Can a chicken lay eggs without a rooster - why do you need a man in a female team

Tell me, can a hen lay eggs without a rooster? The child was asked at school to write an essay on nature studies, they are just now studying birds. I seem to know the answer, but I can't formulate it beautifully. But I immediately remembered childhood and the vacation trips to my grandmother. She had many chickens, but there was always at least one rooster walking among them. Grandmother called him master, and said that the herd was not the same without him.

If you ask any poultry farmer if he has a rooster on the farm, the answer will always be in the affirmative. And the point is not at all whether a hen can lay eggs without a rooster. The role of the "man" in the poultry yard does not depend on the laying hens' egg production, and vice versa. So why does the female livestock need it and why do chickens do an excellent job of laying eggs themselves?

Is a rooster really necessary for chickens

In small private farms, there are always roosters, and here's why:

• they are "responsible" for order in the poultry yard, watching the hens so that they do not run far;
• during feeding, the head of the herd will first gather all his subordinates, and only then he will begin to peck himself;
• they warn everyone of any danger with their cry, inviting the chickens to run away and hide;
• roosters also take care of safety at night, sitting closer to the exit in order to be the first to smell uninvited guests;
• males can even direct the young hen to the nest and show her where to lay her eggs.

And, of course, the most important purpose of the rooster is the fertilization of eggs, without it offspring should not be expected.

There should be one rooster for every ten chickens. If there are more birds, then there are several males. However, in this case, it is important to select peaceful individuals. Otherwise, they will compete and conflict with each other for the leadership and attention of "women".

Can a hen lay eggs without a rooster?

In poultry farms specialized in breeding broilers for meat or laying hens for the further sale of eggs, there are no roosters. Nature is so laid that the eggs of the hens lay themselves, without the participation of a male. Having reached egg-laying age (about 5 months, depending on the specific breed), ovogenesis begins in the body of chickens. In other words, eggs are being formed. First, the ovary secretes the egg and feeds it with lipids, resulting in the formation of the yolk. Then, a little less than an hour later, the egg enters the oviduct, where it continues to develop.

At this stage, her fertilization by a rooster takes place.

An "empty" egg, without an embryo, settles in the glandular part of the oviduct and forms a protein, which takes up to 5 hours. At the last stage, when the future egg descends into the uterus, the shell grows. It is formed from the chicken's own calcium, which is washed out of the bones. This is the longest process, taking up to 20 hours. The final chord is the appearance of the finished egg in the nest.

So you don't need a rooster to get fresh eggs. But breeding offspring and hatching chickens will not work without him.

The influence of a rooster on egg production