How long are hens typically fertile after rooster is removed?

[AinaWGSD]

So, we lost our rooster Saturday (well, technically we culled him, but it wasn't a choice we wanted to make) and would like to incubate some eggs. We had been planning on incubating later in the spring, but weren't really storing fertile eggs for hatching yet. What I would like to know is how long after the rooster is gone can we reasonably expect that the eggs are still fertile?

All of Saturday's eggs and both of the eggs laid today I have saved and marked for incubating. That leaves me with 8 eggs of known age and 21 eggs that may be up to two weeks old. I know that the older eggs are less ideal for incubating, but am wondering how long I can collect fresh eggs before it is a futile effort. We are thinking about setting tomorrow, but if the girls are still likely to be fertile for a few more days we can always push the set date back a little farther.

 

[Arielle]

As you are aware, fertility does start to drop off. I do know of someone reliable reporting a hen producing an offspring by an unwanted rooster at 5 weeks after separation from that rooster. I suspect hens are like more animals and more than 1 sperm is required in the fertilization process, though only 1 sperm actually does the fertilizing.

I would think you could collect for a number of days. Of course that makes your 21 day eggs that much older. Can you do a staggered hatch to make use of all the eggs? And keep adding eggs to the incubator as the hen(s) produce the eggs?

I have done a staggered hatch in one incubator with remarkable success. Following the dry hatch method. Perhaps you can borrow an incubator , and move eggs over every few days for lockdown.

GL

 

[AinaWGSD]

I know, I was just wondering when that drop usually starts. After all, there's no guarantee that any of those eggs are fertile, we'd never even seen him mount any of the hens (although all the eggs we've cracked for eating lately seem to have had a bulls-eye and he was certainly courting the ladies). A staggered hatch to catch all of the potentially fertile eggs does sound appealing, but I'd like to avoid it since this will be my first time incubating and I'm already feeling overwhelmed and under-prepared.

 

[chkinut]

and just to let you know, there's an elderly man i know whom i have hatched eggs for and he always brings them to me too old in my opinion. he says they are about a month old when he brings them! lol. but i always have good hatch rates with his eggs. so who knows?

 

[hunter270d]

and just to let you know, there's an elderly man i know whom i have hatched eggs for and he always brings them to me too old in my opinion. he says they are about a month old when he brings them! lol. but i always have good hatch rates with his eggs. so who knows?

eggs stay fertile for around 4 or 5 weeks after removing the Rooster. the hen store's the sperm and uses' it later. they can also choose which Rooster to let fertilize their eggs if more than one Rooster breeds them.

 

[ndgeller]

eggs stay fertile for around 4 or 5 weeks after removing the Rooster. the hen store's the sperm and uses' it later. they can also choose which Rooster to let fertilize they're eggs if more than one Rooster breeds them.

This doesn't really answer your question, but its an interesting story...
I have a friend who put a dozen refrigerated eggs that she bought from the grocery store into a brand new incubator for a "trial run". 2 of those eggs actually hatched! It was impossible for any of us to figure out the breed, but there they were, alive and seemingly healthy. Chicken eggs seem to have quite a tenacity to hatch even under some less than optimal conditions (clearly, they do all need to have been fertilized). She ended up giving them away after about a week.
I am sorry to hear you had to cull your roo. A good rooster, who does his job fertilizing, protecting his flock, and is not too aggressive with a people is not as easy to find as one would think. Also, I find a lot of them to often have personality plus.