Sterile Rooster??

[CluckNDoodle]

Is it possible to have a sterile rooster? I've been helping a friend with her broody hen and twice now she put several eggs under the broody and we candled days later to find there was zero growth, we cracked them all open as well and none of them were fertilized.

After the first clutch of eggs were all duds we cracked open probably more than a dozen eggs and it looked as though more than half of them had bullseyes so we just figured he was off his game and put more fresh eggs under her...all duds again.

Now I'm questioning everything because we put eggs under the broody that while checking yolks looked like they were the roos "favorite girls"...5 days later, nothing, zero development again and upon cracking open, none of them looked fertilized. So it could just be bad luck because when we cracked them open we definitely didn't see 100% fertility (IF we really did see some fertilized eggs because now I'm totally confused). Instead of cracking open a bunch more I just put ten more fresh eggs in an incubator to check again in a few days.

Thoughts? Rooster is about a year old, we've never tested his fertility prior to this.

 

[aart]

What breeds of birds?
How many females?
You are checking after 5 days under the broody?
Do you have experience candling?
One cause for 'infertility' can be too much butt fluff inhibiting the 'cloacal kiss'.

 

[CluckNDoodle]

What breeds of birds?
How many females?
You are checking after 5 days under the broody?
Do you have experience candling?
One cause for 'infertility' can be too much butt fluff inhibiting the 'cloacal kiss'.

She has a mixed flock, one bantam rooster (I think a White Japanese Bantam) over 2 Silkies, 1 Wyandotte, 2 True Blues, 1 Olive Egger, 1 Rhode Island Red, 1 Bantam Barred Rock, 1 Marans, and 1 Silver Duckwing Old English Game bantam...so 1 rooster over 10 hens.

Yes, checking after 5 days, I have a ton of experience candling and while in most cases I would put a question mark on the eggs around day 3 and not toss an infertile until day 7, none of these were showing anything, so we opened them to confirm they weren't fertilized.

There are a few fluffy butts, especially the Silkies.

 

[aart]

one bantam rooster

He may not be able to 'reach'?
....or fluff interference.

 

[CluckNDoodle]

He may not be able to 'reach'?
....or fluff interference.

Thanks aart! I'll see if she wants to try some fluff trimming on the smaller chickens to see if that makes a difference. He does have bitty legs so you may have something there as far as the big hens, lol. Her OEGB hen is about the size of a pigeon though, don't know why that isn't working. I'll update in a few days with the incubator results and maybe try again after we manicure some hind ends. Thanks again!

 

[Ridgerunner]

Is it possible to have a sterile rooster?

Practically anything is possible with living animals. Some potential causes of infertility are disease, injury, or frostbite. Some people experience reduced fertility in roosters when they molt. That was in a thread years back where breeders were talking about needing to get hatching eggs really early in the season to have chickens the right age for certain shows. Some said they had that problem, some said they did not. Springtime seems to perk up some roosters while winter cools them off. As Aart mentioned, breeders of show birds with really thick feathers like Orpington have to trim vent feathers on hens and roosters because they are so thick they block the vent.

With that many different breeds of hens I don't think it is a hen problem. Some hens can be infertile too but not with that many. You are getting some with the bull's eye so he is hitting the target at least with some of them. It's not a bantam can't mate big hen problem.

I'll include a couple of links on what could cause eggs to not develop, it's not just an infertility issue. Look at collecting, handling ,and storing. Is something going in there that is killing the embryo?

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

The ultimate test would be to bring in a new rooster and see if that make the eggs fertile but that's easier said than done.

I wish you and your friend luck, this sounds like a really frustrating one. With most of these possible causes I'd think you'd at least get some development.

 

[CluckNDoodle]

Practically anything is possible with living animals. Some potential causes of infertility are disease, injury, or frostbite. Some people experience reduced fertility in roosters when they molt. That was in a thread years back where breeders were talking about needing to get hatching eggs really early in the season to have chickens the right age for certain shows. Some said they had that problem, some said they did not. Springtime seems to perk up some roosters while winter cools them off. As Aart mentioned, breeders of show birds with really thick feathers like Orpington have to trim vent feathers on hens and roosters because they are so thick they block the vent.

With that many different breeds of hens I don't think it is a hen problem. Some hens can be infertile too but not with that many. You are getting some with the bull's eye so he is hitting the target at least with some of them. It's not a bantam can't mate big hen problem.

I'll include a couple of links on what could cause eggs to not develop, it's not just an infertility issue. Look at collecting, handling ,and storing. Is something going in there that is killing the embryo?

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

The ultimate test would be to bring in a new rooster and see if that make the eggs fertile but that's easier said than done.

I wish you and your friend luck, this sounds like a really frustrating one. With most of these possible causes I'd think you'd at least get some development.

Thank you! I'm hatching some chicks right now (from another flock) and she's planning on keeping a rooster from the hatch, it certainly won't be a fast turn around for an answer but by fall she will hopefully be able to hatch some chicks from her own flock. Her flock did suffer from the dry form of fowl pox but that was several months ago and they have since completely recovered but we did question whether the illness could have affected the roosters virility.

Hopefully we just selected poorly and we'll see some development in one of the eggs I put in the incubator. Then we can focus our efforts on trimming butts for easier access to the ladies.

What's interesting is we started this whole adventure because we were hoping to specifically get some chicks from the Silver Duckwing Old English Game Bantam and she has the least amount of butt fluff and is tiny even compared to him.

 

[CluckNDoodle]

Oh and all of the eggs were either laid the day we put them under the broody, or in the case of the eggs I just put in the incubator, the tiny eggs were collected for 3 days, rotated, and stored properly and the colored eggs were also laid yesterday when I put them in the incubator so I don't think it's a storage thing.

 

[MysteryChicken]

Is AI an option if you don't wanna trim butt feathers?
Artificial Insemination.

 

[CluckNDoodle]

Is AI an option if you don't wanna trim butt feathers?
Artificial Insemination.

I have a lot of experience hatching chicks but I admit I wouldn't even know where to start with artificial insemination. We're pretty resourceful if it's an at home type thing but at this point I think we're more curious as to "why" the eggs aren't developing rather than needing fertilized eggs from him since I have access to a lot of quality breeder flocks and hatching eggs near me.