Thoroughly disappointed-LOW fertility

[ChiefSuperFly]

I snagged up every Guinea egg I could find and they have been in the incubator for 11 days now. I candled tonight and here's what I got
1 blood ring for sure and 1 possible. 13 Look infertile!! 5 possibly promising eggs. I only cracked the one sure blood ring and threw it out.

What causes the infertility? I don't know how old my lavender pair is. But I figured since some are fertile it would work like chickens- one time around keeps the hen fertilized for possibly 2 weeks? Is it because breeding season is over? Any insight would be great- I'm so bummed!

 

[SeaPolka]

I snagged up every Guinea egg I could find and they have been in the incubator for 11 days now. I candled tonight and here's what I got
1 blood ring for sure and 1 possible. 13 Look infertile!! 5 possibly promising eggs. I only cracked the one sure blood ring and threw it out.

What causes the infertility? I don't know how old my lavender pair is. But I figured since some are fertile it would work like chickens- one time around keeps the hen fertilized for possibly 2 weeks? Is it because breeding season is over? Any insight would be great- I'm so bummed!

If they are like chickens I would put it down to age or possibly an underlying problem. I live in the U.K. And fertility usually lessens in winter here.

 

[justin shrew]

just take a compare and ask yourself often times," why"
Why captive\cooped birds usually have the low fertility rate than wild birds? when guineas are locked up during the breeding season...usually the fertility rate is very low,even if some eggs hatch out, a few of them survive to adulthood.
The age of the bird depend on the health and the invironmental conditions in its surrounding. The are guineahens than can produce a 100% fertilized eggs in the wild in old ages.but why in captive? The fertility and infertility is the results of the healthy sperm. if the male is lacking some proteins and other certain vitamins in its daily diet, the sperms become activeless,unhealthy and have less time to swim thru the semen to fertilizes the ovum.
The infertility may also be caused by the sickness of the male. during the breeding season, the ostrogen proccess kicks in on females, which means the eggs are developing, to a point where they would be waiting for the sperm to fertilize in the oviduct. but if the testosteron is at its lowest level in males by the cause of response to the season and its availability of food. The females may not wait for his response but endeed just lay her infertile eggs.

best for you

 

[ChiefSuperFly]

That's really interesting! I had them together all by themselves and then stole her clutch. Then I moved the pair in with my 4 females and 1 male group. They get to free range every 2 or 3 days and now the other females are laying too in a community nest. I'm going to leave it be and see what happens. I thought maybe the stress of a new place (when I first got them) caused the eggs to be infertile but I was curious if they don't breed during the off season. I've read you'll miss it in a blink and I've yet to see anything yet...

 

[R2elk]

I snagged up every Guinea egg I could find and they have been in the incubator for 11 days now. I candled tonight and here's what I got
1 blood ring for sure and 1 possible. 13 Look infertile!! 5 possibly promising eggs. I only cracked the one sure blood ring and threw it out.

What causes the infertility? I don't know how old my lavender pair is. But I figured since some are fertile it would work like chickens- one time around keeps the hen fertilized for possibly 2 weeks? Is it because breeding season is over? Any insight would be great- I'm so bummed!

You need to provide more information than what you have supplied here.

Are you guineas standards or jumbos. Jumbos can have lower fertility rates than standards.

I seem to recall that you kept one guinea cock for all your guinea hens. Not all guinea cocks are willing to breed all the hens while others will.

Is this your first breeding, laying season? It can take time for all the flock dynamics to get worked out thus causing some hens to not get bred. Anything that upsets the flock dynamics can cause infertile eggs. I removed two cocks from my breeding group and almost immediately went from 100% fertility to less than 50% fertility for about a month before things got back to normal.

 

[ChiefSuperFly]

I have some monsters. They are 4 months old and huge. Pearl grays. Just started laying eggs. I've got 4 females and 1 male. Then about 6 weeks ago? I bought a lavender pair. I kept them seperate until about a week or two ago and now all the guineas and happily together. The lavs are tiny in my opinion but were mature and laying. The eggs I stole were before I put all the guineas together. So they were just from the lav pair. I have no idea how old they are or how to tell. Im guessing the stress of a new place had something to do with the fertility. I'll get a pic for u- the grays I have are supposed to be normal size but I don't know if I believe it!

 

[ChiefSuperFly]

Not the most photogenic ...