I have Buff Orrpingtons. What I need to know is how old must my rooster be in order to fertilize eggs? I am hoping to have some of the ladies raise their own babies this year. Thanks in advance for your help.

-- Tammy (btawilliams@juno.com), March 07, 2000

Answers

I sometimes think about 4 hours! But in my experience, they mature at about the same rate as the ladies. They are hormone laden adolescents at 5 months, and have settled into serious sperm production at 6 to 8 months. This is somewhat light dependent, much the same as the hens producing very poorly until wintertime darkness swings into springtime light. 14 hours of light seems to be the breakpoint for both guys & gals. Good Luck!

Brad

-- Brad (homefixer@mix-net.net), March 07, 2000.

We raised a Buff rooster since last August. Don't know how fertile he is, but he's been "servicing" almost all our (17) hens, some of them several times a day, for at least a month now. We have a batch of eggs in the incubator at present. Either the increased competition or the incredible springlike weather has made a noticeable improvement in the "performance" of our other (Danish Leghorn) rooster too! Good luck, David and Kim

-- David C (fleece@eritter.net), March 08, 2000.