Infertile eggs, what's going on?

[mustangsaguaro]

About 3-3 1/2 weeks ago I sold a dozen of my Ameraucana eggs to someone that lives about 5 minutes from me. Well, he incubated the eggs and Day 21 came and went and nothing hatched. He opened up all the eggs and all that was in there was the yolks. No chicks formed, nothing. I think one he said did have an eyeball form but died early on.  What could have gone wrong? I did give him another 12 eggs the other day since this first batch didn't hatch.

I know my eggs are fertile because I see my 2 roosters mating w/ the hens. Also, the eggs we do eat when I crack them open I can see that they are fertilized.

Secondly about a week and a half ago as some of you know I did hatch some chicks. Albeit most of them died, only 3 survived (but I think I know why on this one).

 I also have a broody sitting on eggs which I have candled and saw movement in some of  them.  I candled again this morning and the 13 out of 20 she started w/ that are left under her I did see movement in at least 2 of them. Two of them that I knew were not fertile I removed and opened them and nothing just the yolks. It looks like one started to form but died w/in the first 7-10 days. She now has 11 left under her. I am now questionable about 9 of them not being fertile or nothing in them as I didn't see any veins or movement in them. I did leave the 11 under her, even the questionable ones. What could be wrong? If I did my math right they should hatch this week or by this weekend at the latest. Could it be possible that I\'m just not seeing the veins? The eggs seem kind of dark so sometimes it is hard to tell.

 So, why didn\'t anything form w/ the eggs this guy bought? I can understand something like this happening on shipped eggs. But the fact that he only lives 5 minutes from me. This is just really weird. Anyone have any ideas why this might have happened?
Eggs I gave him were fresh. Laid w/in 3-4 days before he received them. They were not washed by either him or myself.

I have not made any feed changes recently so what could be going on? Have others had this problem?

At one point and time I had 5 roosters. I got rid of 3 of them so there are only 2 left. The one thing as of late that I have seen is I guess the more alpha rooster chasing the other one? Chasing by if he\'s close by and the other one is mating a hen he will chase him off. And the other day I also saw him chase him away from the food bowl. I have multiple food bowls for this reason. Could this cause an issue w/ fertility?

 
Thanks
Kim

[OldChurchEggery]

Did he set any other eggs in there as \"control\" eggs? If nothing at all from that setting hatched, I would think there was an incubation problem, like the temperature spiked right at the beginning.

Is the broody hen in question a reliable broody? With 20 eggs under her, I can\'t see how she\'d be able to keep all of them continuously warm. That just sounds like too many eggs to me. That would also explain low development; there are so many eggs they\'re getting chilled as she tries to move them under her.

Are your chickens getting into something that they shouldn\'t, like treated grass seed or sidewalk salt? It\'s the time of year when people are treating their lawns and farmers are spraying crops, so if your birds are able to access something during their ranging, that could prevent good hatch results.

[mustangsaguaro]

Did he set any other eggs in there as \"control\" eggs? If nothing at all from that setting hatched, I would think there was an incubation problem, like the temperature spiked right at the beginning.

Is the broody hen in question a reliable broody? With 20 eggs under her, I can\'t see how she\'d be able to keep all of them continuously warm. That just sounds like too many eggs to me. That would also explain low development; there are so many eggs they\'re getting chilled as she tries to move them under her.

Are your chickens getting into something that they shouldn\'t, like treated grass seed or sidewalk salt? It\'s the time of year when people are treating their lawns and farmers are spraying crops, so if your birds are able to access something during their ranging, that could prevent good hatch results.

There were no control eggs set. I will have to check that.

This broody is still a pullet, but she has proved to be very diligent at sitting. It makes sense of not being able to keep all the eggs warm. I removed a bunch of them the other day. Now she is sitting only on 11 eggs which is probably more doable. But it might be to late in the game. As i stated I did see movement in at least 2 of the 11 she was on.

We live out in the country and we don\'t use any sprays or anything. And no sidewalks around where we live. So not really possible for them to get into anything.

[ChicksandKeets]

Your hens may need the feathers around their vents trimmed.

Also have you recently used a de wormer or any other chemical on the birds?

[mustangsaguaro]

Your hens may need the feathers around their vents trimmed.

Also have you recently used a de wormer or any other chemical on the birds?

No I don\'t use any types of chemicals on my birds. And when I deworm I  use human grade DE mixed in w/ there food. I never use chemical wormers.

Guess tonight or tomorrow morning when they get put to bed/let out in the am everyone will be getting feathers trimmed to

[Russ]

With 2 cock\'s/cockerels you run the risk of neither one being able to fertilize them. Since they are both to busy discouraging the other one from breeding. Or if alpha one is mating then he might just have low sperm count, you could try locking one up to test this theory. I feed 20%protein feed and give Vi-tal (electrolyte, vitamin, mineral supplement added to water) twice a week during breeding season just to help. I would start by separating both cock\'s and giving each one a couple hen\'s then doing a test hatch after 7 days in the incubator you should easily tell who is fertile/infertile. Also try putting them in smaller pen I don\'t know how big of a pen you have them in but bigger is not better when breeding. Just my two cent\'s lol

[Mike Gilbert]

An old timer with years of experience once said, \"You always need to keep at least three males.  One will die, one will be infertile, and that will leave you one to breed from.\"    The fact that a male will mate with a hen does not mean he is fertile.   Humans experience infertility, so why wouldn\'t another species?  The point about multiple males with the females is well taken also.  One will often interrupt the act of the other.  

[John]

With 2 cock\'s/cockerels you run the risk of neither one being able to fertilize them. Since they are both to busy discouraging the other one from breeding.

In my larger LF pens with about a dozen hens I use 2 cocks, but one at a time (generally).  Just as I said in pair mating coops I let the cocks visit the hens each Sunday and Wednesday, those are the days I also switch the cocks in the large pens.  The better cock goes in for the longer period of time from Wednesday to Sunday.
I\'m not saying this is a perfect system, but without test mating it is what works for me.
FYI, I have a few pens with bantam buffs this year using only one cock/cockerel per pen.  Early on some pens didn\'t produce any fertile eggs for the first couple weeks or so, but most eventually started producing them.  Whether it was because of their age, the weather, or some other reason I don\'t know, but sometimes it takes time.

[Beth C]

With 2 cock\'s/cockerels you run the risk of neither one being able to fertilize them

This happened in my w/bw/sw pen last year. I left both males in because they got along. The rivalry was good natured and there were no real fights, but there were also no fertile eggs until I separated them.

That said, the fact that you have been getting fertile eggs  and he had one showing early signs of development, makes me suspect an incubation problem.

[mustangsaguaro]

Thanks for the input on the 2 male thing. Right now I don\'t have any pens to separate anybody. But then again all I have are Lav/Lav split birds and then there are my barnyard mixes too. I let everyone free range. I do this because all I have are the lavender/lav splits and thus really don\'t need to worry about things since I only have the one color to deal with. I do however have one white female from a few years back but she lays in a spot totally different from all the others. And surprisingly I can tell the difference between the whites eggs and all the others. And my barnyard mixes are all brown layers.

I have some shipped eggs coming later this week and will be setting some of my own eggs again to see if I infact have a fertility problem. If that is the case, I might have to lock one male in the coop and let the other do his job and see what happens and vice versa.