Fertile Ameraucana eggs not developing. Why???

raisechickens

In the Brooder
Oct 7, 2015
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I have 11 Ameraucana eggs in the incubator right now along with 13 other eggs, mostly barred rock. The Ameraucana eggs are from my two hens (wheaten and blue wheaten) that I fairly recently picked up and this is my first attempt at hatching their eggs. They are covered by a blue wheaten Ameraucana rooster.

Here is a pic of a a fresh egg I looked at to verify fertility:

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Unless I am mistaken there is a bullseye here. I have checked several eggs from them in the past and they have always looked fertile.

The problem is that I am on day 11 and have not seen any evidence of development in the Ameraucana eggs. All of the Barred Rock eggs have an active embryo so I know the incubator is doing its job. My curiousity got the best of me so I removed two eggs from the incubator today and cracked them open. All that was in there was a large yellow yolk. No embryo, no veins, nothing that indicated development.

In the coop with the Ameraucana's are some Easter Eggers. A little over a week ago I hatched some of their eggs and now have some nice Easter egger chicks. This tells me the rooster is doing his job.

I am at a loss. The eggs look fertile. I have successfully hatched eggs from the Easter Eggers that are in this same coop. Every single egg in the incubator has an active embryo except for the Ameraucana eggs. I don't get it.

Any ideas???
 
My eyes aren't what they used to be but it doesn't look like a bullseye to me.
Are the eggs that hatched from that rooster set recently? Roosters need to be photostimulated the same as hens so at this time of year, sometimes roosters have less fertility. They actually need to be photostimulated 2 weeks prior to hens.
Have you seen him mating the 2 suspect hens?
It could be nutritional since you just got the hens. Nutrition needs to be boosted a month before collecting for hatching. You don't know how they had been fed before you got them.
Any idea if they had been medicated before you got them? Or perhaps exposure to pesticides, chemicals, toxins or mycotoxins?
Is the shell quality good?
Have the hens been checked for lice and mites?
Where are you located?
 
Last edited:
I should clarify something - by relatively recently I meant somewhere around 4 months.

The eggs that hatched from this rooster were set 5 weeks ago, and I have had a light in that coop since November or so. I have not witnessed him breeding these hens but I have seen him "dance" around them with a wing dropped. Only once have I witnessed him breeding and it was with an Easter egger.

They have been fed non-medicated feed and have not been exposed to any chemicals, etc that I know of. Shell quality is good. They always have free choice oyster shells.

Haven't checked for lice/mites in a while. Can that cause them to be sterile?

Located in northwest Arkansas.

Thanks for your help!
 
I will check out the link, thanks for that.

Curiousity once again got the better of me today and I decided to crack open an Easter egger egg from one of the hens in this same coop. I know her eggs are fertile as I hatched them a couple weeks ago. They look very similar to the Ameraucana bulls eye:

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They do look different than my barred rock eggs as those have a very well defined bullseye. It is hard to see on the pics but these have rings around the center. Not as bright white as my rocks but it is there. And the EE's had a 100 hatch rate 5 weeks ago. Odd I know but they did hatch.
 
I just edited the coloring on the Ameraucana egg and it somewhat helps to see the rings I am talking about:
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That would explain a lot, but adds to my confusion. The Easter Eggers eggs look identical to this one and I had a 100% hatch rate with them. Maybe something happened in the last 5 weeks and they are no longer fertile. I have an idea. I will get today's Easter egger eggs and put them in the incubator. In a few days I will candle them. If they don't develop I know I may have a rooster fertility issue that started in the last couple of weeks.

Thanks for the help!
 

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