Whats wrong??

[kelloggs]

After a long wait I got myself a trio of faverolles and looked forward to having lots of little ones
Its not to be though, after several attemps things are not going smoothly. I have had several batches of brahma and faverolle eggs under my broodys and only had one little faverolle chick all the rest are perfectly formed but seem to die in their shells. No problem with brahma chicks under the same mums, fantastic hatch rate but not my faverolles................ I'm starting to think that I was never meant to have faverolles with all the heartache they have given me and now I feel as if I'm killing everyone I try to hatch I have more broodys now but my heart says its wrong to even try.

Has anyone got any idea why they are not hatching ...................

 

[Anne W]

That's so disappointing and frustrating for you - and distressing when you find them DIS I have no experience with broodies but wonder if it's worth tying a few in the incy. I guess if there is still no joy there maybe a problem with the birds. Hopefully someone will come along and give you some more advice .

 

[kelloggs]

Thanks Anne, I think I'll just be thankful for the one little one that did hatch and concentrate on my brahmas.
If it was just a couple maybe I might get tempted to try again but so many just doesn't feel right........

 

[pebojuno]

Could the trio be closely related? Sometimes that can cause problems with DIS chicks- and sadly some sellers will bend the truth about a group being unrelated.
Also, just a thought but are the faverolle eggs bigger than your brahma eggs? They might not have been quite at the same stage of development (a day or so behind) as the brahmas. Mum got chicks and so was happy and left the faverolles?
If it were me I'd try putting some of the faverolle eggs in an inci or under a broody without the brahma eggs and see what happens. Or find a willing volunteer to try hatching some for you!
Don't give up though- it is possible that you were just incredibly unlucky :?

 

[pebojuno]

Oh and I had a look at your website- lovely brahmas
My mum has two; one gold and one blue partridge - they are such beautiful, gentle birds.
Nicky

 

[Tim]

Sounds like they are too closely bred. Hatchability suffers with in breeding and it is common for them to develop but not hatch.

The answer is to outcross but breeders are reluctant to do this because you can ruin a line by introducing new genes.

Some breeders will literally set hundreds of eggs in a season and hatch only a quarter of them but deem this to be acceptable if they are getting good looking birds. When selling trios they are almost always related - which is fine, you can usually breed from them for 3 or 4 generations before you get in-breeding problems.

It would be a good idea to try some more on their own under a broody or in an incy if you can and if you have no luck, you would need to think about outcrossing to unrelated blood.

 

[kelloggs]

Thanks for your advice

I don't think there much chance of them being related but you never know :roll: The cockerel is from hatching eggs bought from Wales, the hens I got from Essex :| so hopefully that isn't the problem.

The faverolle eggs are smaller than the brahma eggs as my blues lay large eggs but the broody won't leave the eggs anyway and after three days I'm removing them candling them them opening them to see what going on.

A friend has offered to try and hatch some in her incubator for me so might take her up on her offer as they are very beautiful placid birds although very chatty

 

[kelloggs]

Oh and I had a look at your website- lovely brahmas
My mum has two; one gold and one blue partridge - they are such beautiful, gentle birds.
Nicky

Thanks Nicky, I find brahmas so friendly and loving I've just got to keep my addiction to them under control :roll:

 

[Tim]

If they are unrelated then chances are it's down to incubation. Even broody hens aren't perfect sometimes - it has been a dry month until recently and there has been hot and cold weather - I think your plan to incubate a few should reveal more - if you can set a few other known good eggs with them, this will help determine that the incubation has been done correctly.

Let us know how you get on...