Is my rooster infertile?

[JulieHei]

I have a one year old black copper maran rooster. He is mating the hens all the time. Recently a friend tried to incubate 18 eggs from us, but none of them hatched/not fertile. The roo and the 26 hens seem to be healthy, and they are all one year old. I can’t see that there is something wrong with the living conditions. Could the rooster be too young to produce baby chicks? Or is it most likely that he is infertile? Should I try to incubate some eggs myself? Or should I just buy a new rooster?

 

[sourland]

Do an on site search on 'bullseye fertility'. Perhaps your friends incubator is not working properly. 26 hens is a lot for one rooster to cover, but at least some of the eggs should have developed.

 

[JulieHei]

Thaks, I will!

The strange thing is she incubated eggs from another place as well, and all of them hatched. So I’m sure it’s not the incubator.

 

[Hatch in chicks]

he is probably an infertile rooster. sorry.

 

[JulieHei]

If I post pictures of the eggs here, could you help me to see if the eggs are fertilized?

 

[Hatch in chicks]

If I post pictures of the eggs here, could you help me to see if the eggs are fertilized?

of course.

 

[CoopBoots]

I had a similar situation. Had a neighbor try to incubate for me and it didn't work out (her eggs hatched, mine did not) but my broody hen managed a 50% hatch rate from my eggs. Not great, but my rooster is doing his job some of the time.

Did your friend open the eggs to check for any development? Any candling results at any stage?

 

[nuthatched]

If I post pictures of the eggs here, could you help me to see if the eggs are fertilized?

Yes, we can. You're looking for a bullseye on the yolk.

 

[JulieHei]

I had a similar situation. Had a neighbor try to incubate for me and it didn't work out (her eggs hatched, mine did not) but my broody hen managed a 50% hatch rate from my eggs. Not great, but my rooster is doing his job some of the time.

Did your friend open the eggs to check for any development? Any candling results at any stage?

I don’t think she candled them or opened them unfortunately..

 

[JulieHei]

Picture of two random eggs. What do you think?