Young rooster fertility.

[Castlemaid]

When one of my Bovans went broody, I decided to try and see if I could get some chicks. I have a young Icelandic rooster, who at the time was around six-seven months old. He had recently started to crow, mount the girls, and act roosterly. I let the broody set on 11 eggs that I had collected and set aside for her. of the 11, five hatched, one attempted to hatch but didn't make it, and the other five were abandoned.
The five that hatched are doing great. I'm just thinking that the low hatching rate was just due to having a young rooster, and whether I can count on better hatches in the future as my rooster matures? Of course, it was only after I've disposed of the unhatched eggs that it occured to me that I should have candled them to see if they had been fertilized eggs or not.

Anyway, would it be normal for a only-six-month old rooster to only produce six fertilized eggs out of 11, or is this an indication of poor fertility from my roo.

 

[gimmie birdies]

I think the rooster age is fine. What I do is let the hen hatch but remove them to a brooder in the house until the other eggs hatch, then at night give back the babies.

I had another friend that had a broody sit on 7 eggs, 3 hatched then she walked away, I went and collected the other 4 unhatched eggs. after candling I saw 3 were behind but still fertile. I put them in an incubator, 2 more hatched, then I gave them to a mama hen at night.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Some breeds take longer to be fully fertile. Mine are all over a year mostly and I get about 85-90% that hatch and what don't hatch unduly are quitters (apart from the gals that are too tall to mount. I don't count them because I know it's not his fault.)

My naked necked male took a good month or two to start actually fertilizing eggs after he started mounting