Hi,
I was wondering if anyone can help with this please?
I've been busy hatching out new chicks, and everything has gone really well until the last few days. As well as using 15 of our own fertile eggs (cross bred with barnevelder rooster), we bought 6 barnevelder eggs from one breeder, and a mix of purebred fertile eggs (2 light sussex, 5 rhode island red and 5 barnevelder) from another breeder.
All went in the same incubator at the same time, a couple of days apart.
Our eggs we got a 75% hatch from. No deformities or problems. All good, robust chicks.
First breeder we got 5 of six hatch. All healthy and robust (and very cute)
But the last breeder's eggs we've had lots of problem with. Had 3 rhodies hatch healthy out of 5, and one with leg deformity (curled under), and is hobbling, rather than walking. No light sussex hatched of the two.
Of the five barnevelder, one was candled and infertile, and two are still to hatch (theoretically). The two that *have* hatched also had leg deformities, and both just died last night, at 3 days old. One had to be helped out of its shell when hatching.
I'm wondering - is this just a dodgy breeder, or have we done something wrong? These *were* the last in the group to hatch by about 3-4 days, and the water in the bottom of the incubator was getting pretty skanky and horrible, so maybe it wasn't humid enough and couldn't evaporate? Or can leg problems be cause by postage?
This was our first attempt at hatching, so overall we're thrilled with the results so far, but to see two die now, we're wondering about our other "hopalongs", and wondering if more deaths are waiting for us
And if it is something we've done wrong, obviously we'd like to know so we can avoid the same mistake in the future.
Thanks in advance for any ideas,
Leanne in New Zealand.
I was wondering if anyone can help with this please?
I've been busy hatching out new chicks, and everything has gone really well until the last few days. As well as using 15 of our own fertile eggs (cross bred with barnevelder rooster), we bought 6 barnevelder eggs from one breeder, and a mix of purebred fertile eggs (2 light sussex, 5 rhode island red and 5 barnevelder) from another breeder.
All went in the same incubator at the same time, a couple of days apart.
Our eggs we got a 75% hatch from. No deformities or problems. All good, robust chicks.
First breeder we got 5 of six hatch. All healthy and robust (and very cute)
But the last breeder's eggs we've had lots of problem with. Had 3 rhodies hatch healthy out of 5, and one with leg deformity (curled under), and is hobbling, rather than walking. No light sussex hatched of the two.
Of the five barnevelder, one was candled and infertile, and two are still to hatch (theoretically). The two that *have* hatched also had leg deformities, and both just died last night, at 3 days old. One had to be helped out of its shell when hatching.
I'm wondering - is this just a dodgy breeder, or have we done something wrong? These *were* the last in the group to hatch by about 3-4 days, and the water in the bottom of the incubator was getting pretty skanky and horrible, so maybe it wasn't humid enough and couldn't evaporate? Or can leg problems be cause by postage?
This was our first attempt at hatching, so overall we're thrilled with the results so far, but to see two die now, we're wondering about our other "hopalongs", and wondering if more deaths are waiting for us
And if it is something we've done wrong, obviously we'd like to know so we can avoid the same mistake in the future.Thanks in advance for any ideas,
Leanne in New Zealand.
