Seperating to ensure parentage, how long?

[JustPeachy]

How long should I keep my hens with a certain roo and how do I wait to collect her eggs to be sure he is the father to the offspring? I house all my birds together but when I want to hatch some eggs I want to be sure of the parents, so I can seperate them and put them in a smaller coop. How long do I need to wait to start collecting the eggs and will doing it this way cause problems when re-introducing them back to the flock?

 

[mississippifarmboy]

28 days.

Can't help with reintroducing them to the flocks as all ours free range together when they aren't in the breeding coops.

 

[JustPeachy]

Wow

, that long?!

 

[sourland]

Quote:
To be absolutely sure of parentage, yep. When you reintroduce them to the flock, there will be skirmishes as they strive to assert themselves in the pecking order.

 

[silkiechicken]

Quote:
Yep. Hens can store sperm. I've gotten eggs to hatch that were laid about 3 weeks after the rooster was gone!

 

[JustPeachy]

I think I would be better off just seperating them for good and making/asking

hubby to build more small coops....

 

[sourland]

Quote:
Another possibility might be to keep the roosters in a separate pen until fertile eggs are desired. 3 days after introduction of a rooster to the flock, the eggs should be fertile.

 

[onthespot]

I separated some hens and they were still having the occasional fertile egg after TWO MONTHS... so you may want to keep them separate if you don't want to worry about who's the "baby daddy" or at least pull the roos up and cage them separate. All I am saying is, they can be very persistently fertile a VERY LONG TIME after they have been with a rooster.