This is SO Odd! Reproduction/Genetics....Explanation?

[bossynbella]

This makes me wonder if this is what happened last year with our ducks. We have a White call drake and a runner duck the eggs were fertile, they all had the bullseye and yet none ever developed we just assumed it was because of something our silky hen was doing/or not doing that a duck would. I might have to try her with another drake this spring and see what happens.
I still think a call/runner duck cross could be interesting!

Congrats on the baby!
Melissa

 

[speckledhen]

One could make the argument that both of these chickens should be retired from contributing to the gene pool. The recessive gene can be passed to offspring (50% chance) and would be undetected by anyone until a chance breeding occurs and the breeder is sharp enough to catch it like happened this time. It sounds like this rooster has already produced a number of chicks.

Hmm. Well, yes, he has produced many, many chicks, it's true. However, seems if you removed all who had a lethal gene, then Araucanas would be extinct, right?
I still dont know what made me ask BluRoo to incubate this one egg after all this time, but suppose I was just curious and had to know if Miranda really was defective or if she was just a bad match for Suede.​

 

[crperdue]

Actually, It can't be a simple recessive lethal gene. If it was then only 25% of the clutch wouldn't be viable. Your results indicate that 100% of the eggs from this paring were not viable. There is something more going on.

Do you plan to investigate this more to find the cause or just seperate the two and not worry about it?

 

[Kev]

My first thought was Suede was not breeding the brahma. Or the hen was refusing to breed with him. It could be possible Suede is also playing favorites with the other birds.. eggs from a hen or 2 having much higher fertility with slightly lower but still 'good' as not to be so obvious with eggs from rest of the hens. It's not unknown for pens with single rooster with many hens(10 or more) to end up hatching majority of chicks from just a few hens(2-4 hens) because the rooster was mating those the most frequently with the result of lowered overall fertility in rest of the hens.

Not so well known is there can be subtle behavior differences between birds with varying comb types. Read a fascinating study about this once a long time ago.. the basic thing I remember was that all single combed birds got "treated" better or were preferred over all other comb types. Orps are single combed. Brahmas are pea. Combine this with possible roo's hen preference.....

Were the combs checked on chicks out of previous hatches? Pea is dominant so if there were any pea combed, they were Miranda's. However as she is the only(?) pea combed hen so naturally the expectation of a single combed chick is going to be low if rest of the pen were all single combeds.

crperdue is spot on. If it is something recessive from both parents then it would be only 25% of the eggs affected. If her eggs with the current roosters or other roosters who willingly mate her, and her eggs then have better or high fertility from then on, my guess would be Suede was not mating with her. If her fertility continues to be very low despite different roosters then perhaps there is something genetic(screwed up chromosomes), or something about her reproductive system that's either preventing the sperm from reaching the yolks, or the eggs are being made differently from the norm or...??

 

[herechickchick]

My chicks from Suede and Caroline (buff Brahma) were all pea combed.

 

[pips&peeps]

Have you tried to put her back in with the same roo again to test the fertility one more time? (Sorry if already asked, too long to read all posts.)

Maybe your hen was sick and had a viral load depositing in the eggs and they weren't developing from it.....

 

[the1much]

pips&peeps :

Have you tried to put her back in with the same roo again to test the fertility one more time? (Sorry if already asked, too long to read all posts.)

Maybe your hen was sick and had a viral load depositing in the eggs and they weren't developing from it.....

hey!!!!! wait for 2 weeks ,, lol ,,, till i get a free rack in my bator,,, and i get a chance fer some of her babies !!!!

 

[speckledhen]

Hi, all, just got on the board. Am battling a headache today.
Kev, every egg I cracked open of hers appeared to be fertile, from the first egg she laid. I did see Suede mate her many times, as well as the Buff Brahma, so I truly believe her eggs were fertilized, but just wouldnt develop.
In the beginning with the Blue Orps, I put my two Brahmas in there because they were large enough to handle Suede's size and it allowed him four girls instead of just two till I could get more Orps for him. It really wasn't critical that she be mated to him and I dont plan to put her back in with him since in about three weeks, he'll have two new girls anyway. Suede and my Buff Brahma produced many very vigorous chicks; they hatched on time or early and had no problems at all getting out. Then they grew huge!
Jean, I've never had any illness in the flock, unless you count bumblefoot and internal laying. Nothing respiratory, so I cant see it being illness-caused infertility. If she had been ill, I'd say absolutely, it could be that.
Mr. Hippie-Jim, if you want some hatching eggs, let me know several days ahead of time so I can collect some for you.
I think it's interesting, that a rooster and hen can be genetically mismatched in some way.

 

[the1much]

Quote:
thats the excuse im gonna give the wifers the next time she gives me "that look" saying the kids act just like me,,,,,,,,, sorry dear,, we must be genetically mis-matched,,,

and Thankies spackled

i'll let ya know soons

 

[patandchickens]

It seems rather unlikely to me (not impossible at all, just *unlikely*) that two totally unrelated birds from totally different gene pools should just happen to have a pair of matching recessive lethals.

I would bet much more money on either

a) although Suede appeared to be mating her, he was not doing so successfully i.e. not actually inseminating her (for any of several reasons); (e.t.a. - ok, read your recent post, this does not appear to be it)

or

b) she is actually very poorly fertile overall and this one successful egg is just a fluke. (This would be easily testable by incubating more eggs from her now that she's in with the other roo)

JMHO,

Pat