another breeding question..

[splatcat]

hi

i am planning to breed for meat and eggs, 2 different breeds, free range in 2 acres together...

my question is, to get pure bred eggs for hatching, i have 3 pens which i plan to select say, 2 hens and a cockeral in together to collect the eggs for hatching.

my question is, how long would they need to be together to fertilise the eggs? to ensure theyre pure bred eggs?

hope that make sense!

[RichmondHens]

I always give mine two weeks to be sure the new cock has fertilised the eggs, although in theory he should only need a week.

You might consider giving each cock at least three hens; two hens is OK for a short period but if you plan to keep the breeding birds together permanently as trios then the hens will get worn out. I put other hens with the breeding pairs or trios so that the cock has a selection of hens to service but I only collect the eggs from his "wife" or "wives" for hatching, the others go for eating. It makes it easier also to run birds that lay a completely different colour egg from the ones you are trying to collect so you can easily tell them apart, although I have been caught out on occasion and set the wrong eggs!