Why is there such a low hatch rate?

[Little Red Birds]

Well, some breeds are just not as vigorous as others... Possibly there is something genetic related to this color variety that causes this? Perhaps that Porcelain? gene is carrying something along with it that creates non-viability. In horses, the overo paint gene (a recessive) can lead to an all white off-spring that always dies because of digestive problems... I guess though the people to ask would be hatcheries and others who raise this variety. One way to get a hint would be to see how much hatcheries are charging for the little fellows. The more they cost, the harder they are to produce, generally.

Porcelain is a diluted version of the Millie’s... so maybe...

 

[Mosey2003]

If you're going to do a project anyway, this would be a good time to really do some thorough experimenting if your friend will let you.

Factoring out incubation and diet issues, what I would do is:
1. Single breed them, and mark all the eggs. Legband or otherwise mark the hens with numbers/colors, and mark the eggs from each hen. Set up a small pen for each hen and rotate the rooster amongst them every 2-3 days.
2. Track fertility - any hens have no eggs develop? Less than 25%? More than 75%?
3. Of the ones that develop, then track which ones die early, which ones die late, and which ones hatch successfully.

Armed with the above info, you could focus on only setting from fertile hens that produce viable offspring. Further along, you could branch out into putting the sire over his daughters and the cockerel of best type over his mother/aunts and then track it all again. Given enough time and diligence, this would at the very least tell you much more about what issues are happening, and at best could really increase fertility and hatchability over a few generations.

 

[Little Red Birds]

If you're going to do a project anyway, this would be a good time to really do some thorough experimenting if your friend will let you.

Factoring out incubation and diet issues, what I would do is:
1. Single breed them, and mark all the eggs. Legband or otherwise mark the hens with numbers/colors, and mark the eggs from each hen. Set up a small pen for each hen and rotate the rooster amongst them every 2-3 days.
2. Track fertility - any hens have no eggs develop? Less than 25%? More than 75%?
3. Of the ones that develop, then track which ones die early, which ones die late, and which ones hatch successfully.

Armed with the above info, you could focus on only setting from fertile hens that produce viable offspring. Further along, you could branch out into putting the sire over his daughters and the cockerel of best type over his mother/aunts and then track it all again. Given enough time and diligence, this would at the very least tell you much more about what issues are happening, and at best could really increase fertility and hatchability over a few generations.

Thank you so much!!

 

[BreanneRN]

There is a thread on here titled "d'Uccle color genetics" that goes on for 49 pages that discusses a viability problem with this bird and the lavender gene that causes the porcelain color, so you are not the only one... I would give you a link to it, but I don't know how to link on this site, but if you do a search for that title you will bring it up. It gets technical, but might help you understand a lot of what goes on with breeding these birds... I haven't read the whole thing, but might at some point. You might give it a read.

 

[CluckNDoodle]

There is a thread on here titled "d'Uccle color genetics" that goes on for 49 pages that discusses a viability problem with this bird and the lavender gene that causes the porcelain color, so you are not the only one... I would give you a link to it, but I don't know how to link on this site, but if you do a search for that title you will bring it up. It gets technical, but might help you understand a lot of what goes on with breeding these birds... I haven't read the whole thing, but might at some point. You might give it a read.

Is it this one?
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/duccle-color-genetics.331764/

 

[BreanneRN]

Is it this one?
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/duccle-color-genetics.331764/

Yes, that's it!

 

[Little Red Birds]

There is a thread on here titled "d'Uccle color genetics" that goes on for 49 pages that discusses a viability problem with this bird and the lavender gene that causes the porcelain color, so you are not the only one... I would give you a link to it, but I don't know how to link on this site, but if you do a search for that title you will bring it up. It gets technical, but might help you understand a lot of what goes on with breeding these birds... I haven't read the whole thing, but might at some point. You might give it a read.

THANK YOU!!! I do rabbits and I’m get really into their genetics bc of how competitive the coloring/marking are in one of my breeds. Genetic “language” is pretty much the same throughout species and anything I don’t understand there is Google!

 

[BreanneRN]

THANK YOU!!! I do rabbits and I’m get really into their genetics bc of how competitive the coloring/marking are in one of my breeds. Genetic “language” is pretty much the same throughout species and anything I don’t understand there is Google!

If you have questions, it is possible to resurrect these threads, many of those people are still here, and will come back and answer a question if you post on the thread... Sometimes you can get an update as to how all that worked out for them.