When to get fertile eggs for broody hen

[cavemanrich]

An old roo perhaps?

Old rooster does not mean incapable rooster

Spoiler: Open only if you have sense of humor

 

[Perris]

As the happy owner of a fabulous and virile nearly-4 yr old (Sven, my avatar), I know! But the old books commonly recommend getting in fresh young cocks every year...and say that they are less reliably fertile from the molt to early in the season (e.g. Wright Practical Poultry Keeper pp. 119-20). Sadly for Sven, he also thinks that after 4 years they're 'seldom of much value' (idem)

 

[SulkyBantam]

Following...

Exciting, please keep us posted!

 

[cavemanrich]

Sadly for Sven, he also thinks that after 4 years they're 'seldom of much value' (idem)

And hoping he does not end up soup

 

[SulkyBantam]

Sven is lovely! I'm guessing he's not at all aggressive?

 

[Perris]

And hoping he does not end up soup

he won't

 

[chooki]

2 out of 12 fertile eggs that I have gotten two days ago were eaten, I suspect, by a blue tongue skink.

This morning, this blue tongue was caught in a coop eating a freshly laid egg.

The blue tongue is now relocated to a park/nature reserve a kilometre away. I hope that it does not come back.

 

[chooki]

The blue tongues have been living in the backyard for years. They never imposed any problem for the chicks or the eggs.

This is an old picture of a blue tongue skink with 3 previous cockerels:

I don't know why the one caught eating egg this morning has suddenly developed an appetite for chicken eggs.

 

[cavemanrich]

I don't know why the one caught eating egg this morning has suddenly developed an appetite for chicken eggs.

Maybe because its regular diet became scarce. Are you in area that was devastated by the previous fires??

 

[chooki]

Are you in area that was devastated by the previous fires??

Not in the immediate neighbourhood. There was a clutch of blue tongue eggs in the backyard, so I guess the blue tongue probably needed some extra nutrition ...