Genetics - Artificial Insemination... How do you do it...

[Germaine_11.20]

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Yes, I think the spoon would be much easier too.

Kennedy- If they haven't laid an egg yet then they aren't ready. Chances are they are waiting for Spring. You could add some light to get them to lay, but they probably will be kicking in soon.

 

[texascowboy1979]

I Cant seem to get this right either... Im trying everyday... Have no clue If Im doing this right... If the eggs turn fertile... then I guess I did it right... but you should see my rooster... He looks at me all funny when I try to collect from him.. its halarious his face...

 

[Airilith]

Let's see. I used to (last year) collect from 20-48 roos and inseminate 100-250 hens, 2x a week. Thank goodness for the 3 ladies who helped.

I worked with big birds, and the thing I'm gonna have a hard time converting to my backyard flock is how to do it without help. My DH loves me, but I'm fairly sure that might be pushing his tolerance for my love of animals. The hens I can invert and inseminate myself (at least I'm fairly sure I can lol), but stroking the roos and catching the 'gold' with only my two hands will be interesting to say the very, very least.

On the spoon concept. We caught the roo gold in plastic cups, and then used glass pipettes rigged up to plastic syringes. The cups were nice because we mixed in extender because each roo had to cover 5-7 hens. Totally not necessary in most backyard cases, I think.

Also we starting getting the roos used to being stroked at about 24 weeks. And only the hens that were laying we actually inseminated. When you invert the hens (one who is laying and one who isn't) you can see the difference. Which I noticed in the video she didn’t do quite the same way. Instead of inserting just into the cloaca, we inserted right into the oviduct. To do so flip the hen over in one smooth motion, and then apply pressure with one finger on either side of the cloaca. This should cause the inside of the cloaca to be exposed. One the bird’s left side there should be a small hole. BINGO you’ve found the oviduct.

You can see the anatomy here.

The other thing we did was we kept the roos away from their ladies (assuming they’re in with hens at the time) the day before collection day. Frustrates them a little but it helps increase the amount of ‘gold’ you can collect. So typically we would pen them Sunday, collect Monday and Tuesday mornings (unless the roo gave us enough ‘gold’ to cover all of their hens on Monday).

If there are any questions I can answer please let me know. I didn’t know if you wanted a step-by-step description. If you do just let me know

ETA: So this morning I was thinking about this post, and remembered that I forgot to mention something. The reason we waited until 24 wks was because I was working with a breeding flock of meat birds. Therefore the start to their egg production is much later than most purely laying breeds. So as to when to try for the first time, I'm not quite sure. My plan is wait until I get my first few eggs, and then I'll go ahead to accustom the roo's to being handled in that capacity.

 

[texascowboy1979]

thanks... I appriciate it.. Ill keep you posted on my progress... should know in about a week if the eggs are firtle.

 

[KatyTheChickenLady]

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ok then, I will wash Dorries butt, but then you have to stroke Adams . . . and as you know he's not little like that one in the video . . . lol we are going to have to have both husbands help to do this . . . they may never look at us the same again! will one of you trying this please take a video before I feel forced to. You know Germain; if we insist that the kids help, it may be the perfect inspiration to help the older cling ons decide to finally move out!

 

[Dustin Biery]

I still don't understand the purpose of this. I know early on Shari said it was for her show birds, but what are the others of you doing it for?

 

[Hangin Wit My Peeps]

Someone showed me and I found that to be the easiest way to learn. I could not quit get the video or the pictures I seen. Now I do it all the time and it's pretty simple once you get the hand of it.

 

[texascowboy1979]

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To protect your hen from an agressive Rooster or breed the birds that dont show any interest in each other... "It would be for show birds"

 

[rodriguezpoultry]

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Or for those freaks in us that want to see what a Langshan x Leghorn will produce...

Clyde covers WAY too much of that poor hen...

 

[Dustin Biery]

If its an overly-agressive male, either get more hens or a different male? I just dont understand this. Show birds I can kind of see, but yard birds...even the Langshan over the WL, they will do it with out much trouble, and if there is a male that isn't performing, cull him