Unexpected Rooster

[Roofus]

Good morning,
I purchased all pullets form a lady in December.
They are started to lay. I suspected one was a rooster. Well I am sure now it is.
Will my hens go broody now? They are production red/black star cross. I do not want to eat fertilized eggs.And how do I tell if they are? Obviously, I am new to laying chickens.
All I ever had were meat birds raised from spring to fall.
Thank you.

 

[OrpingtonManiac]

How old are they?
Could you post a picture of the bird u think is a cockerel?
I don’t think they'll go broody just because theres a cockerel around, but others might know more.

 

[fluffycrow]

The girls can go broody with or without a rooster. I’ve had roosters in my groups for years, and for the first ten years of having them, I had no broodies

That being said, there is nothing to worry about when eating fertilised eggs; it’s the same as eating unfertilised eggs. The problem comes in when they have already started developing. They’ll only start developing if a female sits on them with the intention to brood. In that case, as long as you collect the eggs every day, they won’t develop.

You can also break the broody if you don’t wish to have chicks

 

[Roofus]

Thank you all for the replies I did take a picture now. You can not see the long legs in the picture. It does mount some of them.

 

[Mrs. K]

Looks like hens to me.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Does it crow?
Sometimes a hen will mount other hens just to show that she is the boss. It's about dominance, not sex. Puppies will do the same thing.

 

[Auntiejessi3]

Thank you all for the replies I did take a picture now. You can not see the long legs in the picture. It does mount some of them.

That's a hen

 

[OrpingtonManiac]

Thank you all for the replies I did take a picture now. You can not see the long legs in the picture. It does mount some of them.

That looks like a hen to me. As bigbluehen said, she could be mounting them to show dominance instead of trying to mate with them.

 

[SandyRiverChick]

I stopped getting RIR's and RIR hybrids because of this behavior. If you can put up with it (and your other ladies can,) then you're good to go. I know that there is nothing wrong with fertilized eggs but I don't keep roosters either. Many ways to move them on down the road, should you need to go there. You got lucky this time!

 

[Yard Farmer]

Good morning,
I purchased all pullets form a lady in December.
They are started to lay. I suspected one was a rooster. Well I am sure now it is.
Will my hens go broody now? They are production red/black star cross. I do not want to eat fertilized eggs.And how do I tell if they are? Obviously, I am new to laying chickens.
All I ever had were meat birds raised from spring to fall.
Thank you.

Just because a rooster is present doesn't mean they decide to brood. It's a genetic thing with chickens if they brood or not. Typically, those sort of hybrids do not brood, but on the rare occasion, they can.

Eating fertilized eggs are perfectly fine. There's not chicks inside the egg till incubation starts.
But to tell if they're fertilized, you'll want to look for a little "bullseye" on they egg yolk.
https://www.google.com/search?clien...ih=643&dpr=1#vhid=wQ5qCw3LqAIPzM&vssid=mosaic

Your rooster doesn't really look rooster-ish. To confirm that suspicion, you need to look for gender specif feathers.
https://www.google.com/search?q=sad...&sclient=img#vhid=iEZKuVXixB5SAM&vssid=mosaic