my serama girl has laid 5 eggs in 8 days none fertile

[naakte]

I have her in with a roo. but none of her eggs are fertile. any ideas?

Donna in Branson

 

[ScissorChick]

How many hens are there in with the roo?

If she's the only one it sounds like you have fertility problems with your roo. How old is he?

 

[Rbl4life]

how long has she been in with the rooster

 

[naakte]

I have 2 serama hens one serama roo. 5 eggs none fertile. she has been with this roo for the 8 days i have had her, but was with him for an unknown amout of time with her previous owner . do they make a viagra for chickens haha

Donna

 

[Dipsy Doodle Doo]

Hi Donna! Silly question, but have you actually seen any mating? The little guys might not be old enough to be interested.
Ruth could tell you whether the girls had been 'exposed' to older males before you got them.
Good luck!
Lisa

 

[naakte]

Hi Lisa, how are you today!!! I do not know what it really looks like when they mate. I know he jumps on her, but have not looked very close to see what they are doing. It looks violent to me maya is just ducking her head and he bites at her neck. This behavior reminds me of a batter woman protecting her face. I stop it when i see it. ever since the storms, they are still living in my kitchen, as are my 5 baby seramas. I do not know if this has something to do with it or not

Hugs Donna

 

[Heathero617]

Quote:
Well if you're stopping the "deed" then that COULD very well be the problem with fertility....just a guess. Also, are you cracking each egg to see if they are fertile?from what i understand from everything i've read..thats the only way to tell, and I'm assuming if it's super early in the fertilization, you might not be able to tell without looking super close. I honestly don't know though as i'm just an "infant" in the chicken department. I can tell you thought that cats are violent maters!

 

[Ridgerunner]

It can look a little different depending a lot on the hen's reaction and some on the individual rooster, but what usually happens when chickens mate is that the rooster lowers a wing to signal his intentions. This is called dancing.

The hen squats. This allows her to spread his weight into the ground. If she tried to stand up, she might hurt her legs, but her squatting to spread the load into the ground allows a large rooster to fertilize a small hen without hurting her. A really big rooster on a small hen can still cause problems, but not always.

The roooster grabs her by the back of the head and climbs on. Him grabbing her by the back of the neck is her signal to move her tail out of the way. It helps him hold on and balance too, but she has to move her tail out of the way for the mating to be successful.

The rooster very quickly touches her vent with his. Sometimes it is so quick you barely see it. The rooster then hops off.

The hen then stands up, fluffs up her feathers, and shakes. She is not telling him disdainfully how little his performance meant to her. She is doing the fluffy shake to get his sperm in the correct location.

Some roosters are brutes. They don't dance and they are rough on a hen. Usually this is an adolescent and he grows out of this overactive hormone stage, but some never outgrow it.

Often a hen will resist, at least initially. The rooster has a strong instinct to make sure the eggs are fertile and will sometimes not take no for an answer. Here are some things I have observed when the hen resists after the rooster dances.

The hen runs away. The rooster ignores her.

The hen runs away. The rooster chases her. She quickly squats and everything goes as normal. She was only seeing if he was serious and really cared.

The hen runs away. The rooster chases her and catches her, often grabbing her by the back with his beak until he can climb on. Once he has a grip on her, she cooperates.

The hen runs away. The rooster chases her but quits before he catches her.

The hen runs away. The rooster catches her, she never cooperates, and he forces her.

How the hen reacts has a lot ot do with how violent the mating is. As I said, some roosters are just brutes, but a whole lot of times, roosters have been considered brutes and died more because of the actions of the hens that his actions. If the hen has the maturity and instincts to react as nature intended, the rooster would not be that rough.

 

[naakte]

Quote:
THAT WAS ULTRA INFORMATIVE Thankyou... now one more question because #4 spidered so is in fact fertile... how long does the deed last? one egg? or better yet. must the roo do his thing everytime for every single egg?

Donna

 

[Ridgerunner]

It varies. The deed usually lasts about 2 weeks. It can be a little less, like maybe 9 days, or as long as three weeks, but two weeks is a pretty good estimate.