Wait time for incubating eggs from new breeding groups

WaupoosCowgirl · Post by **WaupoosCowgirl** » Tue Mar 07, 2017 10:12 am

I am way behind this year but oh well, I figure I won't have to brood them in my shower this year! So this afternoon and tonight I would like to set up my breeding pens. Everyone has been running a muck (literally today ..yuck) and I would like to know opinions on how long to just keep eating the eggs before I can put "good" ones in the incubator.

Ontario Chick · Post by **Ontario Chick** » Tue Mar 07, 2017 10:44 am

Depends on couple of things, how many hens to a rooster, how active and fertile the breed tends to be and how impatient you are :)
1 week is pretty safe, but you can start making omelets after about 3-4 days .
If you have 4 hens in the breeding group wait for the day you collect 4 eggs, then check fertility.
What breeds are you going to be hatching?

Skinny rooster · Post by **Skinny rooster** » Tue Mar 07, 2017 11:14 am

Unless you mean you had different breeds running together, then you would have to wait at least two weeks to be sure of pure breed chicks. Otherwise what OC said.

WaupoosCowgirl · Post by **WaupoosCowgirl** » Tue Mar 07, 2017 12:12 pm

Yes sorry, I hadn't had my coffee yet! Everyone was all together for the winter and now I am separating into their respective breeds. I am planning on breeding my French BC Marans, EO's, Gold Laced Wyandottes and Speckled Sussex (but he has buggered his leg so we will see). I was also going to put my 5 EE hens with a Marans roo and hope for some olive eggers.

Ontario Chick · Post by **Ontario Chick** » Tue Mar 07, 2017 12:30 pm

Sorry didn't have my coffee yet either

and totally missed that, Thanks SR, nice catch!
obviously I assumed that everybody had their roosters separated because I did ?

WaupoosCowgirl · Post by **WaupoosCowgirl** » Tue Mar 07, 2017 12:35 pm

No in the winter everyone shares the love!

Post by **WLLady** » Tue Mar 07, 2017 1:08 pm

If they have all been running together you will need about 25 days before they should be fertilized only by the new male.

windwalkingwolf · Post by **windwalkingwolf** » Wed Mar 08, 2017 6:30 am

The longer you can wait the better...Last Fall I hatched a chick that had been sired by a rooster that had been dead about 5 weeks when I collected eggs. The more a hen likes a particular rooster, the longer she will hold onto his sperm, and reject the sperm of a rooster she doesn't like. Yeah, they can do that, weird but true, and apparently for quite some time :/

WaupoosCowgirl · Post by **WaupoosCowgirl** » Wed Mar 08, 2017 3:57 pm

Well I think I will split up the boys and the girls tonight and then set up my breeding pens in the last week of April and start collecting and filling the Incubator May 1st.

Ontario Chick · Post by **Ontario Chick** » Wed Mar 08, 2017 6:56 pm

Sounds like a perfect plan