Is my rooster sterile?

[Lelilamom]

I had three roosters and 26 hens last fall and had 24 chicks hatch. I'm down to one rooster now and 7 new hens (the rest were roosters from the fall that I gave away) and he doesn't mate with everyone, but DOES mate with most of the hens including one that I believe is his offspring. I have two hens sitting on 15 eggs total. We're well past the 21 day mark and I cracked them all open and none of them had incubated at all. Not Fertilized. Luck of the draw or sterile rooster? I grabbed two fresh eggs from this morning and cracked them. They both look unfertilized to me. I'm positive he was fertilizing hens in the fall. What happened?

 

[AltonaAcres]

Definitely not fertile. Is it super hot where you are located? Do the roosters fight excessively? How old are the hens? How old are the roos? Are they in good health? Maybe it's time for a new rooster.

 

[NatJ]

You say there's only one rooster now? It looks like either he's sterile, or he is didn't mate with the hens that laid the eggs in question.

Can you identify eggs from his favorite hens? You could check those for fertility.

There's a chance it's related to the time of year: hot weather (summer) or short days (winter) can sometimes have that effect.

 

[Lelilamom]

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You say there's only one rooster now? It looks like either he's sterile, or he is didn't mate with the hens that laid the eggs in question.

Can you identify eggs from his favorite hens? You could check those for fertility.

There's a chance it's related to the time of year: hot weather (summer) or short days (winter) can sometimes have that effect.

Yes I have only one roo now. Its easy to tell his favorites. He is a big EE and has trouble "hanging on" so the feathers are missing from the shoulders of his favorite girls. I'm wondering if he's able to "finish the job" if you know what I mean. I have 4 broodies in all, but the other two aren't due until next next Monday and the week after that, but I went ahead and candled all the eggs and two look fertile and incubating. The rest look empty. There are several that are EE eggs and there's no telling. My guess, they're not fertile.

I'm wondering if I should just remove all the empty eggs and get some fertilized eggs from the farm down the road - she just hatched 7, and let them all sit on live eggs and give them a chance to hatch.

 

[NatJ]

I'm wondering if I should just remove all the empty eggs and get some fertilized eggs from the farm down the road - she just hatched 7, and let them all sit on live eggs and give them a chance to hatch.

That is certainly one option, and it sounds like a good idea to me.

Just think about how many chickens you want to have, and give the hens the right number of eggs. They don't seem to care whether they set on one egg and hatch one chick, or whether they have more than a dozen. But you might care!

 

[Lelilamom]

I got two dozen eggs from the neighbor laid yesterday and today and put them underneath my broodies. Fingers crossed. It didn't get below 70 in the past 24 hours so I'm hoping the eggs from yesterday are still viable.

I opened all the eggs that they'd still been sitting on and not a single one had incubated. Not even a little. That's a total of 36 eggs. Looks like I have a sterile rooster.

 

[NatJ]

It didn't get below 70 in the past 24 hours so I'm hoping the eggs from yesterday are still viable.

Are you worried that they were too warm or too cold? Either way, if they were all laid within about 36 hours of when you got them, they will probably be fine.

I opened all the eggs that they'd still been sitting on and not a single one had incubated. Not even a little. That's a total of 36 eggs. Looks like I have a sterile rooster.

I think so too

Hopefully things go well with the new eggs from your neighbor