Can a hen lay eggs without a rooster: what is the difference between fertilized and unfertilized eggs?

Indeed, can hens lay eggs without a rooster and is it important? But a chicken egg is not at all a future chicken, just as every female egg without the participation of male reproductive cells will never become a child. Consequently, in the absence of a rooster, there will be eggs, but there will be no need to wait for chickens.

When there is no male , most likely, one of the females will try to take on his role. She will try to imitate the behavior of the male and will become aggressive, protecting other chickens. Such a laying hen should be immediately isolated, otherwise it is impossible to avoid skirmishes and fights.

Can a hen lay eggs without contact with a rooster?

Chickens living without a rooster on the farm lay eggs in the same quantity as without it. In this case, we can conclude that it is possible to do without male seed. But roosters do not disappear from chicken coops; on the contrary, every owner tries to acquire this large individual.

So do laying hens need a rooster? Breeders claim that with regular contact between the hen and the rooster, the eggs are of improved quality.

Disadvantages of keeping a male

Aggressiveness

Despite the advantages of having a male in the herd, some farmers have a negative attitude towards this possibility. Why do you need a rooster if it is more trouble than it is worth?

Often the male, protecting the chicken family, attacks the owner. In such a situation, an aggressive pet can seriously injure a person.

Lovingness

Overly loving males during “trampling” are capable of injuring laying hens with sharp claws and spurs. In addition to the plucked feathers, the skin suffers.

Scratches may appear on the body of chickens. Infection gets into the wounds, which leads to infection and disease in the birds.

Decreased performance

Poultry farmers note that when chickens have a rooster, their egg production rate decreases. A serious disadvantage of decreased productivity is the “awakened” maternal instinct in laying hens. The fact is that the chicken tends to “sit” on fertilized eggs.

Of course, the desire to hatch chicks is a positive quality of chickens. However, the downside is that the chicken, while hatching the egg, occupies the nest. Such actions make it impossible for other females to lay eggs. Therefore, it is generally accepted that chickens lay eggs better without a rooster.

How a rooster impregnates a hen

The rooster still has a genital organ; nature has endowed the male with genitals, but they can only be seen in a chicken embryo and only in an embryonic, rudimentary state. But how then does the rooster trample the hen?

Chickens have a special hole on their back for conception. The rooster sits on top of the hen and moves her feathers with his feet, looking for this hole.

A fertilized egg is healthier, lasts longer and has a richer yolk color. Accordingly, on the market the cost of village eggs is much higher than those that go on sale from poultry farms.

At this time, he holds the female by the back of her head with his beak. Sexual intercourse in birds occurs quickly, within just a few seconds. A rooster can mate many times during the day.

In fact, hens can lay eggs even if there are no roosters on the farm.

Keeping roosters requires them to fertilize females. With a male in the herd, the hen will produce eggs that are fertilized by the male.

Advice: According to the observations of experienced poultry farmers, if the hen has regular contact with the rooster, she will produce an egg of improved quality, with a richer composition of useful elements. Egg products can be stored longer than those from a single chicken.

If the owner needs breeding, he must ensure that there is 1 rooster for every 12 hens. If he is already old, there is no need to place a young male in the chicken coop; most likely, an older and more experienced rooster will kill him.

The rooster begins to fertilize hens when they reach the age of 24-26 weeks. However, it also happens that hens do not lay eggs without a rooster instinctively, due to the fact that they feel that they will not be able to leave offspring. But this is rather an exception to the rule and this situation is extremely rare.

If the reason for the lack of mating lies in too young an age, then you should simply wait out this period. The rooster begins to fertilize hens when they reach the age of 24-26 weeks. Even having reached puberty, young roosters are rather inexperienced and cannot immediately comprehend all the intricacies of this process.

Methods for fertilizing chickens

If you plan to increase the number of chickens, it is necessary to fertilize the eggs. These eggs are often used to be placed in an incubator. Testicles are fertilized in two ways.

Artificial

This method is used if it is necessary to obtain a large number of chickens. The most common artificially fertilized eggs are for incubators. Rooster semen is used for this. Main advantages of the method:

The seed of one rooster can fertilize up to 80 females.
The chicks grow healthier and larger, since large individuals with good characteristics are used as breeding roosters.
It takes little time for fertilization. The collected biomaterial quickly enters the egg artificially.

