Low Fertility in Hatching Eggs

[Cimmaron]

So my main flock has had around 95% fertility this season, but I have a favorite pair I separated for breeding that's had really low fertility.

I always thought a hen was either fertile or she wasn't, but of 12 eggs I incubated from this pair, 7 were infertile (a couple had a faint blood ring at 7 days but 5 just showed the shadow of a yolk). The pair has been together for a couple months. I see them mating regularly, but the hen doesn't look torn up from overmating at all.

The 12 eggs were collected all in a row over a 2 week period.

This pair was hatched late last summer from a group of 3 hens that had all been exposed to 2 different roosters from completely unrelated lines. There is a chance they are half siblings, but very unlikely they could be full siblings.

Ideas why some of their eggs are fertile and most aren't?

 

[gimmie birdies]

What's the breed?

 

[Cimmaron]

The pair are both an F1 AndalusianxAmeraucana cross.

 

[ColtHandorf]

So you had:

12 eggs total
7 were infertile or did not develop
5 showed slight development but were early DIS

The oldest eggs were 14 days old?

How did you store the eggs? Were there any problems with incubation temperature and humidity? What was the humidity and temp? Brand of incubator? Breed of chicken?

 

[Cyprus]

All important questions above. My own pair of same relation (half sibs) of same age range does just fine. Got 8 chicks from them already. Unfortunately, I lost 2 due to unforeseen circumstances.

 

[Cimmaron]

So you had:

12 eggs total
7 were infertile or did not develop
5 showed slight development but were early DIS

The oldest eggs were 14 days old?

How did you store the eggs? Were there any problems with incubation temperature and humidity? What was the humidity and temp? Brand of incubator? Breed of chicken?

Sorry that was confusing!

12 eggs total, ranging from 0-16 days old, stored at room temp like the rest of my hatching eggs
7 were infertile or did not develop at all
5 that did develop were due to hatch yesterday but only one actually hatched (so far, anyway!)

I have a cheapo incubator that doesn't even have a brand on it, humidity at 50-60.

I had 24 eggs from my main flock in the incubator as well and 18 have hatched at this point (3 were infertile, so 18 out of 21 good eggs). Given the good hatch rate of the other eggs incubated at the same time, I think it must be a problem with this particular breeding pair, not an incubation issue...

 

[ColtHandorf]

I think it probably has to do more with the age of the eggs. Smaller staggered batches would probably yield better hatch rates.

 

[Cimmaron]

I think it probably has to do more with the age of the eggs. Smaller staggered batches would probably yield better hatch rates.

That would make sense. Could eggs that are too old show just a yolk shadow with no veining, like an egg that is not fertile? I'm going to try marking the date on these eggs for the next hatch to see if its just the newest ones that are hatching...

 

[aurajean515]

7 days after an egg is laid, its chances of developing decreases greatly. Therefore, store each egg you get until the first one has reached 6 days old and then incubate what you’ve collected.
Humidity should be between 50-55, prefferably 52. Temp should be at 99.5°F.
Hope that helps!

 

[Pekin747]

I've this prob with my serama and my seabright pair
What I did was I put a mirror in there cages for 1 hour every day for 1 week I also separate them on there own for 1 week so they wherent able to see any other chickens for the week
This brought the fertility for my seramas 30% to 70 and my seabright from 45% to 80%