Duck Infertility

[Cimmaron]

I have been breeding Welsh Harlequins for 5 years and have always had a decent fertility rate. This year, I had 0% fertility on the first batch. On the next batch some were fertile but died between the 7 day and 14 day candlings. Batch #3 40% are alive currently at 1 week incubation. The other 60% were infertile or died very early on.

They have access to water and I have observed them mating.

I tried two different drakes to make sure he was not the problem.

I think it must be a nutritional issue. They are on the same diet I have had good success with in the past - 18% all flock pellets, a little fish meal, fresh veggie scraps and free choice oyster shell. I am thinking they are short on some nutrient?

I have Fertrell Nutribalancer and Durvet Poultry Multivitamins on hand. They don't have any symptoms of niacin deficiency, but I could add in nutritional yeast as well. Just trying to figure out a better idea of what exactly they might be short on before I spend a ton of money throwing random vitamins at them!

Ideas anyone?

 

[Miss Lydia]

Most likely elimination is always the way we have to go . So try the Fertrell Nutribalancer and see if there is any change if not then eliminate that and go to the multiple vits. or do both at once but then you wouldn't know which is working best.
My ducks are all adults and they all get Nutritional yeast in the feed every morning. When they were young they got 1 Tab per cup now I just sprinkle 2 Tablespoons over top of the feed before putting it in their bowls.
Are your females 5 yrs old? as they age the fertility goes down too.

 

[Cimmaron]

They are mixed ages from 1 1/2 to 7, so I don't think that is the issue.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Well hopefully it's nutritional and you can fix that problem.

 

[Cimmaron]

Update: I have been giving them some of the NutriBalancer and the multivitamin. This batch of eggs was mostly fertile and looked like they were developing normally at 6 days. On day 8 I tried candling one again and it had died, so I checked them all, and it looks like most if not all died between days 6 and 8.

I am using a Brinsea incubator set at 50% and 99.5, which is a lot more precise than the cheapo Chinese incubator I was previously hatching ducks in!

Mixed flock of various ages and bloodlines, not inbred. What is going on here?