Poor Fertility

[dheltzel]

I have a confined flock of 13 guineas and I'm getting 4 - 5 eggs a day, but the fertility has been around 20%. I figured they were young and it was cold when I started hatching back in Feb, but by now, those should not be factors anymore. I see a lot of chasing but no one gets injured. Any ideas why they are not producing more fertile eggs?

 

[Buttercup902]

Might be the males are still fighting for dominance over females? If you have 5 females and 8 males they need to work out who gets who. I have the same problem but mine have worked it out. The males who have no females are much smaller than the dominant males. An ideal flock would have 2 - 3 females to 1 male. I think. I am no expert.

 

[gguineasfamily]

Sounds like the males are doing more chasing than mating... That's quite common especially in the first year. Sounds like your boys aren't ready to settle down yet. What is the male to female ratio? And how are you storing eggs before incubation?

 

[gguineasfamily]

Sorry I forgot to mention - I see your guineas are confined. How much space do they have? I find mine don't do any mating when I don't let them out of the coop.

 

[dheltzel]

Last batch was better, about 50% fertility. I think at least 6 of the 13 are females because I sometimes get 6 eggs in a single day. The fertility improvement may be mostly because they are now getting smarter about laying in the nest box instead of all over the run. It's time to pull a few males out of there and free range them. What is the "ideal" ratio of sexes in a group with 6 hens? How many males should I leave in there?

I have a band of 5 (old) free ranging guineas and a group of 6 young ones that I want to free range, but they aren't having any of that (just run in circles around the pen they were in and won't go join the older ones). If I cage a single male that is about a year old, with 6 young ones (2 - 3 months old) will they form a cohesive group to free range together, or will mayhem ensue?

 

[gguineasfamily]

Last batch was better, about 50% fertility. I think at least 6 of the 13 are females because I sometimes get 6 eggs in a single day. The fertility improvement may be mostly because they are now getting smarter about laying in the nest box instead of all over the run. It's time to pull a few males out of there and free range them. What is the "ideal" ratio of sexes in a group with 6 hens? How many males should I leave in there?

I have a band of 5 (old) free ranging guineas and a group of 6 young ones that I want to free range, but they aren't having any of that (just run in circles around the pen they were in and won't go join the older ones). If I cage a single male that is about a year old, with 6 young ones (2 - 3 months old) will they form a cohesive group to free range together, or will mayhem ensue?

Yes, mayhem will start. I'm sorry, but if your males can't sort out who gets which hen, they won't definitely be able to integrate with another flock. It takes guineas months and even years to properly combine two flocks. And that's when they're all free ranging and no males are locked up. If one males locked up the others will want to fight with him.

I'm glad to hear your fertility has improved. Sound like your hens are growing up and they have started making a nest, which usually means they are ready to use the eggs for hatching. Even if no one sits on them, they will be more fertile.

If you free range males, yes they would just run rings around the pen, they don't want to leave their flock. I find 1:1 a good ratio for my free range guineas, I don't know about cooped guineas.

How old are your old guineas? You might get better fertility out of them.

 

[dheltzel]

The old ones are 5 years or more and they have free ranged their entire life, they would never tolerate being caged, and I can't find any eggs from them when free ranging.

I wonder if I picked out one pair and put them with the peas (5, 2 year olds in a large avairy), if they would do better. It seems like they travel as a flock when free ranging, I never see just 1 pair together.

For now, I'll probably just leave them as they are. I'm going to free range them all later this summer, I'm not enjoying them caged, they just aren't worth the effort to breed them.

 

[gguineasfamily]

The old ones are 5 years or more and they have free ranged their entire life, they would never tolerate being caged, and I can't find any eggs from them when free ranging.

I wonder if I picked out one pair and put them with the peas (5, 2 year olds in a large avairy), if they would do better. It seems like they travel as a flock when free ranging, I never see just 1 pair together.

For now, I'll probably just leave them as they are. I'm going to free range them all later this summer, I'm not enjoying them caged, they just aren't worth the effort to breed them.

If you do end up free ranging them, and leave the coop open for them to go in with food in it, they will most likely keeps laying eggs in the coop, eat in the coop and sleep in the coop and you just need to lock them up at night. You should get higher fertility this way, at least my ones do more mating once they're free ranging. Mating pairs will go around in pairs however they will join up as a flock sometimes. If you free range them, they will not be happy to be cooped.

 

[henrunner]

I have 1 hen the neighbor has a cock not sure if they have mated but do know my hen has laid 8 egg's out in the Raspberry row she doesn't sit on them at night she goes into the chicken coop does that mean they will not hatch it's been eight day's of egg's she is still laying out there I'm wandering if I should throw them away since I don't know if fertile but still not want rotten eggs There have been times when I have to water the berries I'm sure the egg's would be getting wet too, is that a problem if fertile? We have been having warm night's 50* -60*
I hope I can get a answer of what to do........ Thank you

[email protected]

 

[gguineasfamily]

I have 1 hen the neighbor has a cock not sure if they have mated but do know my hen has laid 8 egg's out in the Raspberry row she doesn't sit on them at night she goes into the chicken coop does that mean they will not hatch it's been eight day's of  egg's she is still laying out there I'm wandering if I should throw them away since I don't know if fertile but still not want rotten eggs  There have been times when I have to water the berries I'm sure the egg's would be getting wet too, is that a problem if fertile?  We have been having warm night's 50* -60* 
 I hope I can get a answer of what to do........  Thank you

[email protected]
 

I think she's just having a nest there, she isn't ready to sit on them at night. Hens usually wait till they have lots of eggs until they sit on them at night, unless you really want her to hatch them you can take them away especially the older eggs, but if you take them all away she will make a nest somewhere else, unless you replace them with fake eggs. She may just want to have a nest and not hatch them, not all hens are cut out to be mothers and they don't tend to make very good mothers. If she starts sitting full-time soon, they may hatch. The water shouldn't be a problem but once (if) she starts sitting full-time then too much water could be bad for the babies and once they hatch they shouldn't get wet or they will get sick and may die. If you want to water your raspberries it may be a good idea to take the eggs away. I incubate the eggs I hatch so I'm probably not the best person to ask for this, but hope this helps.