hi as you would know i have decided to go and try my luck with show breeding

so first off i was wanting to know the egg to hatch rate of some of you breeders of the show type size birds

 

i know with my pet types pretty much what ever they lay hatches and is raised too easy

and most not all of my pet types are show size

 

 

but im wondering why it isnt that easy with the show birds and around how many eggs should i actually expect to hatch out of each clutch

 

when do you give up on a hen or a cock and class them not breeder bale

 

whats is the best and quickest easiest way to tell who is the problem ???hen or cock is

 

and how and what is the awnser to infertile birds if one at all

 

and i know cocks dont have sperm all time so how do you know when he does just not have any at the time

or if he doesnt have it at all

 

cheers this really interests me to hear some responses thanks

Breeding show birds is harder.The egg to hatch ratio is low. It seems that the better the birds / pairs the harder it is to breed them. BUT that's the challenge.

 

Some say that if the eggs aren't fertile it's the cock bird. I don't know. You really have to have both birds in breeding condtion to hae any chance of success.

Years and years of selecting for type and not taking into account selection for fertility has a huge bearing IMO.

 

As a show breeder I can say that if I have purchased a bird for a few hundred dollars, I'm happy if I get just one chick from it. I'll then use that to breed again particularly if it has good features and the cycle perpetuates itself. After decades of such breeding affects can be seen in feather and size definitely but also in those things we have been unknowingly selectin against (fertility and immunity to disease).

 

In nature the fittest survive to breed and the ones that nreed the most have most chance of passing genetic material on so natural selection is for health and fertility not feather and size.

 

I generally have reasonable breeding success as I don't give them too many chances on the whole although I will put extra effort into a bird if they are very good. For example I have one huge blue cock who when I put him in a breeding cabinet would not even look at a hen no matter what hen I put with him. He would chat happily to cock birds in the flight though so for the next 12 months he lived in the hen flight, then in the following years he is 2005 rung, he has bred like buggery.

 

My birds live the first 12 months in mixed sex flights and from them on if they are "normals" they go into single sex flights. My specialist varieties go into mix sex flights.

 

Others who are obviously chatting and pairing and I see mate but produce no fertile eggs I will do fertility checks on over a few weeks, generally they get a second chance after rearing someone else's chicks as that sometimes fires them up too. If after 2 rounds they are still not firing I will generally get rid of the cock (unless he has positive sperm sample). Hens that either do not go to nest or do not lay (internal layers) I cull almost immediately.

 

Some birds I will AI and have done so with 2 particular cocks who have great sperm samples but just didn't fill eggs for some reason (probably didn't know the front from the back of the hen) and these 2 I have bred successfully from. 1 I have now culled as I can't be bothered AI-ing if I can help it and I have plenty of his babies and the other, a dark green, I will continue to AI and use as he is lovely and his chicks are lovely AND he is a dark factor. Interestingly even though these cocks seem to have been too stupid to breed properly, their chicks have no such issues.

Edited August 7, 200916 yr by nubbly5

There are some breeders lines of birds that do contain the fertility we all hope for. I find over here that anything from Gary Armstrong has FERTILITY PLUS firmly embedded in the birds. I never have issues producing quantity chicks from Garys birds.

thank you all for your replys

i was wondering how do you do a fertility test ????

yes kaz gary armstrong has got great fertility in his birds i have seen birds from his stud have massive fill rate

and birds lovley also one day i will get some but first i will try breeding what i have

im hopeing my lacewings eggs are firtile this time round she has three eggs at present and i let her and grey cock raise and hatch someone elses chicks as to try incourage their next rounds success

so im glad to hear that can work i did it as i didnt want her to sit for nothing

and wanted her to experiace being a mum not wonder why no babys hatch i know that sounds dumb but to me its just like being pregnant and no baby in end would be disappointing to say the least

He would chat happily to cock birds in the flight though ..., then in the following years he is 2005 rung, he has bred like buggery.

 

Did you mean to say that?

He would chat happily to cock birds in the flight though ..., then in the following years he is 2005 rung, he has bred like buggery.

 

Did you mean to say that?

 

 

 

I read nubbly had to get him used to the company of hens, then no problem, before that he only wanted to hang out with his mates[ cocks]

He would chat happily to cock birds in the flight though ..., then in the following years he is 2005 rung, he has bred like buggery.

 

Did you mean to say that?

 

 

 

I read nubbly had to get him used to the company of hens, then no problem, before that he only wanted to hang out with his mates[ cocks]

 

 

 

lol thats such a male thing

He would chat happily to cock birds in the flight though ..., then in the following years he is 2005 rung, he has bred like buggery.

 

Did you mean to say that?

 

Ooops ...... um bred like mad may have been a better term to use there....... snh snh snh