Expert: Walter Hintz - 8/5/2005

Question
Very right sir but even when hens are kept with roosters what is the
probability that every egg is gonna be fertilised (The commercial layers lay egg almost
everyday). Now i know that for sure that rooster from semen is viable for some days but i won't
start a business of selling fertilised eggs for research based on
that......) I guess you get my point.
Thanks for the quick reply
pankaj

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Followup To
Question -
How does one differentiate between fertilised chicken egg and
an unferilised one? (Actually we get day old fertilised eggs for
tissue culture and we check the viability by candling the eggs
only after few days but how on the earth do the company people
know on first day)
Answer -
Hi pankaj
   Very simple. On egg production farms the hens are kept isolated from roosters.

Answer
I am afraid that I do not know these figures but it seems that roosters mate constantly with hens and the number of fertilized eggs would be dependent upon the ratio of hens to roosters.  Some hens may be able to avoid the rooster. (This reminds me of a famous joke. Where do you get virgin wool? Form the sheep that can run the fastest.)  There is also a factor of sexual preference. Coloration and behavior of the rooster gives some of them an advantage.