It's a common question and the short answer is No, hens don't
need a rooster in order to lay eggs. They do need a rooster if those eggs are
to be fertile and able to develop into baby chicks.
I have a video about why you might want or not want a rooster in your flock
but you definitely need a rooster if you want to make baby chicks
and this video is about how the rooster can make that happen.
Yes, someone really asked me this question, probably because they were
thinking about reptiles and mammals and fish
rather than chickens. But it's a good question. let's look at some chicken
anatomy. As you might remember the egg starts out
as a naked yolk that is released from the hen's ovary
and as it travels down the oviduct it gets
wrapped in albumin (the egg white), then the membranes,
before finally the shell gets applied over the whole thing.
Of course the sperm, if there are any, fertilize the egg
further up the oviduct before the shell is applied.
Let's look at the rooster's side of things. Here's a rooster.
Let's peep inside. The rooster's sperm are produced in testicles, which are two
pale pink organs near his backbone, just above his kidneys. Unlike mammals
the testicles are well protected right inside his body because rooster's
sperm stays fresh at the normal chicken body
temperature of 41 degrees Celsius, that's 106 degrees
Fahrenheit. If the rooster is a full grown active
and fertile rooster each testicle is about the size of a
walnut or a small egg. In immature cockerels who are not yet
producing sperm the testicles are smaller.
A tube called the ductus deferens carries the sperm from each testicle.
Like many questions about chickens the answer is
it depends. In general if male and female chicks of the same breed are hatched at
the same time the males will be fertile about the same
time as the females start to lay eggs. Which is kind of handy really.
For both sexes that depends on their breed,
the time of year, and what time of year they were hatched.
I have a video that covers some of these variables in detail
specifically for the hens of course. As male chicks grow up and their bodies
come under the influence of testosterone they develop
the prominent red comb and wattles, pointed hackle
feathers and long tail feathers that typify roosters.
They start to look like a rooster and of course
they start to crow.
At first their crowing is quite immature.
By a couple of months later when they're in full voice
they are probably fully mature roosters. However crowing is not directly related
to mating or fertility. In fact crowing seems to be more related to
aggression and status than breeding or reproduction.
Roosters who crow a lot
tend to be more aggressive but not necessarily
more fertile.
Roosters will mate with hens anywhere from 1 to 53 times a day
and the frequency of mating attempts is not related to fertility either.
If you really want to tell whether a rooster is sexually active and fertile
you can inspect his vent. It should be pink and moist.
If it's pale and dry he's not working, no matter how
boastful he sounds. Well first there has to be a bit of
wooing. Roosters have a pretty elaborate
courtship ritual which includes a bit of dancing.
First he approaches her with a bit of a side step, almost like on tiptoe, and he might strut
around her a few times. He does a bit of a waltz kind of a thing,
trailing one wing towards the ground, and scratches with his feet.
The first time you see this you might wonder what's wrong with him but it's just his
courtship dance.
if the hen is receptive she will crouch down for him.
A laying hen might do this for you too if you approach her
from the side or behind. This kind of behaviour is a good indication that
she's mature and laying or just about to come into lay.
What she's really doing is bracing herself
ready for the rooster to mount. He jumps up with both feet on her back.
It's not easy balancing there with his claws so he holds on to the back of her
neck with his beak. She moves her tail to one side and
he has to turn his tail under hers and touch his cloaca to hers
in what's called a cloacal kiss.
This is a pretty tricky position to achieve so it's just as well he doesn't
have to do it for long - just long enough to transfer the sperm
from his cloaca to hers. And it's all over in a second or two.
Within a couple of days after mating the hen's eggs can be fertile
and able to hatch into baby chicks.
Of course just introducing a rooster into a flock doesn't necessarily mean he immediately
mates with all the hens. One of the hens might be
his favorite. Often that's the highest ranking hen in
the pecking order. So if you want fertile eggs, wait at
least a few days after introducing the rooster to the
ladies.
The ideal number of hens per rooster depends a bit on their breed.
For light breeds like the leghorns a good number is about
10 or 12 hens per rooster, while heavy breeds like the Wyandotte
might be best with only six or eight.
If you have a large flock of hens then for optimum fertility you need
more than one rooster and probably what will happen is
that each rooster will gather around him a group of hens that belong to him.
In fact I probably should say that he belongs to the hens,
because given a selection of roosters to choose from
it's actually the hen who decides which rooster she prefers
and won't let the others mate with her.
One common problem with small flocks is the presence of
two roosters and just a few hens. With two roosters present, one will be
higher up the pecking order than the other.
If the lower rank rooster tries to mate, the boss rooster will chase him off.
And they can spend so much time and effort trying to outwit each other
that neither of them actually does much mating.
Again it depends on the breed but roosters of 9 or 10 years old can be
quite capable of being fathers especially if they are a bantam breed.
If you're crossing breeds it's better to use a smaller rooster with
larger hens than the other way around. Small breed roosters are often active
later in life and their lighter weight is easier on the hens.
Fertility is affected by the rooster's
age, size, breed, social standing within the flock, and the time of year.
Just like the hens come into lay in the spring, the increasing day length stimulates sperm production
so the rooster is most fertile in the summer
when the hens are laying the most.
Although just like hens go off the lay if the temperatures
are too hot, sperm production goes down in hot weather.
And if it is hot, make sure your flock doesn't run out of fresh clean water.
You know that water is important for chickens. I have a video about that.
If your flock runs out of water not only will your hens suffer
so will the rooster. Depriving a rooster of water for 48 hours
will reduce sperm production for up to six weeks.
Feed is important but in a perhaps unexpected way. For your laying hens you want to feed
with a protein concentration of around 15 to 18 percent
but too much protein is not good for your rooster's fertility.
Ideally he should get only about 12 percent protein for his peak effectiveness.
People ask this for two different reasons
Maybe they had a rooster whose chicks they wanted
but who has now died or left the flock. On the other hand maybe the hens have
been with another rooster and now they want to be sure of
Pure bred chicks from just one rooster.
So how long can one rooster's sperm keep fertilising the hen's eggs?
The answer is - up to six weeks.
Isn't that incredible.
The reason for that is that the hen stores sperm in tiny structures called sperm host glands.
The sperm can survive there for days or weeks.
When an egg is laid some of the sperm are squeezed out
and can migrate up the oviduct to fertilize the next egg.
Biologists would like to know how the hen keeps sperm alive at her body temperature.
The only way we know how to store sperm
is to freeze it. So if something happens to your rooster
and you are hoping for his chicks, don't give up. And if you're aiming for
purebred chicks make sure you leave about six weeks between roosters.
I hope this answers some of your
questions about roosters' role in breeding the next generation of baby chicks.
Thanks for watching. If you enjoyed this video
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Bye for now