Rooster Question

[WRVgirl]

I have a awesome rooster.

He's friendly, not aggressive to us [he'll come hop in your lap if you've got bread!] and he takes good care of the girls.

He's been "mounting" our cochin, who wasn't laying eggs up until yesterday....but I've gotten an egg yesterday and an egg today from her. She's my only bantam so it's easy to tell they are hers! They're only half the size of my Orp eggs.

I, of course, opened her first egg yesterday to see if it was fertile. It wasn't.

So I'm curious.

Since the rooster is obviously 'getting his hump on' how long will it take for the eggs to be fertile? The rooster has been mounting her since last week. I didn't know if it would take a couple days for the eggs to become fertile once she started laying or what?

Can anyone advise?

 

[Ridgerunner]

They should be fertile if he is hitting the target.

It takes an egg about 25 hours to go through a hen's internal egg laying factory. It can only be fertilized during the first 15 minutes or so of that journey. If a mating takes place on a Sunday, Sunday's egg is not going to be fertile. Monday's egg might be. It depends on what time of day the mating took place and when that egg started its journey. Tuesday's egg should be fertile.

Something that can happen with thick-feathered chickens like Orpington and Cochin, the feathers may be getting in the way. Some breeders trim the feathers around the vent on both the rooster and the hen to give the rooster a better shot. I suspect he is full sized and she is bantam so the target may be a bit elusive to start with. You might want to try that. Just take some scissors and trim away some of the feathers.

 

[WRVgirl]

Ok. Thank you so much. I'll see if I can trim her up a bit tomorrow.