This is my first spring of having chickens--mixed bag of 23 with one rooster. The hens I raised from chicks, but I purchased the rooster locally. (My original rooster had an unfortunate meeting with a hawk.) I was told my rooster was only a year or two old. First--how do I tell if my eggs are fertile (I think something to do with the white thing on the yolk being more "formed"?), and if they aren't, is it because my rooster is too overworked keeping up with 22 ladies? Do roosters get too old (surely) to fertilize eggs? Also, early this spring sometimes I would see him mating with the hens, but I haven't seen him do that in awhile either. Do I need another rooster?

-- Jackie (japrice@icse007.com), April 22, 2002

Answers

Jackie, you said this is your first year w/ chickens.. just how old are they? Do you mean "straight run" or a "mixed batch" of different egg-laying breed pullets when you say "mixed bag"? If they are straight run then you have about 50% cockerals (roosters) already. If you actually ARE in the market for a rooster (two roosters would be called for for 23 ladies, but JUST two), consider this: where we live one rarely needs to BUY a rooster at all, as often folks will find they have "missed" a rooster in the bunch, and don't want the hassle of butchering just one. Check around, but don't get "took" paying much, and try to get a young one that you're sure of (Hopefully someone you know, or someone you have heard to be honest.) Old roosters are a waste of feed, and often are obnoxious already. Sounds like maybe old Cocky might be a candidate for the stew pot. Another idea, go to the feed store and inquire about someone having put in an order for some straight run(half boys/half girls) of whatever breed you want (layer breeds)and see if you can arrange thru the folks there to buy just one (or two) from the customer when they receive their order. Good luck.

-- teddy in NE (millerfam@panhandle.net), April 22, 2002.

I meant "one or two cockerals", .... (course, that only works if they've been sexed) ask 'em and see if they can help... (:

-- teddy in NE (millerfam@panhandle.net), April 22, 2002.

Sorry I wasn't clear--my mixed bag was mixed bag of breeds, but all pullets except the one that got killed. I got them from Murray McMurray last October, so they are 7-8 months old now and have been laying for about a month. Some of them must still be getting into the swing of things because I'm getting more eggs just about every day, I'm up to about 13-15 a day now.

-- Jackie (japrice@icse007.com), April 22, 2002.

From the rooster's point of view there can never be too many hens....

(Sorry, couldn't resist a little humour!)

-Chelsea

-- Chelsea (rmbehr@istar.ca), April 22, 2002.

Yep, you definately need two roosters. Where are you located? I know of several people around here (Eastern Kansas) who would most likely give you a couple of nice ones! :-)

-- Cheryl in KS (klingonbunny@planetkc.com), April 22, 2002.

Jackie, Without incubation there really is no way of telling if eggs are fertile besides the ocasional blood spot. If you want fertile eggs then yes, there should be two working roosters in your flock. From my experience a rooster is too old at 3 years to keep up with his work. The hens do not need a rooster to lay eggs, they lay just the same without one. Dan (feel free to email if you have more questions)

-- Dan (theoutdoorsmanD@aol.com), April 22, 2002.

The white "strings" just hold the yolk in place in the egg. The spot which shows fertility is just a nice round spot on the yolk itself.

-- mary (mlg@mlg.com), April 22, 2002.

You do not need two roosters for 22 hens. THEY WILL FIGHT, especially if not raised together from chicks. You might end up with fewer fertile hens that way. Here is how you can work one rooster with 22 hens. Split the hens in half in a pen with the rooster for two weeks. Then the next two weeks put the rooster with the other 11 hens. Keep repeating this cycle until you are done hatching eggs. The hens should be fertile for at least 30 days after having been serviced by the rooster. I am assuming you are going to use an incubator. If not then just pick out ten or less of your favorite hens to place with the rooster. Collect the eggs from these hens only and place under the broody hens.

A trick I use, that I learned on the Poultry Connection, is to remove the broody hen at night from the rest of the flock. Place her a covered box in a seperate pen. THrow out any eggs she had been setting (or feed to the dogs). Place the fertile eggs you have been collecting for the last few days under the hen. Then remove the cover on the box after 24 hours. She should remain on the eggs. 21 days later all the eggs hatch together.

If the rooster is only a year or two old you should not have any problems on his end. Males are good for many years.

-- BossNass (chrisnass@hotmail.com), April 22, 2002.

Answer to first question: Candle eggs after about seven days in incubator or under broody hen. Should be visible signs of life inside. Maybe a spider design.

If you wait to long to candle, which I always seem to do, the egg will look solid compared to a fresh egg which will "glow". You might be able to see the "air sack" at one end of the egg.

Rooster never

-- BossNass (chrisnass@hotmail.com), April 22, 2002.

Everyone has different experiences with roosters. I have 10 of them and about 35 hens. There's no fighting among the boys, they've never attacked humans or the other livestock and housepets, the gals aren't ragged. The hens and roos all free range together during the day and roost together in the pens at night. Roos older than two will still be quite virile. I have some who are 5 and still spend their days breeding. The eggs the hens set on produce chicks.

I would think you definitely need at least one more roo.

-- ~Rogo (rogo2222@hotmail.com), April 22, 2002.

Jackie...It has been my experience that there are NEVER too many hens for one rooster!!

Russ

-- (imashortguy@hotmail.com), April 22, 2002.

There may never be too many hens for a rooster to be happy, but there can certainly be too many for him to service satisfactorily. If he feels surrounded by an overabundance of goodies, he may just relax, lose a certain sense of urgency, revel in past glories, and happily attend to a few particular favourites. With competition, he is at least going to feel compelled to look after as many of the ladies as he can as well as he can; so he'll stop slacking off.

This is a fine balancing act - too high a proportion of roosters in too small a space and your hens will start getting torn up. Free- ranging, roosters can happily get by (most of the time) with their own little harems of say five birds. If they're a bit more crowded, then heavy birds should have no less than eight hens to a rooster, light breeds approximately twice that number. In fact, if you've got a moderate amount of space then 15 or 16 hens to the rooster is fairly safe. As someone else said, hens can stay fertilised for about a month, although fertility starts to drop off after about a fortnight. There's a good chance that a rooster who has competition will get around to every bird in a harem of 15 at least once in a fortnight, and almost certainly in a month, even if he dislikes her looks and her attitude. As well as a fair proportion of his competitors concubines as well.

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), April 23, 2002.