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[Dragonborn]

On several recent forts, some in 43.05 and some in 44.06, I have had cases where my turkeys that I brought on embark only successfully hatched eggs once.  The male and female turkeys were locked in a small room together.  The room was only about a few squares large, so they should have had no issues with fertilizing.  The second set of eggs that they laid would stay stuck at 'Not fertilized' for years.  If I unlocked the door, dwarves would harvest the eggs.  When I put a new hen in the closet, it successfully hatched eggs. 

I don't recall having this problem before.  I figured I was hitting some animal population cap or some kind of bug.  I doubt it's a population cap though.  One clutch of turkey eggs is only about 12 eggs.

[PatrikLundell]

It's common for the batch of eggs following a hatching one to be infertile because the female is so eager to lay the eggs that she can't wait for a male to fertilize her first. It seems fertilization requires the availability of a free nest box, but if you let unfertilized eggs sit in it for years, when you do collect them the female has an irresistible urge to lay eggs IMMEDIATELY!!! If, on the other hand, the incredibly sexy sight of a free nest box is present a suitable time before egg laying is due, there's a decent chance that the batch that's eventually laid actually will be fertilized.

Some egg laying waterborne creatures fertilize eggs after they're laid, but that's not the case for most/any land based egg layers.

[Dragonborn]

I think that's exactly what happened.  The hen laid eggs immediately after the other ones hatched. 

Maybe I'll update the wiki to note this issue.  In my case, the eggs stayed in the nest box for years, so if you get unlucky with fertilization, the only way to clear the nest box and have the hen lay more eggs is to have a dwarf collect the eggs.  That means toggling the door to be unlocked/locked when it happens.  That isn't very convenient, so forbidding eggs you want to hatch instead of using locked doors to prevent egg collection sounds like a more feasible strategy.

[Sanctume]

WHen I embark with egg layers, I stick to 2 male : 3 females. 

I stick to a 3x3 room, set as pasture, with lockable door, build 1 cage in the center, and 8 nest boxes around.
I cage the males and the poults.

I use 1 food preparation stockpile for when I toggle (specific) eggs for cooking and collecting.

[AtTheFinComrade]

Did you make sure that your dorfs didnt cook your eggs or take them to a stockpile before they could be fertilized?

[PatrikLundell]

Did you make sure that your dorfs didnt cook your eggs or take them to a stockpile before they could be fertilized?

Dorf do not return collected and cooked eggs to nest boxes... Also, eggs are fertilized (or not) BEFORE being laid, while collection takes place only after they've been laid.

When it comes to locked doors/forbidding of eggs you really should use both methods; forbid the door before the eggs are laid, and forbid the ones you want to keep and unlock the door once you need to collect some. You can use stockpile settings instead of the door, but you'd still need to forbid the eggs you want to keep if you've got more than one female of any species, as there's no stockpile discrimination between fertilized and unfertilized eggs. I guess you could "collect" eggs through dumping into a "take from links only" stockpile, but the dumping target is a singular resource I want to use for other things.

[Haggoroth]

I just have a big pasture with 10 nest boxes in it on the side near where I want to collect.  Then when I want a batch to hatch I just watch the area for a little bit and wait for a fert batch and forbid it.

Works fine, no stress, no hassle.

[Magistrum]

Animals can be gay.

Reflect on this.

I believe the riculous ½ gay rate was adjust from the original gay release, right?
At least in DF Therapist normal dwarves became the majority again.

[wierd]

If he is trying to use a single male to fertilize many females, he compounds the problem.
There is not a 100% chance that his male is straight. Also, not a 100% chance that his hens are straight.
If there is an average of 70% chance of straightness on the male, he needs to get 3 of them to have reasonable odds that at least one of them is straight. He only bought 2.