The Subject of Sex

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The Subject of Sex
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Gertie

Joined: 08 Jan 2005
Posts: 1638
Location: Yorkshire

Posted: Sun Jan 30, 05 1:11 pm Post subject:
THANK YOU, Alison I can now go into work tomorrow and say I don't talk sh*t (well not where this is concerned, anway). Thanks for that!!!

Blue Sky

Joined: 30 Jan 2005
Posts: 7658
Location: France

Posted: Sun Jan 30, 05 1:58 pm Post subject: On the subject of sex

Sorry if I am butting in here but we keep hens on our smallholding in France and we are ova/lacto(fisho) vegetarians. We have a cockeril but he is kept seperate from the hens until one of them goes broody or we decide that one of them should go broody. I know that this is frustrating and probably somewhat unfair to the poor cockerill but it is how we prefer our eggs (un-fertilised) and he sure makes up for it when he does get a week or two of work. This may or may not be relevant but it is our perspective on the subject.

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45432
Location: Essex

Posted: Sun Jan 30, 05 2:02 pm Post subject:
Never worry about butting in.

Treacodactyl
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 25795
Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism

Posted: Sun Jan 30, 05 6:52 pm Post subject:
I was going to say, would having a cockerel with the hens make them go broody more often and result in less eggs? Two of our three don't need an invitation to go broody without a cockerel.

Blue Sky

Joined: 30 Jan 2005
Posts: 7658
Location: France

Posted: Sun Jan 30, 05 8:14 pm Post subject: chicks
I think hens just go broody when they go broody - and good on 'em. Who are we to tell them how to behave? One of our hens went broody all by herself last summer and out of about a dozen eggs only one hatched but that could well have been my fault for not getting the cock in there in time. The chick that hatched is doing very well however

DarrenG

Joined: 26 Dec 2004
Posts: 110
Location: Lincolnshire Fens

Posted: Wed Feb 02, 05 9:38 am Post subject:
[quote="Treacodactyl Duck eggs are always fertile I think, not sure about geese and other birds.[/quote]duck are not allways fertile, you do need a drake

DarrenG

Joined: 26 Dec 2004
Posts: 110
Location: Lincolnshire Fens

Posted: Wed Feb 02, 05 9:44 am Post subject: Re: On the subject of sex

sjcheslop wrote:

tell you what m8 you are talking absolute twaddle if the hen has gone broody its to late to put the cock bird in for starters if shes broody you cant get her out of the box for the cock bird to serve her, normally a hen finishes lay on or about the twelveth or thirteenth day after the onset of broodiness, and it takes 10 days for a fertilised yolk to reach the nest

Blue Sky

Joined: 30 Jan 2005
Posts: 7658
Location: France

Posted: Wed Feb 02, 05 7:12 pm Post subject: Re: On the subject of sex

[quote="DarrenG]tell you what m8 you are talking absolute twaddle if the hen has gone broody its to late to put the cock bird in for starters if shes broody you cant get her out of the box for the cock bird to serve her, normally a hen finishes lay on or about the twelveth or thirteenth day after the onset of broodiness, and it takes 10 days for a fertilised yolk to reach the nest[/quote]

OK, yes you have a good point. Sorry I didn't state my method clearly. We have lots of hens. As soon as one of ours goes broody she will sit on the nest and not move from that spot as you stated. What we do then is let out cock in amongst the rest of the hens for a week or two and start introducing fertile eggs to the "broody hen's" box (which she has not had any objection to in our experience). I have been advised in the past that a broody hen will happily sit on a dozen to 18 eggs and so that is what we aim for. As I stated in my original comment - maybe this is too late for the eggs to be fertile and maybe this is why we only got one chick last time. I do not proclaim to be an expert in poultry raising but I was merely offering my opinion. On re-thinking the matter we will maybe keep our cock with a few of the hens all of the time to ensure a better chance of fertile eggs once one has gone broody.

Thank you for your input - we welcome all constructive critisism.

Treacodactyl
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 25795
Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism

Posted: Wed Feb 02, 05 7:33 pm Post subject:

DarrenG wrote:

Treacodactyl wrote:

Duck eggs are always fertile I think, not sure about geese and other birds.

duck are not allways fertile, you do need a drake

I was told (well my parents when we kept ducks were told) that ducks will not lay without a drake. If that's the case then I would have thought there would be a reasonable chance of the eggs being fertile. If that's not the case then I've learnt something though I think more people keep ducks and drakes than hens and cockerals together.

alison
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 29 Oct 2004
Posts: 12918
Location: North Devon

Posted: Wed Feb 02, 05 10:05 pm Post subject:
You don't need a drake to get duck eggs. We only have females, 21 at the moment and on average 16 eggs a day from them.

Treacodactyl
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 25795
Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism

Posted: Wed Feb 02, 05 10:11 pm Post subject:
Well that's good to know. What type are they? We had Aylesbury ducks, three females to a drake. As the drakes are far quieter than cockerals perhaps they are just more commonly kept.

alison
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 29 Oct 2004
Posts: 12918
Location: North Devon

Posted: Wed Feb 02, 05 11:14 pm Post subject:
All bar three are kharkis, the three are Aylesburys.

Lloyd

Joined: 24 Jan 2005
Posts: 2699

Posted: Wed Feb 02, 05 11:55 pm Post subject:
Alison, what on earth do you do with so many eggs?

alison
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 29 Oct 2004
Posts: 12918
Location: North Devon

Posted: Thu Feb 03, 05 9:18 am Post subject:
Sell them We have 350 chickens as well. We are on the main road out of Ilfracombe and we could sell twice as many, if I had the hens or inclination.

Marigold123

Joined: 06 Feb 2005
Posts: 224

Posted: Tue Feb 08, 05 12:24 am Post subject:

Gertie wrote:

Had a debate at work today - do hens lay better if there is a cockerel kept with them - I said I didn't think so, they will lay them anyway. My friend says I talk sh*t. Do I or don't I.

We keep 3 hens and NO cock, and we are drowning in eggs, even at this time of year, as we are currently providing our hens with extra light during the Winter, (see my post on the 'Letting Hens Out in the Morning' thread).

I have been keeping laying records, and though I haven't done the sums yet, I think they are doing even better than we have been led to believe they would. This is probably because we only have a very small number and they have minimal pressure on them from other flock members.

As someone else said, keeping a cockerel helps to reduce the number of disputes among the hens, and probably helps the hens feel more secure and content, which may in turn make them lay a few more eggs. I don't think this is anything to do with the fact the hens are being fertilized, though.

It is interesting that having no cockerel around, Bermuda, our current head-honcho hen, has gradually become more and more aggressive to outsiders, ie. we humans, and now regularly attacks hands, trousers and ankles when we are in the garden.

I've read that this happens sometimes, and that if you introduce a cockerel into the flock, she will revert back to her normal behaviour.

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