Mating/fertilizing at hatcheries

[Cknldy]

I was telling my dad all about my chickens when he raised a great question: since a hen can retain semen in her body for a week, if the hen and roo mate once how many eggs can be fertilized? How are the eggs fertilized at hatcheries? I saw on 'dirty jobs' that semen is collected from turkeys and i think it was at a hatchery. Surely they don't artificially inseminate chickens? And since the hen CAN hold semen for a week i'm guessing there could be different daddy roos in one hen's clutch if she mated with more than one roo? My father asked if an egg gets fertilized after it is laid (lol) and then almost made me cry laughing so hard when he asked if there is a type of feed given that fertilizes the eggs! My response was that if there was then no one would deal with roos anymore and someone would be very rich!

 

[Fred's Hens]

Hatcheries often have thousands of hens and hundreds of roosters penned in parent stock facilities. The eggs are gathered everyday, twice a day. There is no concern about which rooster mates with which hen. This is called flock breeding by some people. There is no "clutch" made, as the eggs are gathered quickly and few of the hens have a broody tendency anyhow. The eggs are whisked off to the sanitizing/incubating/hatching trays.

There are a few rarer breeds where AI is employed, but most common breeds and strains are produced with roosters mating hens, the old fashioned way.

There are a lot of people who do not know much about chicken reproduction and how it works. 90% of urban people have no experience with this, don't give it a lot of thought, and many simply pay no attention whatsoever. LOL

 

[Syerf]

There are a few rarer breeds where AI is employed, but most common breeds and strains are produced with roosters mating hens, the old fashioned way.

Why pay someone for a awkward job when roosters are only too happy to take care of it themselves?

 

[Cknldy]

Most notorious for really low fertilization rates is sebrights. I recently saw that in a magazine discussing "rare" and "critical" chickens and why. Some of the breeds listed as almost unheard of in the u.s. are talked about a lot on here so it makes me wonder Any ideas on how many eggs are fertilized with one mating?

 

[Fred's Hens]

Some breeds are also so clumsy or so fuzzy around the vent, etc, that fertility is inadequate. AI provides for improved fertility.