To collect biomaterial, it is necessary to use special equipment. Such material can be stored for no more than 2 days, after which replacement is required.

Artificial method of insemination of chickens

Natural

The natural process of mating between a male and a female occurs on farms where individuals of different sexes are raised in the same room. For the fertilization process to occur, the cloaca of the rooster and hen must touch. After this, the sperm penetrate the female's cloaca and move towards the egg.

Under natural conditions, several mating methods can be used:

Free method - occurs regularly. To do this, you need to keep birds of different sexes in the same coop. Depending on the number of females, there may be several roosters.
Forced - for this method of fertilization, the rooster must be kept separately from the hens. During the period when it is necessary to obtain fertilized eggs, the male is released into the general flock. Birds with high external characteristics are used as breeding males.

In rural areas, the process of fertilizing chickens occurs freely. The chickens are kept in the same coop. After the hen has laid several fertilized eggs, which remain in the nest, she remains to hatch them. It is very important to carefully collect eggs without missing nests.

Natural way to fertilize chickens

How many hens can one rooster impregnate?

Roosters, although they do not have a genital organ, are fierce lovers. After molting, its testes enlarge by almost 20 percent. Thus, one male can cope with many beautiful hens. But it would be correct to keep 1 rooster for 10-12 hens. This way you can be sure that all females will be fertilized. It is not recommended to keep a larger number of roosters than listed above. This will lead to constant competition and fights. Also, frequent trampling of chickens can lead to serious injuries to the latter. They may even die.

Selection rules

When choosing a rooster, the first thing you need to do is make sure it is healthy and productive. Signs of sexual dimorphism and other external features of a healthy representative should be clearly visible:

well developed bright red comb,
straight legs, regularly shaped toes;
spurs or tubercles.

Already at the age of 5-6 months, the rooster has a characteristic appearance, individual behavioral traits and temperament. When choosing, you need to give preference to a male representative with such character traits as activity and cockiness. He should feel like a master, be responsible for safety in the poultry yard and not be afraid to get into a fight if necessary. You should not choose a male who attacks people; he can injure a child and an adult.

But there should be no hostility towards chickens; its main task is to protect and care for the inhabitants of the chicken coop. This shows the feeding period: a good rooster will not be the first to reach for food, but will protect the hens when eating and drive away uninvited guests.

Differences between a fertilized egg and an unfertilized one

There is an opinion that fertilized eggs, which are born only with the participation of a parent pair of hen and rooster, are valuable to humans not only from an economic point of view, but also from a nutritional point of view. In fact, a fertilized egg at the stage of development at which people consume it is no different from an unfertilized one. There is no difference in the content of vitamins or microelements in these eggs. The only difference is the knowledge that the embryo of a small chick is in its embryonic state in the yolk. Some people are squeamish about eating fertilized eggs, others do not do it for humanitarian reasons.

Rooster sperm live in the body of chickens for up to three weeks. The eggs laid by chickens at this time must be “live”. How to determine whether new life has arisen in an egg or not? An ovoscope will help you find out.

If you can’t buy such a device, you can make it yourself. In fact, the simplest ovoscope is just a tube with a diameter of 3 cm and a light source.

What else do you need to know?

As mentioned above, the quality of eggs depends on the conditions of detention - walking and nutrition.

In order for birds to produce a quality product, you must adhere to simple rules:

Feed for laying hens should be combined. You should not feed with the same product. Calcium, vitamins and microelements, and kitchen waste (peels from vegetables and fruits, ground bones from fish and meat) should be added to dry food.
Nests in the chicken coop should be located 50 cm from each other.
Birds must walk. In cold weather, there may not be enough daylight, so additional lighting should be provided in the coop.

Common chicken breeds are easy to keep. They can even eat on a schedule if they are given food at certain hours. Remember that not only their health, but also human health depends on what chickens eat.

In case of improper feeding, a laying hen produces about 100 eggs per year, and with proper nutrition, productivity increases to 250-270.

