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

[CindyinSD]

I agree with your assessment. I don't think changing incubators would have caused malpositions as long as they were incubating on their side in both. If they went from upright incubating to sideways hatching then I'd say maybe.

As for Marans eggs...I hate to say this...but they do seem to be more difficult to hatch. My best hatch ever was 17/21. My Marans consistently had hatch rates 10-15% lower than my other chickens. This could be inbreeding or ??? I never had a chance to figure it out.

After 7 years keeping, 3 years breeding, BBS and Black Copper Marans a predator got my breeding stock last year. They seem to be a significant degree of difficulty above other breeds. Constant uphill battle. I'm taking a break.

Of course I say that. Then see everyone's beautiful dark eggs and immediately get the itch for more.

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.

 

[CluckNDoodle]

Yeah who knows. How do you know yours are malpos? Did you open the tops? 3 of mine are still alive but not ready to come out and the 4th one passed overnight (the one that I had to peel a ton of shell off to find the beak).

So sorry you lost one! Fingers crossed the others finish up and are ready to hatch soon!

My last healthy baby is almost ready to hatch, just a little more to go. Yes, I opened the air cells to see that they were malpositioned. All 3 in the same malposition. One passed away before I did anything else because I was waiting for veins to recede. I opened it up just now and it's terribly deformed and so is malpo # 2 that I started to assist. #2 is alive but I think I will need to cull. I've never seen anything like this before...I took pictures of the chick that passed but it literally turned my stomach, I don't know that anyone wants to see this even in a hidden image to click. I still haven't touched the #3 malpo but I do still see movement. I haven't decided how I will proceed yet.

 

[CindyinSD]

So sorry you lost one! Fingers crossed the others finish up and are ready to hatch soon!

My last healthy baby is almost ready to hatch, just a little more to go. Yes, I opened the air cells to see that they were malpositioned. All 3 in the same malposition. One passed away before I did anything else because I was waiting for veins to recede. I opened it up just now and it's terribly deformed and so is malpo # 2 that I started to assist. #2 is alive but I think I will need to cull. I've never seen anything like this before...I took pictures of the chick that passed but it literally turned my stomach, I don't know that anyone wants to see this even in a hidden image to click. I still haven't touched the #3 malpo but I do still see movement. I haven't decided how I will proceed yet.

Do you still think this from anything you did or didn't do? It really sounds genetic or nutritional to me...

 

[CluckNDoodle]

I agree with your assessment. I don't think changing incubators would have caused malpositions as long as they were incubating on their side in both. If they went from upright incubating to sideways hatching then I'd say maybe.

As for Marans eggs...I hate to say this...but they do seem to be more difficult to hatch. My best hatch ever was 17/21. My Marans consistently had hatch rates 10-15% lower than my other chickens. This could be inbreeding or ??? I never had a chance to figure it out.

After 7 years keeping, 3 years breeding, BBS and Black Copper Marans a predator got my breeding stock last year. They seem to be a significant degree of difficulty above other breeds. Constant uphill battle. I'm taking a break.

Of course I say that. Then see everyone's beautiful dark eggs and immediately get the itch for more.

Well the crazy part is that last year I hatched eggs from the same flock and I had 100% fertility and 100% hatch rate. This year I had a lot of infertile eggs in the first hatch from this flock and 1 chick that was clearly from an intruding rooster and not the Marans roo but all were healthy...this hatch though...this is worse than a bunch of infertile eggs and sneaky rooster. 7 healthy chicks and 3 that again don't look like Marans colors but are hatching out of Marans eggs and this time they are not right. Possibly severe mushy chick disease along with facial and beak deformities. Something went very wrong in these 3. I need to talk to my friend about it and I feel bad even telling her because I don't want her to see it.

 

[CluckNDoodle]

Do you still think this from anything you did or didn't do? It really sounds genetic or nutritional to me...

This is genetic, infection, or both. Not me. Which I was fully prepared to accept. I've done a lot of assists and this is the first time I've assisted with chicks that very clearly were not intended to hatch. Abdomen looks like terrible omphalitis, aka mushy chick disease but there is also an under bite and misshapen skull. They're both identical and not colored like Marans. I so don't want to tell my friend because she's going to feel guilty and there's no way she could have known. Something went haywire and I think it's from whoever this miscreant rooster that keeps sneaking to her Marans hens.

 

[2102Simm]

I've never seen anything like this before...I took pictures of the chick that passed but it literally turned my stomach, I don't know that anyone wants to see this even in a hidden image to click.

You've piqued my curiosity. I did an eggtopsy on my eggs from last hatch to find out what went wrong. My mother in law literally ran away from me because she couldn't handle seeing the babies like that. I wanted to know what went wrong and how to fix it for this hatch. What's mushy chick disease? I've never heard of that.

 

[Tbjenkins2007]

I was at work and hubby woke up on day 19 to another baby. I’ll have to check dates Better next time. But they are doing good

 

[BluebirdHomestead]

So sorry you lost one! Fingers crossed the others finish up and are ready to hatch soon!

My last healthy baby is almost ready to hatch, just a little more to go. Yes, I opened the air cells to see that they were malpositioned. All 3 in the same malposition. One passed away before I did anything else because I was waiting for veins to recede. I opened it up just now and it's terribly deformed and so is malpo # 2 that I started to assist. #2 is alive but I think I will need to cull. I've never seen anything like this before...I took pictures of the chick that passed but it literally turned my stomach, I don't know that anyone wants to see this even in a hidden image to click. I still haven't touched the #3 malpo but I do still see movement. I haven't decided how I will proceed yet.

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

 

[BluebirdHomestead]

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.

 

[CluckNDoodle]

You've piqued my curiosity. I did an eggtopsy on my eggs from last hatch to find out what went wrong. My mother in law literally ran away from me because she couldn't handle seeing the babies like that. I wanted to know what went wrong and how to fix it for this hatch. What's mushy chick disease? I've never heard of that.

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... I generally love to share educational experiences in hatch-a-longs even when they're sad but I have to admit...this one was really hard for me so I am forewarning anyone that decides to click on this spoiler link. Please please please scroll on by it you don't want to see the deformed chick.

Spoiler: Deformed Mushy Chick