Chicken Fertility and Wild Birds

Brownie

The last chicken update was November 25th. At that time Brownie was molting and getting picked on a lot. Today all of her feathers have grown back and she has resumed laying eggs. She also seems more confident and is getting picked on less. At the end of November Lil'Sweet was sick and unfortunately, she didn't survive. It's always sad when one of the chickens die.

The biggest news is fertility problems in the flock. In November I gave Mini ten eggs to hatch and only one made it! I even let her lay on the eggs for an extra week. I read sometimes eggs from large breeds take longer to hatch. 

Blondie and her two chicks.

Shortly after that failure Blondie went broody so I gave her six eggs to hatch. Only two hatched! I let her sit on them an extra two days before taking the unhatched eggs away. I cracked them open and saw absolutely nothing happened. They looked like eggs you could eat.

It didn't occur to me that fertility problems would come up this soon. In hind sight I should have checked some of the eggs to see if they were fertilized. After the two failures I changed from eating the eggs soft boiled to other ways so I could check the yolks. So far, it looks like none of the eggs are getting fertilized. 

Junior, Grey Neck and Ruby

I have been taking a crash course on chicken fertility and there are many potential reasons why it changes. I learned if a large number of eggs (from different hens) don't hatch, most likely it is because of the rooster. Junior is almost two years old and I didn't think this would be an issue so soon. Another factor is the chicken feed in Costa Rica has changed this past year and I think it is inferior to the old kind. Yet another factor could be too much inbreeding. I need to reassess things and decide how to proceed. 

Mini and her baby

Meanwhile, Mini is proud of her baby and taking good care of him. It looks like he's a rooster. Perhaps he will be Junior's replacement... Blondie's two chicks are too young for me to determine the gender. This is her first time being a mother and she's doing a good job. The remaining four hens are laying 3-4 eggs a day. 

In other bird news... Spencer and I were greeted at the river by a duck. I'm glad I had the camera with me. It was a friendly duck that looked us over while wagging its tail. After observing each other long enough it swam away in the river. 

Seeing scarlet macaws never ceases to amaze me. A flock of fourteen macaws flew over the house this week. I can hear their distinct call when they are nearby. Even though I have seen them fly over many times, it's still exciting to watch.