Chicks toes deformed

[Chellester]

In my latest hatch, I had a couple of chicks with the outside toes on both feet did not form correctly, they are only stumps. They seem to be walking okay, but it's so sad to see them like that.

Is this a breeding defect, temp/humidity in the incubator being off, or both?

 

[KKluckers]

Ive read that a temp to high can cause deformities. That's all I know. I pretty new at the chicken addiction.

 

[speckledhen]

It could be the incubation or it could be genetics, possibly too much inbreeding. I had one breed who was hatched with toes that were crooked, several of them, all in the same breed. I know it was genetic because the incubation went well all the way through and none of the other four breeds had the issue.

 

[Chellester]

Quote:
I wish there was some way to know for sure which it was with these... If I knew for sure it was because of incubation (which is a possibility because the temp was off a bit and they hatched early) I could still use these as breeders, but I just don't want to take the chance if I don't know for sure.

When I decided I wanted to breed chickens, I made a promise to myself that I would strive for quality, healthy birds as opposed to having as many breeders as possible. I know this means culling the ones that are real bad and rehoming the ones that are aren't so bad, which is going to be tough, but that's the breaks.

I also decided I am going to avoid inbreeding as much as possible, so others who buy eggs from me will not have to deal with these kind of deformites as much (I know deformities will still happen, but I want to limit it as much as possible). I know this means I'm going to have to hatch a lot of different eggs from a lot of different breeders, which means dealing with the results of too much inbreeding by said breeders, but again, that's the breaks of doing this.

 

[speckledhen]

Most people don't understand that inbreeding is not going to be an issue till several generations within a closed flock. If you are trying to concentrate a good trait in birds, even breeding brother to sister is acceptable. Most show lines of birds are inbred, as I understand it. After a few years you will want to bring in new blood, naturally.
I am not that well versed in genetics, but I have been privy to many conversations of very learned people on the subject and that is where I learned the little bit I do know. Certainly, there are many on the board who know much more than I about what really constitutes bad inbreeding in chickens and their comments would be appreciated, I'm sure. I am positive that the crooked toes on some of the cockerels of the group I hatched(pullets had good feet) was from some inbreeding beginning to show in the flock they came from.

 

[dlhunicorn]

I have several articles on troubleshooting to help figure out what went wrong...several have charts to match up the problem with possible causes:
http://dlhunicorn.conforums.com/index.cgi?board=identify&action=display&num=1158149341

 

[Chellester]

Quote:
I do understand that inbreeding is necessary to some degree for purebred birds. What I don't understand is: since it supposedly takes a few generations of inbreeding before it can cause a problem, it seems breeders could easily keep it from ever becoming a problem by adding new blood every few generations, yet one sees and hears about the problems of inbreeding all the time. So I am left to wonder: does inbreeding becomes a problem earlier than suspected, or if there's a lot of of irresponsible breeders out there, or both?

DL, thanks for the link to your info list. Very helpful link to have!