Poor Fertility

[khpadventures]

I was very much hoping to hatch out my own eggs this spring, but things are not going according to plan! I have one rooster and two hens, but am having really poor results so far. When I crack them open fresh they all appear to be fertilized, but of 12 I set in the incubator only 2 started to develop, and only on of those two made it to lockdown today. The other one quit around day 12ish.

I set 6 more, and again, only two are developing, they are day 7 right now.

What troubleshooting would you all suggest? The rooster and hens I have are all from the same order of hatching eggs I got last May from Omega Hills farms, are they perhaps too closely related? They are about a year old now, could they bee too young?

The first batch i had tried to store them in my cool garage, figured that was the problem, but the second batch i popped straight into the incubator within hours of being laid.

I have a hovabator, im not super pleased with its temperature consistency, but I managed to get 12 shipped chicks to hatch with it last year so it can't be too bad....just not sure what else to try to get to the bottom of it.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Breed?

 

[khpadventures]

Bielefelder

 

[JacinLarkwell]

I think the males take longer to fully develop. I know jersey giants take about 18 months, those are probably quite similar

 

[Ridgerunner]

These links might help. The first talks about storing eggs for hatch and the last two are for troubleshooting poor hatches.

Texas A&M Incubation site

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/...e-Cartwright-Incubating-and-hatching-eggs.pdf

Mississippi State Incubation Troubleshooting

http://extension.msstate.edu/content/trouble-shooting-failures-egg-incubation

Illinois Incubation troubleshooting

http://urbanext.illinois.edu/eggs/res24-00.html

When I crack them open fresh they all appear to be fertilized,

Then he is doing his job.

but of 12 I set in the incubator only 2 started to develop, and only on of those two made it to lockdown today. The other one quit around day 12ish.

I set 6 more, and again, only two are developing, they are day 7 right now.

Generally if an egg fails to develop or dies in the first week of incubation it is because of something that happened before incubation started. If it dies in the last week it has something to di with your incubation. There are always exceptions.

The rooster and hens I have are all from the same order of hatching eggs I got last May from Omega Hills farms, are they perhaps too closely related?

No, that is not the issue. The way they raise them they are not as closely related as you might think. Besides, breeders often use line breeding to develop a new breed or develop a show bird line. They mate a parent to an offspring to enhance certain traits.

They are about a year old now, could they bee too young?

If they were 5 months old, maybe. 6 months old, probably OK. A full year, no way they are too young.

The first batch i had tried to store them in my cool garage, figured that was the problem,
but the second batch i popped straight into the incubator within hours of being laid.

The ideal temperature to store them is around 55 F, but as long as they are above freezing and below the mid-70's you should be OK for a week or so of storage.

I have a hovabator, im not super pleased with its temperature consistency, but I managed to get 12 shipped chicks to hatch with it last year so it can't be too bad....just not sure what else to try to get to the bottom of it.

The factory presets on my Hovabator 1588 were too warm, my first hatch started on Day 18. It held temperature fine, just had to be calibrated and adjusted. But each incubator is different even if they are the same make and model. Some typical reasons for inconsistency in temperature is the area it is in has big swings in temperature or is too cold to start with. Is it where the sun can hit it and warm it up? Is a breeze hitting it, either from a door or an AC vent? Is the lid fitting on properly? One time the turner cord was out of its slot so the lid was ajar. It still held temperature but humidity really dropped.

It's been a while since I read that A&M article. If you are storing them try to avoid swings in temperature. Cycling warm then cold then warm and such is hard on them. Try to keep the temperature steady. Be gentle when handing them, don't shake them. I once ruined a bunch of hatching eggs by having them on the floorboard of the car on a rough country dirt road. They should have been on the seat and cushioned.

It is hard to troubleshoot over the internet, so many different things could be going on. From what you posted I can't see anything that you are doing wrong but you should be getting better results than that.

 

[BirdsBeesTrees]

I was very much hoping to hatch out my own eggs this spring, but things are not going according to plan! I have one rooster and two hens, but am having really poor results so far. When I crack them open fresh they all appear to be fertilized, but of 12 I set in the incubator only 2 started to develop, and only on of those two made it to lockdown today. The other one quit around day 12ish.

I set 6 more, and again, only two are developing, they are day 7 right now.

What troubleshooting would you all suggest? The rooster and hens I have are all from the same order of hatching eggs I got last May from Omega Hills farms, are they perhaps too closely related? They are about a year old now, could they bee too young?

The first batch i had tried to store them in my cool garage, figured that was the problem, but the second batch i popped straight into the incubator within hours of being laid.

I have a hovabator, im not super pleased with its temperature consistency, but I managed to get 12 shipped chicks to hatch with it last year so it can't be too bad....just not sure what else to try to get to the bottom of it.

At first I had this problem with my Bielefelders too. I was wondering what was going on.
I don't know for sure your situation but I'll tell you a couple things I noticed about mine.
My birds were still young, although they were laying they weren't getting the breeding stuff down.
I also noticed some of my hens were purposefully running from the rooster, not submitting and some were even cornering and pecking on him.
After a few more months I don't have 100% fertility but I'm much happier. They have accepted the rooster and things are going good now.
I will also throw out there that duck eggs when incubating love the humidity but chicken eggs not so much, so there's that too.