Rooster=hens=how long til chicks?

[polychickens]

I have one 10-11 month old RIR rooster who has been mixed with 40+ hens of various breeds.

If I seperate 8 RIR hens and the RIR rooster today, how long would it be before I could expect RIR chicks? They have food/water, bedding, shelter, outside run, and nest boxes. What else should I be doing?

Thanks!
Polychickens

 

[polychickens]

Typo, title should read 'Rooster + hens= how long before chicks?'

P-dub

 

[speckledhen]

If you mean before the eggs are fertile and ready to incubate, probably a week or two, since the rooster already knows the hens. If you mean before the hens sit on the eggs, they may never do it. RIRs are not known for being especially broody types.

 

[MissPrissy]

I agree with speckledhen.

But I have to add that you also will need to crack a few and look to see if they are fertile.

I have a 9 - 10 mo old barred rock and I haven't seen anything fertile from him yet. Same goes with my cuckoo marans cockeral. Same age no fertile eggs yet.

 

[speckledhen]

Priss is right; some roosters are slow starters. My Hawkeye was one of them, but he had never seen my girls or been with any other hens before he was about 11 months old. Since your boy has already been with your girls, hopefully, it wouldn't be that long.
Hey, Priss, where did you get your BR boy? Just wondering. Wonder if he and Hawkeye are related, LOL?

 

[Buster]

For what it's worth, I have a 10 month old faverolle rooster and I'm seeing blastoderms on the eggs i'm eating from the hens he's with.

 

[polychickens]

I added a couple barred rocks to the mating group. I hear their chicks would be black sex links. The BR's tend to want to sit. As soon as I put one BR with this group, she hopped into the nest box and claimed the RIR eggs. I added hers from today to see what happens.

Judging from the feathers on the BR, she is a favorite of the rooster. What am I looking for in the egg to signal fertility? I know I have seen a small reddish spot in some of our eggs.

I do hope to have chicks happen naturally as I have no incubater nor any real desire to go that route. Do chickens reproduce naturally anymore?

Thanks for the replies!
P-dub

 

[speckledhen]

Even the Barred Rocks have that bred out of them. Some will sit, but very few these days. Hatcheries have bred for egg production rather than broodiness.
Red spots have nothing to do with fertility. A white ring around the white spot on the egg indicates fertility. This is a fertile egg from my BR girl, Lexie:

 

[Buster]

That's how my eggs look from my sf rooster. A white ring around a white spot.

 

[silkiechicken]

If you want pure RIR's from your breeding pen, wait about 3 weeks before taking any eggs and setting them. Chances are the RIR won't sit, as most hatchery and non breeder RIR's are productoin reds where that trait has been bred out. You know you want an incubator!