Silly question... Is this worth it?

[Jokray90]

My neighbor has only roosters. I have only hens. Their speckled Sussex has noticed this and continues to infiltrate my yard.

Whenever he's over, the hens have always been cooped. Contemplating if I should let them out to get chicks. He sure is a pretty rooster! Trouble is... I have had most of them 1-3 years and they RARELY go broody. Like, I can count on one hand how many times they've been broody over the course of the years. None have gone broody this year.

Here's what I have:
White leghorn, RIR, EE, OE, ISA brown, Wyandotte, barred rock.

Any luck with these ones going broody in early September? Would you try it or just say meh? I don't want to incubate. And I don't want to raise any chicks myself.

 

[sourland]

Sounds as if your chances of a broody hen are minimal. Time for an incubator?

 

[Jokray90]

Sounds as if your chances of a broody hen are minimal. Time for an incubator?

I have one, but don't really want to deal with it right now. Do you think it's just the breeds I have are less likely to go broody? Or is there something I can do to encourage it? I know you can't force it... I'm just wondering why they're so seldom broody.

Three of the hens are three years old and I have only noticed them go broody ONCE in their life. My Wyandotte is new, but older and the seller said she had been recently broody back in Jan.

 

[Chickassan]

You never know seeing a man loose and on the prowl might jump start those hormones

 

[Ridgerunner]

Any luck with these ones going broody in early September? Would you try it or just say meh? I don't want to incubate. And I don't want to raise any chicks myself.

It's your hens. Even if you had hens from a breed that often go broody not all hens of that breed do. And you sure can't get them to go broody when you want them too.

With him visiting now it sounds like you don't have a lot of concern about biosecurity. If he is visiting that area there is probably no real reason too, they've been exposed if he has anything. He's been exposed if your flock has anything.

To help you plan I'll go through this. It takes about 25 hours for an egg to go through a hen's internal egg making factory. That egg can only be fertilized during the first few minutes of that journey. That means if a successful mating tales place on a Thursday, Thursday's egg will not be fertile. Friday's egg might or might not be, I would not count on it. Saturday's egg should be fertile.

But a rooster does not always mate with every hen in his flock every day. He doesn't have to. In the last part of the mating act the rooster hops off. The hen stand up, fluffs up, and shakes. This "fluffy shake" gets the sperm in a special container near where the egg starts it's internal journey where it can fertilize that egg. That sperm can remain viable anywhere for a week and a half to over three weeks. It varies how long it does remain viable.

To me this gives you two different possible strategies. One is if you ever get a broody hen you give that rooster access to your other hens. Then wait an appropriate time to give collect the eggs you want to try hatching. I sometimes don't set eggs for a week after a hen firsts goes broody so you can wait a few days, maybe give him access for two or three days. You can work out the schedule. It's possible some eggs won't be fertile but most should be.

The second option is to give him access to your hens once or twice a week. Most of your hens should be laying fertile eggs so you are ready if one does go broody.

I don't know the logistics of how you give that rooster access or how your neighbor feels about that. It's possible that the rooster will want to move in with your hens. Or the hens, or at least some of them, may follow him back to where he sleeps. If you do hatch chicks, some will be boys. What are your plans for those boys? It might be good to chat with your neighbor before you start any of this. You two may be able to work something out or he may not want you to use his rooster like that.

 

[Briosafarm]

From the situation you described and your preferences re: not incubating or raising chicks yourself, no it's not worth it. Too many things go wrong even with people who have broody hens and then you'd have to raise the chicks yourself anyway.