Rooster's been busy

[Orpstralope]

So I've been saving up a special pile of eggs to feed back to the hens today and I cooked about 20 for them to eat. I've got 8 girls that are laying right now (out of 20,every day there is another laying getting used to the cold) and one rooster for all 20 hens. 75% of the eggs I cracked this morning were fertilized (from the past 5 days), and my question is: can my roo really be getting that busy? That's six girls. How many hens does a single rooster normally mate with?

 

[jeslewmazer]

He will try to mate with all of them. But he does not have to get the same hen every day. even if you take him out for a few days you would still have fertile eggs. A average ratio is 1 rooster : 10 hens. A rooster can fertilize more than 10 hens.

 

[Orpstralope]

Ok. so my question is, can you eat eggs that have the bull-eye in the yolk? Also, can you candle them the day of, or a few days after collection to see if they are fertile? Muchas gracias y que tengais un buen noche!

 

[edselpdx]

Quote:
Why would you NOT be able to eat them? If you don't have a sitting hen they will never develop, and even if you do have a broody, you might not want babes. No problem eating fertilized eggs.