AUSTRALIAN POULTRY FORUM™

Hi Littlefluffchooks,
I see you are a new member, ,not sure if only new here or new to poultry keeping as well.
Do the breeders have good nutrician, greens and adequate exercise ??
All these have an impact on fertility/hatchability.
Is the male working ??
One important factor with Pekins or any loose feathered soft feather breed is they need "vent trimming or plucking" which allows for successful mating , other wise they get tangled in the fluff and are not successful and low or non existant fertility results.
It is a simple proceedure, you trim/pluck the feathers below the males vent , to expose his working parts.
You also trim /pluck above the vent on the hen, you also trim to each side of the tail in the vent area to allow access for the male in mating.This is easily and quickly done by either plucking the feathers and fluff or trimming with a small pair of sharp scissors.
You will not be able to show them once trimmed so restrict the practice to your breeders only.
Trimmed feathers will not grow back until the next moult, by plucking you can get restoration of the feathers a little quicker.
It is only loose feathers and fluff that need to be removed, not the tail feathers proper.
Your only other alternative is 'artificial insemination " if you wish to show your brood stock, but this is a practice that requires knowhow and experience, even though the act of doing so is simple.
If your problem is fertility, trimming should correct the problem.
If it is hatchability, then the cause I would expect to be lack of nutrician and vitamins etc
If it is because the male is not working keenly, then separate him and only allow him in with the females every other day in late afternoon, this will make him keen to work and when males are keenest to work, in the cool of the evening.
You also need to restict the number of females to each male, the heavy breeds can handle less than the "light" or Mediteranian breeds, maybe 2 or 3 only until you get some success.
Good luck, hope this helps sort the problem..