I've have 6 hens who have been laying regularly. There has not been a rooster with them. I recently put a rooster with them and would like to incubate some of the eggs. Can someone tell me how soon to expect fertile eggs after putting the rooster in with them?

-- al buseman (mrb@netins.net), April 23, 2002

Answers

Wait a week or two. From what I've read, the hen has maybe a week's worth of eggs in process inside her. So that the eggs are fertile for about that long after you lose a rooster. I assume it would take at least that long to get fertile eggs when you add one.

-- mary (mlg@mlg.com), April 23, 2002.

I'm sure Mary is correct. If you've ever butchered a hen, you can see the undeveloped eggs all lined up. Better to be safe than waste your time incubating eggs that aren't fertile. Jan

-- Jan in Co (Janice12@aol.com), April 23, 2002.

According to Eggcyclopedia, http://www.aeb.org/eggcyclopedia/main_frame_page.html “A hen requires about 24 to 26 hours to produce and egg. Thirty minutes later, she starts all over again.”

-- BC (desertdweller44@yahoo.com), April 23, 2002.

Another thing you can do is check the yoke of the egg. If you see a little white dot on it (not the white stringy stuff that holds the yolk to the egg), it's fertile. It looks like a sticker on the yoke.

-- Dee (gdgtur@goes.com), April 23, 2002.

All eggs, fertilized or not, have a germinal disk.

-- Bonnie (stichart@plix.com), April 23, 2002.