How to increase fertility in my silkies?

[Cloverr39]

I've finally reached the point where people are interested in hatching eggs from my silkies, but I've been having pretty terrible fertility with them this year and I don't feel comfortable selling eggs that will likely have a very bad hatch rate.

This year I've been having issues with fertility in my silkies. In the first hatch I think I incubated at least 10 eggs and only 2 developed and hatched. In the second hatch I had 5 of my silkie eggs and none developed. The next hatch I got 4 out of 10 eggs. In the very last hatch I had 11 or more eggs and only 3 developed and hatched. So I've hatched 9 out of at least 36 eggs.

I did have a crappy incubator in the first hatch, so that may be a reason I had such poor results (had more than 10 fertilized eggs from a breeder and only 1 hatched. Many didn't develop all the way, likely due to temperature being too low). The second hatch was in a brand new Brinsea incubator. I got a 100% hatch rate in silkie eggs from a breeder with the Brinsea. The last two were under broody hens.

How could I increase the fertility in them? I didn't trim the fluff around their butts this year. My rooster is from completely different lines than my hens, except one hen who is from the same breeder, but I know for a fact that 4 if not 6 out of the 9 chicks are hers, so I don't think inbreeding would be the cause of this issue. I barely ever see my rooster mounting the hens. I've heard about crest size getting in the way sometimes, but my rooster does fine with my non-silkie hens and the hen with the biggest crest is the same one that had 4-6 chicks this year. The rest have smaller crests. Maybe my rooster would be favoring the smooth feathered non-silkie hens and just not giving the silkies enough attention? I will be separating those into a separate pen next spring. Could it be the hens don't like him or something? I will be getting a new rooster for the next chick season.

 

[BDutch]

If the person who has another incubator or a good broody the hatching rate could be completely different.

You could sell and tell they can get a new batch if the outcome is poor or give some extra eggs for free. Make an appointment for feed back.

Another possibility is to check your eggs on being fertilised. Inspect if they have a bulls eye.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/how-to-tell-a-fertile-vs-infertile-egg-pictures.16008/

 

[BDutch]

PS:
in general Silkies are good broodies So if you have the space/could setup an extra prefab you can give it a try with a broody instead of an incubator. Maybe the outcome is better with a broody.

After a week you can test if the eggs are developing with a good or special torch.

 

[Egg Snatcher]

If the person who has another incubator or a good broody the hatching rate could be completely different.

You could sell and tell they can get a new batch if the outcome is poor or give some extra eggs for free. Make an appointment for feed back.

Another possibility is to check your eggs on being fertilised. Inspect if they have a bulls eye.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/how-to-tell-a-fertile-vs-infertile-egg-pictures.16008/

I’ve been having the exact same problem! Out of about 20 eggs I’ve only had 1 hatch. Only a couple where fertile
Edit: it’s been the same outcome with incubator and broody. Finally my white silkies are giving fertile eggs but not my blues

 

[BDutch]

If you live in Latvia and want some advice for a good incubator, do ask in the thread “Peeps in Europe” Here Europeans can meet, have fun and ask questions that are EU-related. The incubator question was popped once before in that thread.

 

[Cloverr39]

You could sell and tell they can get a new batch if the outcome is poor or give some extra eggs for free. Make an appointment for feed back.

Yes I will do that, thank you.

in general Silkies are good broodies So if you have the space/could setup an extra prefab you can give it a try with a broody instead of an incubator. Maybe the outcome is better with a broody.

After a week you can test if the eggs are developing with a good or special torch.

I've hatched with both an incubator and a broody. My new incubator had a great hatch rate with everything else that wasn't those silkie eggs. While my broodies did hatch chicks, most of the eggs still didn't develop.
I always keep track of development in the eggs with a flashlight.

If you live in Latvia and want some advice for a good incubator, do ask in the thread “Peeps in Europe” Here Europeans can meet, have fun and ask questions that are EU-related. The incubator question was popped once before in that thread.

Thank you. I just bought a new Brinsea incubator, so I'm not currently looking to buy a new one, but I will check the thread out.