Time Needed to Insure a Certain Bloodline

[SilkieMitch]

Ugh, I totally rewrote the title to this post three times, and I still don’t think it explains what I want to ask. Searching for it was useless since I can’t figure out what the actual words would be, so I’ll just jump in and explain my question!

In the future I’d like to breed my Silkies, but they free range with my my full size chickens, which means that I can’t be sure if an egg’s daddy is my silkie roo or my Wyandotte roo! I was wondering how long I’d need to separate them in different areas before I could be guaranteed that the eggs my silkie hens are laying are definitely full blood Silkies? Ex: If I kept my Silkies separate from my Wyandotte roo for two weeks, could I be sure that any eggs after that two weeks would only be fertilized by my Silkie roo? Just checking, since I have some GORGEOUS full blood Silkies, some of whom are show-worthy, and I’d like to make sure any silkie offspring I have is full blooded!

Weird question, right? LOL. Or maybe not so weird as it is hard to phrase.

 

[MarkJr]

I believe 3 weeks is maximum sperm retention of a hen. 4-5 weeks should ensure the correct paternity.
Hopefully someone that knows for sure can pop in and verify.

 

[MysteryChicken]

What I did for pure silkies.

I put 2-3 silkie hens in a prefab coop for about 2½ weeks. [Was limited on time]

Added one rooster at a time.

98% of the chicks were full blooded silkie, I ended up with 2 crosses. One silkie was a Satin surprisingly.

 

[aart]

I believe 3 weeks is maximum sperm retention of a hen. 4-5 weeks should ensure the correct paternity.
Hopefully someone that knows for sure can pop in and verify.

Yep, that's correct.