Timing of egg

[Anonymous]

We have several breeds of chickens that all run together. My son would like to separate them by breed and raise pure bred. . .my question is. How long from the time the Rooster fertilizes the egg until that egg is laid?
I ask this because. . . once we get the breeds separated into different pens I assume the first eggs will not be "pure", how many days of separation until they are pure?
Thanks,
Carol

 

[Tim]

I have read you need to wait up to a month to be sure. I have had a cockerel that died and I wanted to preserve the bloodline - so I collected eggs for 2 weeks after he went. I had a little over 50% fertility from the eggs I collected.

It's always a tricky one. If a determined cockerel (or drake) gets into a run where he shouldn't be, you end up with a good few weeks when you can't incubate eggs...

Tim