Rooster won't mate with White Hens - advice?

[FuzzyB]

@FuzzyB

How are you checking your fertility? Hatching, eggtopsy, or just visual inspection?

Proving fertility via visual inspection during incubation. At day 12 none of the white eggs show any growth - no blood vessels or anything.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Proving fertility via visual inspection during incubation. At day 12 none of the white eggs show any growth - no blood vessels or anything.

Even though there was no development... doesn't tell you if the bastodisc actually became a blastoderm and the issue lying within the egg rather than the cockerel... (not to be argumentative, but investigative and learning, curiosity)

Also are you breaking them open to look or just candling? Sorry, I try not to assume anything. And I don't know if that makes any difference in what you can tell or not.

Have you checked any when they were fresh still before incubating?

 

[rebrascora]

My guess would be that the leghorns are more flighty than the other pullets and better at evading him. What breed are the hens that are laying the fertile eggs? If they are heavier breeds (and lets face it, most are heavier than leghorns) , then I would say they are easier for him to dominate and mate and with 25:1 ratio, he's not exactly short of work to go chasing down the flighty difficult ones.
I agree, penning him with just the leghorns is the way to go.

 

[FuzzyB]

Even though there was no development... doesn't tell you if the bastodisc actually became a blastoderm and the issue lying within the egg rather than the cockerel... (not to be argumentative, but investigative and learning, curiosity)

Also are you breaking them open to look or just candling? Sorry, I try not to assume anything. And I don't know if that makes any difference in what you can tell or not.

Have you checked any when they were fresh still before incubating?

I crack them into a dish to view before discarding. I don't see proper blastoderms in any of them - just the blastodisc - same as I see in the fresh white eggs. Fairly certain that they are not fertile.

 

[FuzzyB]

My guess would be that the leghorns are more flighty than the other pullets and better at evading him. What breed are the hens that are laying the fertile eggs? If they are heavier breeds (and lets face it, most are heavier than leghorns) , then I would say they are easier for him to dominate and mate and with 25:1 ratio, he's not exactly short of work to go chasing down the flighty difficult ones.
I agree, penning him with just the leghorns is the way to go.

I think you've hit the nail on the head. The non-white breeds are orpingtons, astrolorps, wyandottes, barred rocks and welsummers - all heavier than the leghorns. I watched them closely for 2 hours yesterday, and while I did see him get up on the backs of a few of the white ones, they wanted no part of it for whatever reason...... Makes sense that he would be more successful in mating with the slower girls. Once I finish my new coop I'll have a place where I can confine the leghorns and hopefully get some fertile eggs.

Thanks to everyone who responded - It's great to have this resource to help with figuring things out!

 

[EggSighted4Life]

I think you've hit the nail on the head. The non-white breeds are orpingtons, astrolorps, wyandottes, barred rocks and welsummers - all heavier than the leghorns. I watched them closely for 2 hours yesterday, and while I did see him get up on the backs of a few of the white ones, they wanted no part of it for whatever reason...... Makes sense that he would be more successful in mating with the slower girls. Once I finish my new coop I'll have a place where I can confine the leghorns and hopefully get some fertile eggs.

Thanks to everyone who responded - It's great to have this resource to help with figuring things out!

I actually agree, and makes total sense.

Love the helpful people of BYC!

Had 7 chicks hatch this morning so far, 1 is a leghorn/Swedish Flower mix... so cute!

DO you happen to know if there comes a point that you can no longer see the actual blastodisc? Like when I cracked a day 10 egg, it was just a runny mess and I couldn't see anything to make a call if it was fertile but never started or wasn't fertile at all. Anyways, it's been a great learning experience!

 

[lazy gardener]

Yes, the interior of the egg does deteriorate over time. Just to toss in my 2 cents. Have you calibrated your thermometers? Are the leg horn eggs being incubated in one region of the bator? Even with forced air, it's not at all unusual for there to be warmer and colder spots in the bator. My roo easily covers 24 hens with good fertility. And he'd be looking for more if that was an option for him! And yes, chickens can be predjudiced, showing preference for one color over an other. My roo is not fond of barred hens, but he's gonna have to get over that issue, cause I have Dom and PBR chicks coming this spring. If he won't play nice, he'll be invited to dinner.

 

[FuzzyB]

I actually agree, and makes total sense.

Love the helpful people of BYC!

Had 7 chicks hatch this morning so far, 1 is a leghorn/Swedish Flower mix... so cute!

DO you happen to know if there comes a point that you can no longer see the actual blastodisc? Like when I cracked a day 10 egg, it was just a runny mess and I couldn't see anything to make a call if it was fertile but never started or wasn't fertile at all. Anyways, it's been a great learning experience!

Here's a site that shows the changes in the blastoderm over the first 2 or 3 days.... http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2013/01/facts-and-myths-about-fertile-eggs.html

 

[FuzzyB]

Yes, the interior of the egg does deteriorate over time. Just to toss in my 2 cents. Have you calibrated your thermometers? Are the leg horn eggs being incubated in one region of the bator? Even with forced air, it's not at all unusual for there to be warmer and colder spots in the bator. My roo easily covers 24 hens with good fertility. And he'd be looking for more if that was an option for him! And yes, chickens can be predjudiced, showing preference for one color over an other. My roo is not fond of barred hens, but he's gonna have to get over that issue, cause I have Dom and PBR chicks coming this spring. If he won't play nice, he'll be invited to dinner.

The integrated thermometer matches up with my secondary thermometer to within 1/10 of a degree - keeping the eggs at 99.6

For this last batch of eggs, I mixed them all up to try to eliminate any cold/hot spots in the incubator as a cause; didn't seem to matter - previous batches had approx. 85% successful hatch rate.