baby chicks not hatching right

[farmerbill]

HELP, i hatched out some chicks at Christmas and they are doing fine. my problem is my friend wanted me to hatch him some eggs.so i put ten eggs on to hatch for him. nine of them hatched out and everyone of them was born with their guts hanging out. nine of the ten eggs hatched and everyone of them died. i started again and this time i put fifteen eggs on to hatch, this time seven hatched out and three of them died. one was born with her guts hanging out. now the other four can not stand up. there legs are spread out and they cant walk. i did everything the same as i did at Christmas and i don't know what i am doing wrong. any help or suggestions would be helpful thanks

 

[sumi]

Welcome to BYC! Sorry to hear you had such an awful experience. I had a look for a possible cause for this and found:

"Insufficient Rotation of the Eggs. Eggs should be rotated 5 times a day. The result of incomplete or insufficient egg rotation is that chick organs stick to the sides of the shells. Chicks are born with their intestines outside their bodies."

- See more at: http://www.avianweb.com/chickdeformiities.html#sthash.lI13JOZU.dpuf

I'll see if I can find more info for you. In the meantime can you give us a bit more info? What was the incubator temperature, humidity etc? How often did you turn them etc?

Here's some more:

Intestines outside of abdomen High temperature during mid-incubation
Hatching eggs exposed to near freezing temperatures​

 

[farmerbill]

thanks, i turned the eggs every morning and every night just like i did when my other chicks were born and they did fine. i have a home made incubator and the temp is about 103. i keep three quarts of water in it to keep the humidity right. thanks again for any help you can give me.

 

[sumi]

Ideally you should turn them a bit more, especially during the first week. Are you using a still air incubator? (Without a fan) 103*F is a fraction too high, I'd recommend 101*-102*F measured on top of the eggs. And you don't know what the humidity was?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Exposed organs is usually from too high incubator temperature or heredity/lethal genes.

Make sure you have 2 guaranteed accurate thermometers. If you still have the same issue, it's with the breeder.

Malformations can be from contamination in the incubator.

 

[farmerbill]

yes it is a still air incubator and no i don't know what the humidity was. see if you can find out any way to help these chicks that their legs are spread out and cant walk please

 

[sumi]

Take a band-aid and make a brace for the legs, holding them in the position they should be. You may need to put them in some kind of support, to keep them upright and help them eat and drink. There are some pics here:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/737847/splayed-leg-advice/0_30

 

[farmerbill]

thanks i'll try that now