April 2023 Hatch-A-Long

[Waterfaery]

I lost 6 Australorp chicks (DIS). All 6 were malpositioned (head over the wing or under the left wing), most od them looked ready to hatch (almost no yolk left). They
didnt even pipped internally. The rest (19) are doing fine, there is just 1 egg left (internally pipped, chirping). All 4 Bresse have hatched without any problems.
Is it possible that using the turner had something to do with malpositioning? It was the first time I used it.

Sorry about your Australorps.

Last year I had a huge amount of experience with malpositions and I did a lot of research. Mine were all malposition 2, which is head in the wrong end of the egg. There are many causes of this and I went through them and narrowed it down to turning issues, which is one of the most common causes.

I never had any with head under left wing (malposition 3) or head over wing (malposition 6) but it's worth looking into it more to find out why it happened so you can prevent it again. 6 sounds like a lot but how many Australorps did you set in total?

Were they your own eggs? If not, it will be harder to rule out some of the causes that can originate in the breeder flock.

I would go through all possible causes and use process of elimination to see what seems most likely. Here are some articles about it.


Diagnosing causes of malpositions and deformities in chick embryos

Hatchability Problem Analysis

Chicken Embryo Malpositions and Deformities

Investigating Hatchery Practice - Examining the Hatch Debris

Causes of the Embryonic Malposition Head-Under-Left-Wing - this one is a pdf but it is specific to your case so might be worth looking at

Prevent malposition by focussing on turning angle and frequency - maybe interesting to read but I wonder if it's not the problem in this case. It does seem to indicate something other than turning issues since all of the Bresse hatched fine and all of the malpositions were in the Australorps.

 

[dominiquePL]

Sorry about your Australorps.

Last year I had a huge amount of experience with malpositions and I did a lot of research. Mine were all malposition 2, which is head in the wrong end of the egg. There are many causes of this and I went through them and narrowed it down to turning issues, which is one of the most common causes.

I never had any with head under left wing (malposition 3) or head over wing (malposition 6) but it's worth looking into it more to find out why it happened so you can prevent it again. 6 sounds like a lot but how many Australorps did you set in total?

Were they your own eggs? If not, it will be harder to rule out some of the causes that can originate in the breeder flock.

I would go through all possible causes and use process of elimination to see what seems most likely. Here are some articles about it.


Diagnosing causes of malpositions and deformities in chick embryos

Hatchability Problem Analysis

Chicken Embryo Malpositions and Deformities

Investigating Hatchery Practice - Examining the Hatch Debris

Causes of the Embryonic Malposition Head-Under-Left-Wing - this one is a pdf but it is specific to your case so might be worth looking at

Prevent malposition by focussing on turning angle and frequency - maybe interesting to read but I wonder if it's not the problem in this case. It does seem to indicate something other than turning issues since all of the Bresse hatched fine and all of the malpositions were in the Australorps.

Thank you soooo much! I had a plan to start digging into the topic tonight and now it'll be much easier.
I had 26 Australorp eggs that made it till lockdown. And i took the turner out on day 18. The eggs werent mine but the guy i got the eggs from is an aware breeder.
Anyway, still happy about the hatch

 

[dominiquePL]

Australorps and Bresse

 

[Iluveggers]

I lost 6 Australorp chicks (DIS). All 6 were malpositioned (head over the wing or under the left wing), most od them looked ready to hatch (almost no yolk left). They
didnt even pipped internally.

Last year I had a huge amount of experience with malpositions and I did a lot of research.

Do you guys perform eggtopsies with your eggs that don’t hatch? Just wondering how you find out how they are malpositioned.

 

[Iluveggers]

First chick is out! 11 others are pipped. Day 21 is tomorrow.

 

[dominiquePL]

Do you guys perform eggtopsies with your eggs that don’t hatch? Just wondering how you find out how they are malpositioned.

Yes. Hate that but it's extremely useful

 

[Waterfaery]

Do you guys perform eggtopsies with your eggs that don’t hatch? Just wondering how you find out how they are malpositioned.

Mine all hatched. They just all pipped at the wrong end. I assume @dominiquePL autopsied? She said hers never even managed to pip.

From what I've read, certain types of malposition are more likely to be lethal because the chick is in a position where they can't actually pip. Other types, like the ones I dealt with (head in the wrong end of the egg), can be lethal but more often just make the hatch more risky because the chicks have to do an internal and external pip at the same time, which is hard on the chick and then the membrane is exposed to the air for longer. There's also a risk of the chick hitting a blood vessel, which happened to several of mine but luckily they were ok.

 

[Waterfaery]

Yes. Hate that but it's extremely useful

I assume @dominiquePL autopsied? She said hers never even managed to pip.

There you go, posted at the same time!

 

[Dinoroar]

I managed to free up a chicken tractor to use as a larger integration run for my chicks. The March group have been enjoying it. When I can supervise them, I've been wedging the tractor door open a crack so that they can get in and out of the main area with the adults but the adults can't get in to them. It's been working really well and the adults have been really welcoming. It's so cute!

So a couple of days ago I moved my April chicks out to try to integrate them with the March chicks. I moved the whole indoor brooder outdoors so it's within the tractor. The big chicks have the whole run of the tractor but the little ones are contained within their own space. I left them like that for a couple of days and it seemed really sweet. Each group was a bit curious but didn't seem overly concerned about each other.

View attachment 3485730

Here's a closer shot of some of the April chicks.

View attachment 3485733

Then today I tried letting the little ones out and it didn't go very well! I followed the same idea - I opened the little chicks' door enough so that they could get in and out but the big chicks couldn't get in to them. Only a few little ones came out but the ones that did never really paid any attention to how to get back in. Most of the big chicks were fine with them but a few (I think mostly cockerels) were very mean to the little ones. They were pecking quite harshly and the little ones were running around frantically and screaming. They didn't have a clue how to find their way back. I ended up picking them up and putting them back in.

I wonder if they're too little still or if the age difference is too big. The March chicks are 4 and a half weeks old now and the April ones are 10 days. Or I wonder if maybe it was a mistake to let the big chicks mix with the adults before introducing them to the little chicks. Maybe they just need more time to get used to each other and then try again. At least they're all located together now, which makes things easier.

That picture of the big chick gazing in at the little one is so adorable. I think you maybe just need a few more days for the 10 day olds to feather out a bit and keep up with the bigger ones.

 

[Dinoroar]

Here is my hatch so far
Set 17 duck eggs the first round the end of March 16 went into lockdown and 15 cute little ducklings came out

Also had 2 barred rock chicks hatched out too from the same hatch
Now I'm waiting on my goose eggs to hatch. 2 went into lockdown and only one internally pipped I think I can hear the chirp and no movement in the other one sadly

Congrats on your ducklings! You had a great hatch! Fingers crossed for your geese.