Fertility issue

[genevieve]

I have a Shamo Rooster, Shamo Hen and Arucana Hen in one pen together. They have been there about a month and a half now. It took a few weeks for them to start laying, but now they are. I have pulled 12 Shamo eggs from the pen now to incubate and the first six were fertile and I have three chicks out of them. The second six are infertile (nothing in them over a week into incubation). They have a flock block, layer pellets and get some scratch/ corn as treats (not super excited about it). I have not tried to incubate the Arucana's eggs.

Any ideas on what happened with the fertility??

I know it's not the incubator because I have Orpington eggs in there collected from another pen on the same days as the Shamo eggs and they are almost all developing fine.

Thanks!!

Genevieve

 

[dracoe19]

I know one trick someone told me is to pluck the feathers around the vent. Sometimes they are so fluffy that no semen can get in to fertilize eggs. Also I have heard putting them under a lamp. Can't remember if they said just a normal lamp or a UVB bulb... Try plucking the feathers and that may possibly help. He may also just not be jumping the girls as often for some reason

. I had a partridge cochin pair that gave me absolutely NO fertile eggs. Didn;t find out about the feather plucking around the vent until after I let them out of the pens. Its a common thing in cochins but hey worth a try!