How many days after being mated by a rooster will a hen have fertile eggs?

[Sumatra503]

So, this question has just come up and I have seen it answered three ways. One says not for 3 weeks. One says 8 days. I was told the second egg laid after mating.

So now I'm confused...

Having not been with a rooster, how long after the first mating until a fertile egg is laid?

My internet searching has a consensus of 2 days or next day....

 

[liamthechicken]

The next egg.

In fact, all the eggs she lays for up to 10 days are fertile.

TIP:
To check if they're fertile, crack one open onto a plate, frying pan, whatever (fertile eggs are edible) and look for a white dot. If you look at shop-bought eggs you'll see a plain tiny white dot. If there is a cock with the chickens then that dot will either

• look like a tiny doughnut
• have a smaller white dot inside of it
• have a tinier black dot inside of it

If it checks out with one of those↑ then it is fertile and so were the couple of eggs before it and after it.

Hope this helps!

 

[Sumatra503]

Thanks, that did help.

I know how to tell fertile from not and such, but I had been getting rudely called a liar for saying that an egg collected two days after breeding from one of my hens had hatched when incubated, so I sort of doubted myself for a bit.

 

[ErniesFlock]

I took advice from here about 6 weeks ago after our beloved Rooster named Johnson was killed while defending his hens by Mr buzz kill black bear. The girls all got away but my buddy didn't :-( so I collected the eggs from them for the next 7-10 days and then incubated them and got 9 out of 12 hatched all chicklets from their daddy Roo, our best Roo maybe ever... Johnson. Two of them look identical to him so I called one Jr. I am so grateful we were able to carry his bloodline despite his sudden death. He was a black Copper Marans and had the personality of a rock star. Anywwys thanks for letting me share.

 

[Farmer Viola]

In my experience, 14-16 days after the rooster is culled from the flock, my hen's eggs were still fertile. 21 days later, no longer fertile.