When a hen is bred by a rooster how long is his sperm good for?
An example: If I have a golden polish hen bred to a golden polish rooster, putting those eggs in the incubator, then want to see what the golden hen would produce with a white polish rooster, can I use that first hen? I guess what I 'm asking here, are hens bred for life? I suspect not but I really don't know. What would be the time frame between breedings? Thanks.

Hens do not remain fertile for life after mating, but may still be fertile up to a week or 10 days after the last mating. But, it also takes about a week before her eggs become fertile again after the first mating with the new rooster. Good luck and don't forget to share your results with us.

Chuck is correct about the lasting effect of a mating, providing the hen doesn't mate with another male. What I have seen is that when a hen mates with another male, the fresh sperm dominates. A couple days after you switch roosters, the offspring produced will in all likelihood be from the new rooster. Also, I have seen that a hen becomes fertile as soon as 24 hours after mating, as long as the rooster does his job right away. I have documented this in breeding pens where there had not been another male present, and fertile eggs were gathered and set the day after the rooster was introduced.

Our experiments show up to 7 days eggs remain fertile and the new sperm comes into use on the 8th day.