Hi all. Been super busy with school and havent really posted much. I make an effort to read as many posts as I can and stay up to date however

 

Last year I had trouble with a cock that could not mate due to a bad wing (like that when I purchased him). Because I paid more than usual for him and he was otherwise a great bird feature-wise I didnt want to let him go to waste so I searched far and wide until I had found enough information to learn how to AI him to his hen. I got some chicks out of him on the second round using AI (yay) and havent really needed to use it since.

 

This year I have been slowly making an alliance with two solid breeders, one who has lots of expensive birds that wont breed, one that has extensive knowledge, space, time and equipment and then there is me - little time or money, but the only one who can actually AI a bird and work a microscope. We decided to combine our skills and help eachother out. We decided to do some tests and put up 6 pairs who had all failed to fill eggs previously. Two cocks are tail-less wonders, two are older birds and the other two had never filled for some unknown reason.

 

We obtained sperm samples today from all 6 cocks and put them under a microscope. What an interesting day!!

 

Cock 1 (5 years old) - Tiny clear yellow sperm sample obtained. Under microscope it showed high numbers of sperm however only about 10 percent were alive. And of those few were moving, most of them were just jiggling around. Fertility extremely poor.

Cock 2 (5 years old) - Produced a huge milky sample (about 4x more volume than any other cock). Under microscope it showed very high concentration of sperm, 90% were very actively swimming about. A very very fertile old boy!

Cock 3 (3 years old) - Produced an average sized milky sample. Under microscope it showed very high concentration of sperm of which 75% were very actively swimming, 10% wriggling and 15% not moving. High fertility.

Cock 4 (2 years old) - Produced a tiny clear yellow sample. Microscope showed moderate concentration of sperm with about 50% moving at a moderate-slow speed, 50% dead. Low fertility.

Cock 5 (3 years old) - Produced a small-moderate milky sample. Moderate concentration of sperm, approx 40% actively swimming, 20% slowly swimming, 40% not moving. Low-moderate fertility.

Cock 6 (4 years old) - Produced a moderate milky sample. Moderate concentration of sperm, approx 60% actively swimming, 20% slowly swimming, 20% not moving. Moderate fertility (no concerns).

 

We were fascinated by the older cocks - side by side you would never tell one of them is almost infertile while the other one is extremely potent (but perhaps a little bit too laid back to actively chase hens now). Some of the younger cocks performed much more poorly including a tail-less wonder! We were very pleased to have some hard evidence before us as without todays experiment there are far too many possibilities as to why any of these cocks might not have filled eggs. Now we know that 3 if not 4 of these cocks have absolutely no physiological reason why they could not fill eggs as the sperm itself is fine. Now we know that perhaps they have just not mated, or mated ineffectively, or the hen is box bound etc...

 

We really feel as a group that knowledge is power and we are excited about the prospect of getting more information on cocks before we put them down to breed. We may AI the cocks to their hens once or twice (for example we choose a pair, and check the cock for fertility when the hen shows early signs of being about to lay or after she has laid one egg, use part of the sample on a microscope slide and then transfer the remaining sample to the hen just to get some definate sperm transfer before leaving them to do the rest).

 

What are your thoughts on this sort of process? Surely other breeders out there would like to know more about the quality of sperm being produced by cocks to potentially avoid those clear rounds before they even happen? Do some feel it should just be left alone and that we should expect and accept clear eggs?

im not sure what my thoughts are on it

as i breed more for joy of it than to produce chicks each time

its part of the experiance

i just lost 45 eggs to the big storm all due to hatch the hens all went off the eggs and huddled scarred in the nest box corrner

everything died in shell

 

i didnt think you could trancefure the sperm from the mic scope glass tohen though as doesnt the glass kill seamen ???

 

i know blood kills seamen

 

i dont think theirs anything wrong with ai if used speringly but it does take the true challange away thats my thoughts

 

good luck with all your tests and reserch and may you all gain some thing from your working togeter

gb

Edited April 2, 201015 yr by KAZ

The sperm can dry out once transferred to the glass, but the glass itself is inert (has no effect on sperm). You can improve conditions for sperm by adding a drop of saline (0.9% salt water) to the sample before placing the cover slip over it.

 

We are primarily using this tool to establish TRUE infertility from cocks who are fertile but not filling eggs (for any number of reasons). If you know the cock is fertile and he doesnt fill eggs, then you look at your husbandry (eg do you trim feathers, do you add extra perches if he has trouble staying on, do you remove perches so they mate on the ground etc etc). Another thought we had was screening a cock once per year to see if his sperm is decreasing in vitality so that we know when he should be put into retirement rather than wasting a month or two with a good hen producing nothing.

 

Our aim is to try and improve success rates by having better information. We would all rather put down 20 fertile pairs and use our husbandry to try for best results, rather than to put up 40 or 60 pairs because we know some of them will lay clear eggs and we are hoping to 'balance out the numbers' by adding extra pairs - and more work for us!

i can see where your comming from and if your really into serious show breeding then i guess this is a way to combat infertility

but concidering cocks can be infertile for periods of times in one year how do you know if your discarding a good cock who is just going through a rest stage as i call it

you may actually cause more infertility by stressing the cock birds out catching them up and takeing reguler samples

 

i guess if you were just testing the cocks before pairing as a selection type way around clear nests then

but truley you hit the nail before

even if a cock is fertile its the bird managment and husbandry that truley deturmains how many clear nests you get

watching you birds dayly to see if mateing had begain

and is it successful

you only need to see each pair get it on one to know if you have their cage set corect for that certain pair

 

and i belive if you pluck or trim it does aid alot in the whole picture

 

you probbly will get better rezults as your eliminating infertile cocks from your breeding rounds

but i wouldnt be eliminating these birds from the flock intill over a year or two of tests as as i said cocks can have infertile periods in their life for up to 5 months or so some times longer then sometimes shorter

Edited April 2, 201015 yr by KAZ

Yes you make a good point GB! We definately want to factor in the fact that cocks also cycle through fertility and we certainly wont be flinging any out the door based on poor performance! In actual fact in a program like this, cocks who consistantly fail to produce viable sperm would become valuable as feeder cocks that you know wont father any chicks. In a controlled breeding program where you want to put one cock to two or three hens (I wouldnt do more than two), then you can rely on the 'dud' cock to get the hen in the mood and raise the chicks that will be fathered by another cock bird either AI'd to the hen, or given time to mount her as required (I know some breeders rotate a cock through breeding cages for half of each day if wanting to put him to 2 hens for example).

 

At this point our efforts are not to discriminate against cocks, but to build up our knowledge of fertility cycles, sperm quality/quantity and then use that in conjunction with good pairings and GOOD HUSBANDRY. I firmly believe no amount of technical skill will make up for poor feeding, housing, condition or know-how!

well good luck to you three as sounds like your three heads put together will be successful to what your wanting to achive they say two heads are better than one

Edited April 2, 201015 yr by KAZ