have 7 one year old pullets I want to cross with a Welsummer Roo (they are several Whiting True Blues, and some green and olive egg crosses I bred). I have 3 purebred Welly Roos from Deer Run Farms (heavily speckled lines). I put the 7 hens and one of the Roos (he was 5 months old on Feb 9th) into my breeding pen together. Before they went into the pen, the hens were loose with my other 2 mature Roos and all my eggs were fertile. It has been 15 days, I started checking for fertility a few days ago and found one infertile egg on the 20th, and one on the 21st (different hens). If I had been smart and patient (I don’t think I am either) I would have NOT put the roo in, watched and waited for fertility to disappear, and THEN added the Roo and watched/waited for all eggs to be fertile. Oops. Hindsight…
I know how to spot a fertilized egg. I also know hens store sperm in their body for up to 3 weeks. Pre locking them up, I had a ratio of 2 mature (and 3 young) Roos to 35 girls, free range. I naturally look for fertilization automatically every time I make breakfast, and don’t think I have ever seen a non fertile in an adult hens-my boys are busy! Also, I figure that when a hen is doling out her stored sperm, she might miss a day when she is running low, which could explain why Syracuse and Smoky each had a non fertile egg one day but fertilized the next. Or heck, maybe it was just a little bit fertilized (time wise, not actually), kinda like “a little bit pregnant!”
So- my question- should I assume my roo is fertile, and doing his job, since 6 of the 7 eggs were fertilized at the 2 week mark? I will still wait another week to start to collect for incubation, to “flush out” any goods from the other roosters, but after 2 weeks could the “old” sperm still be showing up at that level of fertility? I will keep checking eggs this week, and of course if I see a decline in fertility by week 3 I will assume that a. The old sperm are gone and b. The young roo is too young or not up to snuff. If that happens I will put a different Wellsummer roo in there and wait until I see fertility. The young roosters are doing their thing, when they get a chance, but the big Roos mostly chase them off the girls before they can. My breeder has all 7 ladies to himself, in a 6x12’ room, and while I haven’t seen them accept him, it’s been very cold and I haven’t been spending tons of time in there.
Mostly I’m just as impatient as the rest of y’all, and hoping some knowledgeable person will tell me “by 2 weeks at least half of them should have run out of sperm, so he is probably fertilizing them” or “Stop being so impatient and just wait 2 more weeks then check” (please don’t say that, please don’t say that…)
Thanks for the help!
Paige
I know how to spot a fertilized egg. I also know hens store sperm in their body for up to 3 weeks. Pre locking them up, I had a ratio of 2 mature (and 3 young) Roos to 35 girls, free range. I naturally look for fertilization automatically every time I make breakfast, and don’t think I have ever seen a non fertile in an adult hens-my boys are busy! Also, I figure that when a hen is doling out her stored sperm, she might miss a day when she is running low, which could explain why Syracuse and Smoky each had a non fertile egg one day but fertilized the next. Or heck, maybe it was just a little bit fertilized (time wise, not actually), kinda like “a little bit pregnant!”
So- my question- should I assume my roo is fertile, and doing his job, since 6 of the 7 eggs were fertilized at the 2 week mark? I will still wait another week to start to collect for incubation, to “flush out” any goods from the other roosters, but after 2 weeks could the “old” sperm still be showing up at that level of fertility? I will keep checking eggs this week, and of course if I see a decline in fertility by week 3 I will assume that a. The old sperm are gone and b. The young roo is too young or not up to snuff. If that happens I will put a different Wellsummer roo in there and wait until I see fertility. The young roosters are doing their thing, when they get a chance, but the big Roos mostly chase them off the girls before they can. My breeder has all 7 ladies to himself, in a 6x12’ room, and while I haven’t seen them accept him, it’s been very cold and I haven’t been spending tons of time in there.
Mostly I’m just as impatient as the rest of y’all, and hoping some knowledgeable person will tell me “by 2 weeks at least half of them should have run out of sperm, so he is probably fertilizing them” or “Stop being so impatient and just wait 2 more weeks then check” (please don’t say that, please don’t say that…)
Thanks for the help!
Paige
