Switching Roosters for breeding

[Wytchcat]

I have a good sized flock, mostly mixed but with a core of pure Blue Partridge Brahmas.

I hatched out 3 really nice hens and a roo last spring that from an outside breeder. They have been running with the whole flock this whole time and I have a number of roos so it is sort of catch as catch can on who's topped who at the moment.

I want to put the hens in with my senior roo in the next couple of weeks, segregated from the flock so I can do some incubating in the next few months.

How long should I hold off after introducing him to the hens to insure he's Papa? I've heard up to a month.. and I'll sit it out if I must! LOL but I haven't seen anything definitive either way.

Thanks!

 

[Cyprus]

At least 2 weeks for SURE.

 

[ChocolateMouse]

A month sounds about right. It's at least two weeks according to this academic article, but there's no source cited:

http://www2.ca.uky.edu/agcomm/pubs/ASC/ASC201/ASC201.pdf

And two weeks as well according to this one, but again, no source study is cited.
https://www.dummies.com/home-garden...cken-and-then-the-egg-growth-and-development/

So a month would be extremely sufficient.

 

[aart]

I'd wait a month.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I'll answer a question you did not ask, then answer the one you did. They are related and may help you.

It takes about 25 hours for an egg to go through a hen's internal egg-making factory. The egg can only be fertilized in the first few minutes of hat journey. If a successful mating tales place on a Thursday, Thursday's egg cannot be fertile from that mating. Friday's egg might or might not be, depending on timing. Don't count on it. Saturday's egg will be fertile. Of course, this is after a successful mating, not all are. And a rooster does not necessarily mate with every hen in is flock every day, He doesn't have to to keep them fertile once the process starts. Which leads to your question.

At the end of mating process the rooster hops off. His part is done. The hen stands up, fluffs up, and shakes. This fluffy shake (no idea why she fluffs up) moves the sperm to a special container near where the egg starts its journey.

Now comes the hard part, how long does the sperm stay viable? You are dealing with living animals, it is not a hard and fast number. Some sperm may lose viability by 9 days, maybe less. Some has been known to stay viable for over three weeks. There are threads on here where a rooster was killed by a fox or for some other reason a rooster was not available for mating for three weeks before an egg was laid and it still hatched. Typically sperm does not stay viable for thee weeks in a hen's body but there have been cases it has.

Most people count on a hen staying fertile for at least two weeks after a mating. Enough sperm typically stays viable that long. If you use two weeks you are taking a chance. If you wait three weeks you are still taking a chance but it is a really small chance. Most people are willing to take that small chance and it normally works out fine at three weeks. Some people are not willing to take that chance and wait 3-1/2 to 4 weeks.

I cannot give you a specific number of days where that chance drops to absolute zero, it just doesn't work that way with living animals. I would not be shocked to hear of one instance where four weeks did not work but I would be surprised. In your situation I'd probably wait at least three weeks but introduce the new rooster early enough that his sperm is ready.

Good luck!

 

[sourland]

After removing a rooster hens will show moderate fertility up to 2 weeks, some fertility up to 3 weeks and occasional fertility up to 4 weeks. If you only wait 2 weeks there is a high probability that 'Dad' will be unknown.

 

[123RedBeard]

It depends ...

Best way to tell, is seperate the hens off in your breeder coop by themselves ... crack the eggs open and look for the bullseye ... once your sure that all your hens are laying eggs without any bullseyes ... then put your cock in with the hens, check for bullseyes again on day three ... once you have all the hens laying bullseyes ... fire up your incubator!

Otherwise you just guessing.

 

[RoosterML]

It depends ...

Best way to tell, is seperate the hens off in your breeder coop by themselves ... crack the eggs open and look for the bullseye ... once your sure that all your hens are laying eggs without any bullseyes ... then put your cock in with the hens, check for bullseyes again on day three ... once you have all the hens laying bullseyes ... fire up your incubator!

Otherwise you just guessing.

For the inexperienced ones such as myself do not you have any pictures for this "bullseye" you mention?

 

[gunslinger33]

 

[RoosterML]

View attachment 1633550

Thank you, so to add words to the pictures now.
To me I see dots on both fertile and non fertile eggs. Is the following correct? It looks like the fertile egg that you show has a small dot within a larger circle. The non fertile egg looks like one solid dot. Thank you for your help now I am going to go fry an egg to see if I see anything at all.