Baby Chick hatched, no flat surface in bator !!

[tparsons99]

I have a Brisnea with 24 large BCM eggs in it. In fact one of the eggs is stacked. Just had our first chick hatch but there's litterally no flat surface in the bator!! The chick is crawling around on top of the other eggs.

Could this effect the chicks leg development ?? I am afraid of Spraddle Leg issues...

Need advice !!
Thx

 

[wolfandfinch]

I have a flat surface but chick seems to prefer running all over the eggs anyways. Doesn't seem like you'd get a lot of flat surfaces in nature under the hen

 

[LTygress]

Don't worry about it too much. A lot of spraddle leg issues, curled toes, etc., are actually caused by a vitamin deficiency in the hen's diet when she makes the egg inside of her body. I've had chicks hatch with perfectly straight feet, who spent an entire day climbing on other eggs, and never developed problems. But then I also recently went through a round of chicks who ALL seemed to have foot and toe issues, and they all hatched on the flat grate with plenty of room to move around. However, once I started to notice the foot issues, I got some Vitamin B and added it to their parents' feed, and I haven't had any with foot issues from eggs gathered since then.

 

[Avlana]

Uneven surfaces are better for chicks. Flat, slippery surfaces the first few days after hatching can cause spraddle legs from the legs slipping outwards when they try to bear weight. Your chicks will be fine crawling around in there. They would do it anyways and crawl all over the other unhatched eggs, even if you had a flat surface in there provided. So no worries!