Bay Area BYCers!

[jeremy]

My B/W rooster Claude has a crooked toe but his girls lay the prettiest blue egg. I have been told that can happen in the incubator & isn't necessarily genetic????
I am getting my first eggs from my B/B/S Ams from assorted breeders across the country & so far I have a blue one darker than Sophie's (B/W Ameraucana) , a bluish green one & a darker green/gray one.......

Claude's crooked toe is a result of my inexperience with incubating. He hatched from one of the first sets of eggs that I ever incubated. My humidity was way, way too high during that hatch and as a result a lot of the chicks hatched late and were sticky. I think he was one of the chicks that was in his shell too long, resulting in some crooked toes.

I don't think it has to do anything with his genetic background, he's pure Jean Ribbeck stock and her line is pretty diverse.

 

[jeremy]

Denny is coming tomorrow but we aren't leaving for the show until Saturday morning. We have 6000 lbs of custom mixed feed to pick up from the Seed Factory. Denny is bringing her big truck. I may have to make a couple of trips with my SIL pickup but the mill is really close to me. We are going to the banquet Saturday night & then staying over & coming back on Sunday.
I just had a man call me from the 916 area code area asking about the show. I have a Craiglist ad selling A & M Quail & I wrote that I will be gone all day Saturday to the Stockton Poultry Show & he called just to find out about the show...................No quail, just where is the show??? LOL I am happy to promote the hobby..!!!!!

$6,000 pounds Karen?!?! Holy cow!

 

[wolftracks]

Jeremy, you funny little city boy. LOL

 

[jeremy]

Jeremy, you funny little city boy. LOL

Yeah... I realized after I responded to everyone that it was like 30 post in a row...

Oh well.

 

[wolftracks]

Yeah... I realized after I responded to everyone that it was like 30 post in a row...

Oh well.

Just teasin ya Jeremy

 

[PetRock]

Do you want to order some eggs together Debi? I'll hatch 'em and then we can split 'em like we did with the OEs from Wynette?

Yes, I am enabling.

That is a very tempting thought, Jeremy the Enabler! We can talk about it on Saturday!

 

[jeremy]

That is a very tempting thought, Jeremy the Enabler! We can talk about it on Saturday!

Definitely. I'm pretty sure we can get free eggs too.

The reasons to get eggs just keep piling up.

 

[fowlman01]

No Cheryl, that's not a crooked toe.

This is though.



There's a conversation right now over on the Swedish Flower Hen thread discussing why so many people are hatching chicks with curled toes. A lot of folks are saying that it has to be a genetic issue, that the SFH are too inbred and this is one of the signs pointing to that. Others are saying that it's just an incubation issue and another theory brought up was that these birds may need different nutritional requirements than what American commercial poultry feeds provide.

The chick above will probably be culled. I think it's a cockerel, it isn't having any difficulty keeping up with it's other hatch mates but I feel like it's toes may slow it down in the future. I really don't want to cull it but I don't want to see it suffer over time due to it's deformity.

In my experience Jeremy......while crooked toes can occur from incubating problems, it doesn't seem to happen that way often. It usually is genetic. Lots of people like to think it is the incubator, especially when they are selling birds with crooked toes.. If the toe formation changes as the bird grows it is a nutritional thing.

Walt

 

[jeremy]

Walt, all of my chicks hatched out with seemingly normal toes, I think maybe only 1 had a slightly crooked toe. It's only been as they've developed that some have become severely crooked like the one pictured above. The same thing has happened to other folks who have hatched these birds, some appear to have perfectly normal straight toes only to become crooked over the following weeks of growth.

What nutritionally could they be missing from their diet that would cause this? Could it be because they are an imported breed that hasn't been raised on the same diet as the birds here in the US? If that were the case though couldn't I expect the same thing to happen in my Orpingtons? It hasn't at all, they hatch out huge and perfectly normal.

I'd love to hear your thoughts.

 

[wolftracks]

Jeremy I had that problem with a couple of rare breed chicks once. I added ACV to their water and they were fine after about 2 weeks. These days my chicks get gamebird crumbles too. They are 30%, so lets me have room to introduce new foods and snacks. I only had the toe problem the one time and I do this stuff all the time and haven't had a problem since.