When should I be worried about the rooster.

[Iceegg]

We have 2 layers that are laying eggs now and are 6 months old. We have 4 other chickens that are 12 weeks old and one of them we have wondered if it was a rooster. This morning one of the chickens is starting to do a weak crow but it was a crow. I need to find someone who will take the roo and keep it or eat him. We can't bare to eat him since our chickens are really pets with benefits. We can't keep the rooster in our area so we need to find a home for him. My concern is should we start keeping him separate from our current egg layers until we find a home for him as to not get fertilized eggs? I'm unsure on the whole egg fertilizing process but I don't want fertilized eggs. Thanks alot for any information and if you live near Duluth MN and want a rooster let me know.

 

[lacasitarojafarm]

Why don't you want fertilized eggs? I am just curious. it's weird as I sell my eggs and they are all fertilized and people want them that way but I don't know why the preference.

 

[Kansaseq]

Unless your cockerel is mounting the hens, their eggs shouldn't be fertilized yet. Honestly, there is no difference in flavor. I've eaten both fertilized and unfertilized, and they are exactly the same. And unless you allow your hens to incubate the fertilized eggs, you're not going to get chicks.

 

[chicmom]

Hello there!

You don't need to worry about separating them. As long as you collect those eggs daily and pop 'em in the fridge, you will never know they're fertile. They will look the same as an non-fertilized egg.

Hope this helps!

 

[hensonly]

I got TWO roos with my flock of "all pullets". They were housed together from day one. They are now two and a half years old, the hens have been bred many times (sometimes many times a day), so I am certain that the majority of the eggs are fertile. There is absolutely no difference in the flavor or nutrition of the eggs, fertile or not. Since none of my hens wants to sit on eggs and hatch chicks, I think of it as natural birth control!

The fertile egg is an egg with the POTENTIAL for a chick to be created, not an egg containing a chick, IMO. Just as in people, after sperm meets egg, there is a lot that has to happen before a viable fetus is created (if it doesn't implant correctly in the uterine wall, or if any one of many other things don't happen, there is no baby, even though there was a fertilzed egg.) The only difference with poultry is that only the fertilization takes place inside the hen, the rest happens externally. But the biology is the same, and even when fertilized eggs are set under a hen or in an incubator, there are usually some that don't hatch.

So, to me, just because an egg is fertilized, does not mean that there is a chick in there, which is the part that bothers a lot of people. I don't want to trigger a big bru-ha-ha about at what point a fertilized egg becomes a life, and I'm the first to admit that I'm no expert on reproductive biology, this is just my perception of this question, for what it's worth.

 

[Iceegg]

Thanks for all the responses, they all helped us feel better about having more time to find a home for our roo.
Hensonly I think you bring up so good points and I like your explanation. Thanks alot.

 

[Azriel]

I've been told that you have a good chance of bloody eggs when you have a roo with the hens, has anyone found this to be true.

 

[SkyWarrior]

Quote:
It has not been my experience.