Egg Fertility

picklepat

Chirping
Mar 30, 2021
26
36
57
I have a pair of Blue Orps in one pen and a separate pen containing 5 Choc Orp hens and 2 Choc Orp roosters, they are all between a year to a year and a half. I have been hatching batches of eggs from both these pens together in the same incubator batch. My problem is that none of the blue eggs have hatched or even developed at all. I cracked a few open and they all have the bullseye so I know they are fertile, they are just not developing at all. The Choc ones do just fine with probably a few each batch not developing. I usually have 8 blues and 24 or more Choc and maybe 4 of the Choc don't develop at a time. I have randomly taken eggs from my other pen that I use for eating and hatched them if I have extra space in the bator, just to fill it up, and they do fine as well. The chickens are fed the same food at the same time, the eggs are collected at the same time, stored the same way, set in the bator the same way at the same time. The problem must be with either my blue hen or blue roo but how do I know if he or she is the problem? Are there ways to test the fertility of either bird? I have thought about taking one of the hens out of my main pen for a few weeks and keeping her from any rooster then putting her in with the blue roo and waiting a few weeks to try and see if hers develop as a way to test him but I think there must be a quicker way to determine the problem. Does anyone have any experience with this or any ideas? Thanks for reading
 
Well, the blue hen is fertile since she's laying eggs and the roo must be since there's a bullseye. What do you feed them? Some people give them extra vitamins for a few weeks to the parent birds for stronger chicks. Are you sure its a bulls eye? Orps can sometimes be too fluffy to make a connection.
 
She hasn't laid in a few days, she's sitting on non-existent eggs right now, lol. I feed all my chickens 22% mini layer pellets and a few times a week I give a couple handfulls of 5 way scratch as a treat. The egg box and eggs are always clean, no marks or dirt or feces or anything when I collect, they are in the egg box, they aren't in the sun or rain. The eggs are good color, size, not deformed or anything same as the eggs from the Choc Orps. It is just really odd and I didn't know where else to go to ask. When she starts laying again I will post a picture.
 

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