It doesn't affect the fertility of the egg usually- BUT it does affect hatchability, as the eggs begin to incubate in the heat of the day, then you bring them in to the counter and they are killed by room temps before you put them in the bator.
If you don't want chicks the very best way to break her is to put her in a wire bottomed cage with a fan blowing under her. Broodies have a raised body temperature, and this helps break them. If she's been broody for a week she will need to stay in the "Broody Breaker" box for about 4-5 days.
@hotcurltr that looks like spraddleleg to me. There's all sorts of theories about why it happens, but it's pretty easy to correct. I've found sports tape is the best... that fabric that sticks to itself that the doctor wraps your arm in after they take blood. You cut a short strip to wrap around each leg, then a longer strip that goes around both legs and holds them the correct length apart. It can correct overnight like that if you catch it fast enough.
I'm not sure why you're not getting fertile eggs, because he was a love machine with my hens. Several of his girls are just now getting old enough to be chased by Orlando and Einstein. I just farmed out several of his boys, and one of them was velociraptor size; he'll feed a family and provide sandwiches on saturday.
Okay, you guys tell me what you think. This is Marshmallow... Toasted Marshmallow. I've been convinced she's a she, and I think it's become apparent. Am I wrong?
And just because, I have to show off my Einstein! I know he's not perfectly colored, but I think he's gorgeous!
I don't see any saddle feathers and her legs aren't noticably thick, I'm thinking girl nearing point of lay?
Einstein actually isn't too bad considering the condition of most US Cream Legbars! As an example, this is Charley, my original boy, from @Poco Pollo . Gold, short-backed, very overcolored shoulders, squirrel tail, pale legs, uncrested. He's average for the first few import lines from Greenfire Farms, but the advice I got from the UK show breeders was "cull him and buy something better" which wasn't an option. I'm very pleased with the progress I've made.
This is his son, Hugger, who is my breeding boy right now. Cream coloring, much less chestnus on the shoulders, improvements on stance and back length, some leg color improvement, slightly better tail. BUT he is uncrested or not well crested, he carries the white sport gene AND only has one blue egg gene instead of two- which I didn't discover until his daughters started laying this spring.
This is one of his boys, I'm test mating him to some hatchery RIR to test for his egg color genetics. Saw him attempting to mount a hen for the first time today.
And these are two boys I will be playing with this fall- from another breeder known to be free of the defects I am fighting in my line, their weaknesses are my strengths:
