Fertility testing and retests

[Susan Skylark]

I set a few eggs in the incubator to check my boys’ fertility. They are all 8 week old birds, consistently laying since 5-6 weeks of age, 4-5 hens per male in spectate pens. One boy really knocked it out of the park (3/3), one is fertile (only 2 eggs set and only verified one), and the other is 0/4. The zilch guy is the one that was having girl problems (got beat up by a reluctant hen!). I did see him mount a female once since then so he is trying. Does he just need more time, should I just try again in 2 weeks (10 weeks of age)? Also, if I need a new male, how hard is it to introduce a younger bird into an established group of hens? The little bit of pen shifting I did when finalizing my pens was disruptive enough when they were 5 weeks old and had been raised together. Thanks!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Have you considered just swapping the males between groups?

 

[Nabiki]

If the 0/4 male has characteristics that you really want, give him a couple more weeks and try again. If he isn't spectacular, I would replace him.

Introducing new birds can be a challenge, but I've had good luck with removing all of the birds, cleaning and rearranging their pen, then putting all of the birds including the new ones in at night. When they wake up, they're all in a strange place and rarely fight.

 

[Susan Skylark]

He’s just an Italian male, nice personality but nothing to distinguish him from the one we just ate. The problem is we don’t have a ready supply of quail here, that’s why I’m hatching shipped eggs. I’d have to raise a replacement, which I can do but it will take a few months but then again I’m not selling or hatching eggs in the near future so there isn’t a rush. He’s in with my blue birds and I’d like to hatch a few of those but otherwise there’s no hurry. I was going to hatch some eggs mid august (mostly meat birds or sell chicks but if I get a nice bird or two might keep it) so he has some time yet to figure this out, I’m just afraid we ate the wrong bird!

 

[Susan Skylark]

As for swapping birds, I have a couple roux hens and wanted to try for autumn amber (both with a Tibetan male) and it really upset my pens just moving them around, I probably have to break up and rearrange everything to do it (stress everybody out, not just the relocated birds). Just not worth it at this point, when and if I need a new Male then we can think about it.

 

[Nabiki]

He’s just an Italian male, nice personality but nothing to distinguish him from the one we just ate. The problem is we don’t have a ready supply of quail here, that’s why I’m hatching shipped eggs. I’d have to raise a replacement, which I can do but it will take a few months but then again I’m not selling or hatching eggs in the near future so there isn’t a rush. He’s in with my blue birds and I’d like to hatch a few of those but otherwise there’s no hurry. I was going to hatch some eggs mid august (mostly meat birds or sell chicks but if I get a nice bird or two might keep it) so he has some time yet to figure this out, I’m just afraid we ate the wrong bird!

Sounds like he'll get the time, then. He might well just be a slow learner and will be fine once he figures it all out.