Low fertility rate

[cgmccary]

Not really. I grew up on a farm with free ranging chickens. One rooster had no problem covering over 20 hens. Where those lower ratios come from is that in the commercial pen breeding situations, due to the random nature of breeding, it takes about 1 rooster for every hen to keep fertility up. This is where you might have 20 roosters with 200 hens. In a small flock, one rooster can cover a lot more hens. He only has to mate with a hen once every two weeks to keep her fertile.
Of course this depends in the virility of the rooster and the behavior and health of the entire flock. There are a lot of different things that can affect fertility. The rooster has to have the personality to dominate the hens. The hens have to play their part too in the mating process. It takes two with both doing their part for him to be able to hit the target. Health and nutrition play a part. Some thick-feathered chickens even have problems with the feathers blocking the vent. Some Cochin and Orpington breeders trim the feathers around the vent to make it easier for the rooster to hit the target. Cold or hot weather can affect fertility. As someone mentioned, some people report problems with fertility this time of year.
How and how long you store the eggs can make a difference. You can normally store them a week without any problems. Even two weeks isn’t too bad but turning, temperature and humidity during storage becomes more important. Don’t let then freeze or get them too hot.
Your rooster and hens should not be too young. I don’t know what is going on with yours. You should be getting a better fertility rate. There are just too many variables for me to make a good guess.

Just going by my past experience. My roosters had favorites. When I rotated the hens & kept to a smaller number in the pen at one time, I had better fertility than when I had a rooster with 15 -20 hens. Nowadays, I do not flock breed anyway so my experience is back WHEN. Instead, I breed in selected groups so this would never be a concern to me. I also rest my roosters.

 

[rodriguezpoultry]

From that picture, it looks like he may have a bad wry tail. That could cause the low fertility as the parts aren't matching up during breeding. May want to check that out.

 

[Fred's Hens]

Its a very healthy Flock. The have a very well rounded diet. Like I said, They free range all day every day and do have feed in the feeder that they only eat that in the morning and at sunset. He 'Big Black" stays fairly active sexually with his hens. He's more active in the morning. The hens are laying excellent. I do have the Fluffy Butt breeds. Both Orpingtons and Australorps have the fluff. This spring I'll give the girls a trim and give Big Black some "manscaping". I'm really wanting to have a self replenishing flock and I would like to see a bunch of chicks following broody mamma's this spring.

The super fluffy birds indeed have this issue, it seems.

 

[cgmccary]

A male bird can become too fat too and prevent breeding (but your male does not appear to be over weight-- usually happens in older birds).

 

[ButchGood]

His tail is very straight.