Low hatch rate, could it be my roo???

dianneS

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I have a rumpless Lavender Amerucana Rooster. I've been trying to hatch eggs from his hens quite some time.

I put 11 eggs that were all fertilized by him in the incubator and only got 1 egg to hatch. I didn't do eggtopsies, however and don't know if the remaining eggs developed at all or not.

I just had two broodies, both setting on 5 eggs each, all fertilized by this rooster. Only one from each clutch hatched again! I did open these remaining eggs and it appeared as if they were infertile or never developed beyond day 3 if at all.

So out of 21 eggs only three hatched (and one of those three chicks looks suspiciously like it might be a product of my little OE bantam roo!) So this Lavender roo may have only produced 2-3 out of 21 eggs!

He definitely "takes care" of his ladies (you can tell by their miserable saddle feathers) but these eggs aren't hatching. What could be going wrong? Could I have a roo shootin' blanks part of the time? Is that even possible? Low sperm count? Or could his rumpless feathered bottom be getting in the way?

These hen's eggs have always hatched well for me, so I don't think the hens are the problem.
 
How old is your rooster? How many hens do you have? Those are the two factors that first come to my mind. I'm sure there are others out there in BYCland who will have more helpful questions and answers...
 

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