April 2020 Hatch-A-Long! All are welcome!

[CluckNDoodle]

Oh my gosh I’m sorry you’re dealing with that. That’s sort of traumatizing.

You would think with as many hatches and assists as I've done now I would be ready for anything...still learn something new in every hatch. I don't like this lesson.

 

[CluckNDoodle]

2 of my assists still have receding veining, but one was clear so I opened the membrane because the chick started turning away from the top of the egg. I’m hoping it can just push out when it’s ready now. View attachment 2076243

It's looking great!

 

[Akoharski4]

Early Day 22. Still waiting for the rest of these Marans to hatch. It hasn't been the stress free hatch I was hoping for. 6 out of 10 perfect little peeps have hatched so far and 1 more I feel really comfortable with since it's pipped and just taking it's time. The other remaining 3 are all malpositions, I've only had one other malposition in all of my hatches this year so 3 at once for locally sourced eggs I'm really not happy about and I'm trying to figure out what could have possibly caused it. The biggest thing I did differently was I moved them to the IncuView for lockdown but I really don't think that's it.
I also did not candle these eggs very much because life got pretty hectic here recently. I think I may have allowed them to lose too much weight and they didn't have enough room to turn properly and get into position even though they're blatantly not strink wrapped. I may never know on this one since like I already admitted, I wasn't watching closely...and here I thought they would do great if I didn't fiddle with them so often and it turned out the exact opposite!

Moral of this story, I support "candling too often" lol. Just do like the CDC says and wash your hands before candling and they'll be just fine.

It’s something in this air this month, I swear!

 

[CluckNDoodle]

On a more positive note baby #7 is hatched and she's a perfectly healthy little Splash Marans. I took her out of the incubator to keep her in my lap with a heating pad to dry. I don't want her near the possibly contaminated incubator since I don't know what caused the issues with the other chicks. Though I'm still leaning towards genetic since they all clearly had chipmunk stripes which is not a BBS Marans trait.

 

[UThobbyfarmer]

2 of my assists still have receding veining, but one was clear so I opened the membrane because the chick started turning away from the top of the egg. I’m hoping it can just push out when it’s ready now. View attachment 2076243

That's incredible! I'm rooting for this little guy!

 

[smfarman]

Did you pull the quitters and sloshy one? If not watch that sloshy one like a hawk. I'm not sure if you're describing a detached aircell or bad egg. Anything loose or liquidy in an incubated egg is bad news.

I'm not sure what a detached air looks like

 

[UThobbyfarmer]

I'm not sure what a detached air looks like

I'll see if I can find a video or blog post on fully detached cells. I'm not very good at describing things like that.

 

[2102Simm]

Ok...but don't say I didn't warn you. Mushy chick disease is also known as omphalitis, it's a yolk sac infection that can occur with different levels of severity but this chick is also severely deformed

Thank you for sharing,. I'm sorry you had to see that but that explains kinda what I saw with at least 2 of my eggtopsies. I took pictures but my hubby vetoed me from posting them because he said no one wanted to see that. So the stuff around the tummy isn't normal? I originally just thought it was yoke

 

[smfarman]

I know! Aren't those eggs gorgeous? Maybe breeding for that trait has forced breeders to ignore other factors, maybe negative health-wise, that just come packaged with the non-functional production of large amounts of egg color? I got three females and a male from Cackle Hatchery. Nice birds, but I lost one in the brooder, one I found dead in the coop as a new layer, and the beautiful little roo was henpecked to death recently. dam little raptors. I have one left and she always pecks me if I touch her though she seems to want to be close to me.

I'll see if I can find a video or blog post on fully detached cells. I'm not very good at describing things like that.

I'll try to describe what I'm seeing in this egg, it's like a bottle of water when there's an air space at the top and if you bump it the water slooshes around

 

[CluckNDoodle]

Thank you for sharing,. I'm sorry you had to see that but that explains kinda what I saw with at least 2 of my eggtopsies. I took pictures but my hubby vetoed me from posting them because he said no one wanted to see that. So the stuff around the tummy isn't normal? I originally just thought it was yoke

A slightly swollen tummy is normal right after hatch because that's where the yolk sac is absorbed but it should not be that swollen, discolored and veiny like in the image. Here is a good article on the subject to explain it a bit better.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/mushy-chick-disease-yolk-sack-infection-omphalitis.64686/
I always do eggtopsies as well by the way. It's how I have fine tuned my hatches. In some cases there isn't anything you could have done unless you also care for the breeding flock.