chick dead, pre-incubated egg possibly?

[Ryan McEachern]

We had one chick hatch yesterday, on day 15 of incubation. Initially it looked totally normal, but after it fluffed up and we moved it to the brooder and had a closer inspection it seemed to have major leg issues, feet kept getting on top of its wings when it was trying to get up, so if you can imagine how a dog looks when it is sctratching his ears, like that but both sides.
I gave poli-visol, and helped it drink a bit of water, but it died today, around 16 hours old.

Here is what I think must have happened, some experts could correct or confirm?

1) The egg must have been hidden and pre-incubated for 6 days before being collected for hatching

2) After collection, the low temperature and unknown humidity levels must have damaged the embryo developement resulting in what looked like a totally normal chick, but with internal defects, resulting in the strange posture and also the death.


Any comments?

 

[Gypsy07]

I'm no expert, but what you suggest sounds perfectly feasible. For a chick to hatch at 15 days I think there must have been some kind of heating going on prior to it being incubated. For that embryo to be cooled right down and then reheated, well, there's almost no way you're going to get a normal healthy chick from conditions like that. Hopefully the rest of your hatch will be drama free!

 

[Ryan McEachern]

Thanks Gypsy! Looking forward to this hatching. 12 Cinnamon Queens, 6 blue eggs from EE, and about a dozen barnyard mix!! Should be fun trying to ID them all after the hatch.
.
Had a silkie cross go broody last time we had eggs in the incubator, so we stuffed them under hen and let her finish the setting and hatching, now she is doing an excellent job as a mother hen. We were hoping another hen will go broody with eggs in the incubator this time again because I love watching them take care of the chicks, but I guess we'll have to go back to the parenting for this batch.