how long does one breeding last

Hi, wasn't sure what topic to put but here goes. Once the rooster and hens are together how long does she stay fertilized. I have been told it can take from 3 days to a week for her to lay fertile eggs but how long does sperm last after they have bred? Can you remove the rooster after a short time or do they need to stay together for a long time

Geri

I'll try to get this thread going for you. I have been told that after one successful mating the hen starts to lay fertile eggs in 3-4 days and continues to lay fertile eggs for up to 3 weeks. However, if you are wanting to put her with a new rooster after she's been with a different rooster, I've been told it takes a minimum of 4 weeks before she stops laying fertile eggs from the first rooster.

I think if you were just wanting to do individual matings with the same pair, I would put the rooster in once a week to continue to have top fertility with the hen.
And if you are wanting different breedings, then what Chicory said.

I hope this sort of follows the topic.....HiddenRiver - if you have roosters living together and you want them to continue to get along, how many hours in that one day a week should he spend with the hen to successfully fertilize her eggs and yet still maintain harmony with the other roosters when put back with them? I'm thrilled to be addressing this topic for myself as well.

You would be good with a couple hours or so that works for me.

Thanks pops. Does anyone else do this method?

With my limited knowledge

I believe a roo's sperm can live inside the hen and fetrilize eggs for a couple of weeks after being mated.

When you place roo and hen together, most breeders advise waiting 1 month before hatching the eggs. This way you are sure that the roo you are breeding the hen to IS the chickies daddy.

Knowing is half the battle
Getting that purebred heritage roo to figure out what a hen is for

toybarons wrote:With my limited knowledge

I believe a roo's sperm can live inside the hen and fetrilize eggs for a couple of weeks after being mated.

When you place roo and hen together, most breeders advise waiting 1 month before hatching the eggs. This way you are sure that the roo you are breeding the hen to IS the chickies daddy.

Knowing is half the battle
Getting that purebred heritage roo to figure out what a hen is for

i've been quite interested in people's response to this. The method I use is to take all my breeding hens of various breeds and separate those hens together for three weeks This ensures that they have no accumulated sperm since they haven't been near any roosters for weeks. Then I take each selected hen one at a time and let then outside with the correct rooster that I want them mated to. From a distance I carefully watch for there to be at least 2 successful matings with that roo. Then I slip a colored band on her foot that identifies which roo she has been mated to and then I place her in a special pen that identifies that roo. When I collect the eggs for 2 weeks I know that all the eggs are from one particular roo and which particular hens.If you have several roosters of the same breed that you want with specific hens the same rule applies. When identifying them for incubating, I write on the egg blue/black(roo first and then hen) So I know who's chicks belong to whom. I try if possible to not place more than one breed each in the bator at a time to keep good records.

I single mate or trio mated my males in the trio mating I use sisters, so 1 male over either 1 female or 2 sisters. Each male is rotated every other day to a new pen and each egg is marked, which pen it comes from. So right now I am using for instance 4 different Black OEG males each rotating over aprox. 4 females. Each egg is marked and each chick is identified with a toe marking as they leave their hatching area. I keep a record book each year with the different matings and markings, so I know what breedings produced the best offspring. I do this type of breedings with all my breeds, time consuming but the results are worth it. Sometimes I will only use one male but usually it is 2 or 3 different related boys, but every chick is tracked for bloodline.

My females are never with males other than in the breeding pens so I never have to worrry about separating before breeding as I can start from the git go.

Heather

,

I should also add that my males go under lights 4 weeks before I even think about them servicing any of my girls. I hate dud eggs and want to get my hatching going right away so I am not hatching for months and my cockerels from my male lines have plenty of time to be mature and well conditioned for the show season.

Heather

viczoe wrote:I should also add that my males go under lights 4 weeks before I even think about them servicing any of my girls. I hate dud eggs and want to get my hatching going right away so I am not hatching for months and my cockerels from my male lines have plenty of time to be mature and well conditioned for the show season.

Heather

Heather, I am wondering if putting extra light on the males helps to trigger their hormones? I know the extra hours of light for the girls makes a big difference in winter time egg production, but didn't realize the boys could also benefit.

Kathys that is excatly what happens it gets the hormones flowing as well I increase their protein for the boys who are coming out of the male pens but the boys that I am showing stay on their high powered show diet. Also the females are under lights a bit before before so I know they are laying but they don't need the lights as long as the boys to get egg production. So when I start my matings I know I will #1- have females who are laying regularly and boys who can rise to the occassion and give me fertile eggs from day 2 or so. It may not work for all but I don't want my incubators working on Dud eggs.

Heather

Wow! Thank you for that info, Heather. Wish I had known that earlier this spring when I was agonizing over lack of fertility with my movie star cockerel!

I was starting to believe that he was completely sterile and would be that way forever, but a wise woman (that's you Jayme!) told me not to lose hope...longer hours of daylight could get those hormones kicking in. Well, she was right and I'm now finally starting to get some fertile eggs.

I wish I had thought of artificial lighting to get things going earlier this spring, but now I know for the future. What a great little tidbit of information I learned today!


Oh, one more question...does it have to be full-spectrum lighting, or will any type of light do the trick?

Oops...I think I'm taking over this thread...Sorry Rasilon!