how long to be sure?

This is not an urgent question but it comes in to my head on a regular basis when I am thinking about the process of breeding chickens.  How long do you need to keep the hen with the rooster separated from other roosters until you can be sure they will be producing offspring from their own gene pools  -  not sure if that came out right.  try again.  If I am trying to be sure that the chicks from a particular cross will be fathered from a specific rooster, how long do I need to keep the hen away from the other roosters and how long do the hen and rooster need to hang out with each other for eggs to be fertile?  Hope that was better.  Thanks.

Take away a month to be real sure. Rooster with hen, the next day can have a fertile egg. Its very good to know the parents of your chicks and also help determine the breed value of the parent stock. I keep many more males than most breeders. Prefer to put a rooster in with a hen who will compliment her for what she needs and not just one specimen "stud roo" to cover all hens. That is just a fast way to breed yourself into a bad corner imo.

Others claim a month and a half to be safe, but I find that a week will do it.

However, if you are changing roosters of the same breed and not removing a hen from other breeds of roosters, the switch will not be apparent...in other words you will not be able to see by looking at chicks if the sire is the same breed. So, from what others have said, go a month and a half.

I have heard...do not have the research to confirm...that a hen with many roosters can store the semen of the rooster that she most likes. In other words, she can be bred by up to 3 roosters, keep all that semen in store, but she can deicide whose semen fertilizes her eggs!

In my opinion it would be better to keep the girls ALONE for at least a month, maybe more, before putting them with your rooster.

Or, do what I do. All sorts of mutt hens with all sorts of mutt roosters, mix it all up and see what comes out.

Here is what MSU says.

http://msucares.com/poultry/reproductions/poultry_long_hens.html

Uno, since she stores all the semen in the same place I dont think she can chose at a later date which rooster father's her eggs. However, at the time of mating, she can choose to expel that paticular rooster's semen if he does not meet her exacting standards for a suitable mate.

I usually wait 3 weeks. But at my place it is usually just a switch of PChant roosters. So I am done with one and on to the next. If there is a little cross over it is not the end of the world, I just note the dates in my notes.

My hens stay by themselves all winter so in the spring there is not any problem, just when I am changing sires. I do what Piet does with some of my males and put them with just one or two hens for a certain time and the switch them up too.

I keep the Roos with the Roos and the hens with the hens all winter as well. After Christmas I make up my breeding pens by selecting the hens and Roos I want to use on each other. If my stock is limited, I will pick out the best hens and Roos and put them together, hatch as many chicks as I can and then next year pick the best from those.

thank you everyone. I can see the benefits to keeping the boys away from the girls all winter - makes the breeding pen time so much easier - just pick and mix! I read in a book this morning that March is a good time to get the hatching going, when it is still cold enough to keep diseases at bay but warming up for the spring/summer.

I have a hen who was in with a rooster for only a few days. Six weeks later, when I cracked one of her eggs open, I noted that it was fertile!

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Could I ask a question about the all male pens Tara and Sue. Are these roos that have been in with hens breeding for the season and are now wintering in a all male pen? If so do you have any major fighting? I know from reading you will have one dominant male in the group of boys. I'm curious how you go about this. Sorry for hijacking hehe

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I don't mind people hijacking on my posts at all  . I could not afford to get pissy after all the hijacks I have done  . And, excellent question too Buff, with excellent info from Tara, thanks all round:cheers: . I have a pen of roosters who are destined for the freezer probably some time in Feb or if it is too cold and we just can't stand the idea then will wait till spring. They are all the same age, plenty of space and simply overjoyed that I am not transporting them to their outside pen individually - that was stressful (no pop door to the pen outside - will fix this spring) cause I had to catch them and not everyone was really in to that . They are all very happy with each other - not too stressed and I don't see too much argie bargie at all - they almost seem to celebrate it when the others show and tell their new crowing ability! They are so funny. I am certain that things would be different if they had a more cramped living situation.

