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Wait time for incubating eggs from new breeding groups
Posted: Tue Mar 07, 2017 10:12 am
by WaupoosCowgirl
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.
Wait time for incubating eggs from new breeding groups
Posted: Tue Mar 07, 2017 10:44 am
by Ontario Chick
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?
Wait time for incubating eggs from new breeding groups
Posted: Tue Mar 07, 2017 11:14 am
by Skinny rooster
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.
Wait time for incubating eggs from new breeding groups
Posted: Tue Mar 07, 2017 12:12 pm
by WaupoosCowgirl
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.
Wait time for incubating eggs from new breeding groups
Posted: Tue Mar 07, 2017 12:30 pm
by Ontario Chick

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 ?

Wait time for incubating eggs from new breeding groups
Posted: Tue Mar 07, 2017 12:35 pm
by WaupoosCowgirl
No in the winter everyone shares the love!
Wait time for incubating eggs from new breeding groups
Posted: Tue Mar 07, 2017 1:08 pm
by WLLady
If they have all been running together you will need about 25 days before they should be fertilized only by the new male.
Wait time for incubating eggs from new breeding groups
Posted: Wed Mar 08, 2017 6:30 am
by windwalkingwolf
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 :/
Wait time for incubating eggs from new breeding groups
Posted: Wed Mar 08, 2017 3:57 pm
by WaupoosCowgirl
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.
Wait time for incubating eggs from new breeding groups
Posted: Wed Mar 08, 2017 6:56 pm
by Ontario Chick
Sounds like a perfect plan
