Fertile or Unfertile Eggs

[skyie1]

I set some Partridge Brahma eggs on Sunday evening (its Thursday) and tonight I candled the eggs.... they look like they are full of air bubbles... a few sites I checked out said the eggs were too porus and/or not viable and could have a bacterial problem.. Is there anything I can do to improve the quality of the eggs.... My birds are fed a mix of layer and flock raiser pellets with some scratch feed, free choice grit and oyster shell and lots of fruits and veggies... they also free range duing the daylight hours. I will add that I did have a case of broncitus in late Janaury.... they were not laying then... and like last year, egg production is just starting to get underway.... Any ideas?

 

[Ridgerunner]

Accoding to this link, these are possible causes and fixes. It is aimed at commercial operations, but the principles should be the same for you.


Age and breed of hens,
environmental temperatures, and
season of year.

Keep hen house cooler, hold eggs in cool place, sell
hens after 12 to 14 months of lay or molt, and select
strain bred for good shell texture.

Egg Problems
http://www.oznet.ksu.edu/library/lvstk2/ep127.pdf

I'd also suspect the infectious bronchitis might have left some after-effects, but from what I've read the more likely effects would be misshapen eggs, not ones with more porosity. Mine have never had infectious bronchitis so I have no experience with that.

Good luck on your hatch!

 

[skyie1]

Interesting…. My flock ranges from ages 9 months to 5 years… these birds are not fully mature and laying till they are 9 months of age… Not all of them were affected by the bronchitis. They are all kept in coops in my old dairy barn, it’s never very warm in there and they free range. Eggs are collected daily and these were held in a carton for about a week till I collected enough to warrant hatching…. All the eggs are like this…. I have 2 different ‘types’ of bird, show quality and production…. All the eggs show the same porus-ness…. My biggest fear was infertility, and I’m thinking it’s been realized. Partridge brahma’s are very hard to come by and this is my breeding stock…. I’m hoping to increase the numbers, but its looking like that might not be do-able. It is early enough in the year I guess.... last year they did not start to lay well untill end of May... guess I'll have to wait and see what happens. Thanks for your help, Kim