I also have two other roosters who I like for crossing with the girls and they are in there with them right now. One was going to go in to the bach pen but he was friends with a pullet who needed to go in to the main group and she was very timid - would run behind me and almost leap into my arms for protection (nasty hoarde of amazon pullets all giving her the run round on her first day at school) - so he stayed cause he's assertive but not mean and he protected her. I never took him out and he's just fine there. The other rooster is so much of a cool hand luke that he simply doesn't bother to show he's a rooster at all - maybe he's a butterfly chaser but I don't think so cause wifie one and wifie two are always nearby and he's just so NOT insecure it is charming. Maybe I'll seperate the two groups into breeding pens once the bachelors have gone on to the great rectangular chiller in the shed - that would work well for the 14 hrs of light in mid April for hatching at end of May/early June. I see a plan hatching :-).

Excellent I'm going to have to just go for it an give it a try with the boys and go from there. Right now I have two boys together and a third in the same building but in an xpen with lid. The two boys fought through the xpen for a bit so I have pinned towels around so they couldn't see each other. However since then the two boys lose are roosting on his pen with no issues. I guess I'm scared they won't stop fighting but I guess they do need to sort out the differences hehe. I have a few more boys coming so once they have done their quarantine time all the boys will be together cross my fingers. 

Thank you Tara and Magdelan for the insight! Love this forum great people and great info. 

Our Best rooster lives with the girls year round and we have a group of boys  in the bachelor pad (as I call it) The boys are growing up and in the spring I plan to keep the best and butcher the others.  The best boys will be put in breeding groups with the hens I feel they will best compliment.... I am a total newbie to chicken breeding so we shall see if it works as I hope it will.  My plan is to have the girls who are not meant to be bred by our main rooster on their own for 4-6 weeks and then expose them to their partner.  Hubby will be so delighted to build yet another coop and covered run.... NOT!  Good thing all this chicken stuff is poultry daughter's passion or it would never get done.  She has daddy firmly wrapped around her little pinky finger.

Magdelan wrote: I have a pen of roosters who are destined for the freezer probably some time in Feb or if it is too cold and we just can't stand the idea then will wait till spring.    

I don't know, if you are interested and don't want to butcher and the birds are old enough, Peggy at Okanagan processing has room for some birds on her last processing date, December 19....she is wonderful to work with. I have a group that is heading that way on that date. I didn't realize she was still active so late in the season. She starts up again just before Easter. I think during that time off she takes her staff to the Bahamas   just thinkin' about stuff. Have an awesome day, CynthiaM.

CynthiaM wrote:

Magdelan wrote: I have a pen of roosters who are destined for the freezer probably some time in Feb or if it is too cold and we just can't stand the idea then will wait till spring.    

I don't know, if you are interested and don't want to butcher and the birds are old enough, Peggy at Okanagan processing has room for some birds on her last processing date, December 19....she is wonderful to work with.  I have a group that is heading that way on that date.  I didn't realize she was still active so late in the season.  She starts up again just before Easter.  I think during that time off she takes her staff to the Bahamas   just thinkin' about stuff.  Have an awesome day, CynthiaM.

thanks CynthiaM, you have an awesome day too :-). I can't bring myself to get someone else to do the job for a number of reasons. Mostly because of the cost involved, stress to get them up there, I want to do it myself because I think I should (not thinking that everyone else should do their own at all, just that I should  and also, not thinking that Peggy isn't respectful of giving kind deaths (honestly don't know) but that I want to be absolutely certain they have a good one. I don't know who I was in my last life but in this one I am mad cow protective of animals and kids - any ones animals and kids actually. I was totally destroyed a month or so ago when we heard a bear being hounded and hunted by someone nearby - nearly ran down the hill to take it into my own hands but self preservation kept me on my own property thankfully, the idea of getting tangled up with hunting dogs, stressed bear and rabid hunters with guns kept me out of that. In any event, I believe I may have been quite the meanie in the last life so this time I make good on it. Well that was more than the response I imagine you expected! Really kind of you to think of me CynthiaM, got two coffees and a steam train going inside of me today which is good cause got a few tasks to tackle! Need to get a job for one. Would love a boss like Peggy who takes her workers to the Bahamas at this time of year - what a joy to hear there are people out there like that! Thanks again.