who's the daddy?

[epmchickens]

Hello everyone . I am wondering about roosters fathering the chicks. I will be giving eggs to a friend of mine soon and she requested some silkies. At the moment I have a silkie roo and a d'uccle roo in with the ladies and I am wondering how soon after removing the d'uccle roo I can be sure that the silkie is the father of the chicks to be. I've heard everything from 24 hours to a month! Right now the d'uccle is the stud-muffin in the pen so I'm sure he's the father so far but I'd really like to give her pure silkies asap. Thanks so much for any info

 

[Animal lover342]

I would wait about three weeks to a month just to make sure.

 

[epmchickens]

Does that in turn mean that I could put a hen and roo together for a day and get fertile eggs from her for that long? That's good to know thanks

 

[elliechooks]

I had a roo with my 6 girls for 2 days. He was gone on sunday afternoon and I kept all eggs laid on Tuesday and Wednesday for hatching, 9/10 hatched. Our eating eggs were still showing the bullseye for about 3 weeks after he was gone!

 

[Animal lover342]

Ya you could put the hen and roo together for a couple days and her eggs should be fertile for a week or so.

 

[epmchickens]

That's amazing! Thanks so much for the info