Egg Formation

carried out as follows: the egg matures in the follicle, grows and forms the yolk; when it reaches a size of 40 mm in diameter, the yolk leaves the follicle and enters the oviduct; the “body” moves through the reproductive system for 12 hours, during which a multilayered protein shell is formed on it; the egg moves to the isthmus of the oviduct, where it is covered with a thin film. The film formation process lasts about 1 hour; then the egg begins to “dress” in a hard shell - a shell, which will take 18 hours; a fully formed egg comes out, and 40-50 minutes after laying, the next yolk begins to move through the oviduct.

Features of fertilized eggs

Many believe that fertilized eggs have a wider range of beneficial components and a richer taste. But there is no scientific confirmation of this yet. Experts are inclined to believe that micro- and macroelements, hormones, vitamins, which are necessary for the birth of a new life, also have a positive effect on a person’s health, helping him in the fight against many diseases.

Therefore, eggs were widely used and are still used in folk medicine.

The main functions of a chicken coop owner

In many villages there is a belief that if there is no rooster with the hens, productivity will be lower. This is another misconception; chickens will lay the same number of eggs, but not fertilized ones.

Having a rooster in the flock is useful:

To raise your own chickens.
To stimulate walking chickens.
To increase egg production (without a rooster, this property fades faster).
If you want to have a singing rooster.
As a chicken guard (but roosters are not always brave).
Allows chickens to live 35 years longer.
For a decorative role.
Have delicious Sunday broth.

To ensure that the egg production of chickens without the participation of a rooster does not decrease, the diet of laying hens must contain proteins (cake, cottage cheese, mixed feed, etc.). It is necessary and possible to give minerals, the strength of the shell depends on them (crushed shells, chalk, lime, chicken shells). In the summer, give them greens and fresh vegetables, special feed containing carbohydrates.

Increasing egg production

If a farmer is faced with the problem of poor quality chicken products, then it is not necessary to get a rooster on the same day. First, it’s worth reviewing the hens’ diet: their traditional menu may lack vitamins or minerals. There is no need to buy expensive food: we are talking about fresh and boiled vegetables, lime, and natural grain. Let us remember the basic rule of Soviet poultry farming: in order for the yolk to have a rich color, it is worth including nothing more than corn in the chicken diet.

Do not forget that the products must be clean, high quality and fresh.

On the shelves of most pet stores you can find nutritious feed both to maintain the general condition of chickens and to increase egg production.

As a conclusion, we can say that the chicken actually lays eggs without the help of a rooster. The presence of the latter in the chicken coop cannot be called a whim, since without its participation fertilization is impossible, as well as the safe functioning of laying hens.

What is the role of a rooster for a laying hen?

The main role of the male is not only to fertilize the chicken. Order in the chicken coop is important and the social role of the bird here is great. The rooster is the leader who maintains order and prevents disputes between hens. In addition, his role is as follows:

He makes sure that the chickens get up on time.
He can make sure that all the chickens have enough food and that some chickens do not take food from others.
He can drive a chicken into the house and make sure that it produces eggs.
The bird can even show the hens where to lay eggs. This process is not uncommon in the relationship between a rooster and inexperienced pullets.
During the walk, he makes sure that the chickens return to the pen on time.
It eliminates rodents or reports them or danger - this is its main function.
When danger approaches, it will scream loudly and flap its wings.

If there are several good hens in the chicken coop, then you can get healthy chicks in a natural way, without the need to buy young animals. This can be a good financial help. Moreover, not all farmers breed birds for meat or eggs. There are also breeding farms, the main product of which is chickens or adult birds.

The main thing that a chicken coop owner should not do is punish the bird. If the farmer publicly punishes the leader, the chickens may lose their level of trust in him.

Having a rooster in the chicken coop also has its advantages - with it, the chickens behave more restrained, quieter, become calm and rarely fight (in the absence of a male, clashes occur quite often). A properly selected rooster will become the head of the chicken coop and will protect the females from dogs, cats and other animals.

Video

This video will tell you about keeping and breeding chickens.

Thus, a hen can easily lay an egg without a rooster. And it is precisely this process of egg production that is widely used all over the world - large farms, as we have already said, do not spend money on roosters. However, for full reproduction of offspring, that is, the production of chickens, a rooster is needed. We looked at the features of chicken reproduction, the process of fertilization and egg laying. The future poultry farmer should be well aware of all its stages, thanks to which he will be able to decide which eggs he will receive - fertilized or unfertilized. There are pros and cons to both. You can find out what the dominant breed looks like from this article.