Curled Toe Chicks?!

[stacyh]

What was your humidity before you got it up to 65%?

 

[Fat Daddy]

The Bator stink is most likely a egg that has a crack the was not noticed, and now bacteria has set up camp. They will look weepy most of the time. I would not open long enough to clean it proper. It would be a good thing to locate the stinker thou and get it gone. Be careful thou, if its built pressure, they can BLOW when moved and its bad, real bad....

Your curled toes is likely from a combination of low humidity and long time span between pip and hatch. I sponge in a cup of water is your friend. If they pip thru the membrane and just sit a long time, they want to dry out and shrink wrap right there. If they do hatch, its slow and some end up bad feet. I find the last ones to hatch of the batch are more prone to it. Some have had luck with band-aids on the toes, If they dont straighten out on there on I cull. remember this is my opinion, and worth what it cost.... Bill

 

[mhwc56]

Quote:
X 2 Bill's giving you good advice.

 

[Colinus Ruckus]

Thanks for the advice, folks. I'm getting more eggs in a couple of days and trying again. Before I got the humidity up to 65% it was in the high 50s. The first 6 hatched at that humidity and are the healthiest. Weird thing is, the higher I've gotten the humidity, the worse the foot damage is. Maybe it's because the harm was already done while they were in the egg? I have two wet sponges in there and two cloths in the water trays to wick moisture up. I attempted to bandaid some toes last night and gave up, but, GOOD NEWS! they've all straightened out on their own. One of them couldn't even walk but now he's racing around like the others. It doesn't look like the rest of the eggs are going to hatch, though, which gives me a crappy 25%. There's one poor fella in there that's been pipping half-heartedly for six hours. I'm confused. I thought I did everything right. Hello first time blues.

 

[Fat Daddy]

If it were me, I would try buying my eggs from a different source. Don't know where you got them but the problem may not lie with your hatching knowledge or lack there of.... Eggs from really young birds can give these results too. Rough shipping, old eggs, lots of reasons for a bad hatch that you can't control. Lots of folks here sell eggs, pick one and give it another try. Good luck, Bill

 

[PetersonD]

Temperature that's too high and humidity that's too low can definitely cause this problem in my experience... As Laree said, hot and cold spots in the machine (air not being evenly distributed throughout the incubator) can have a role here so you might check that out. There are more defective or malfunctioning incubators sold than you might think... May also be worthwhile to check the accuracy of your thermometer... I've purchased incubators in the past that came with thermometers that were off by enough to make a difference! I think some incubator companies give you the cheapest thing they can and don't always check them before sale. Of course the breeder stock that produced the eggs may be genetically weak in which case you probably should go to another seller as mentioned above... Hope you get better results next time...

 

[Colinus Ruckus]

Thanks Bill! That does make me feel a little better. I read that riboflavin deficiency in the hens can cause this, too. To be honest, I had my doubts about the breeder. He had kept a hen in the Gambel flock that had a crooked foot, and he didn't have a large number of bobwhites, so I'm guessing the eggs sat around awhile before they got to me. I picked him because 1. He was close, and 2. He happened to have butler bobwhites, which is exactly what I wanted. He was a really nice fella, and the eggs were dirt cheap, but I have some nagging doubts about his breeding standards.

 

[Colinus Ruckus]

Peterson,
I have a Brinsea ECO 20, and it seems to be working right. It came highly recommended, and I have no complaints. It has a fan, so I would think that would keep temp even. The only problem has been keeping the humidity high. I bought a little stick-on hygrometer that could possibly not be reading correctly, and I think I will buy another thermometer to check the factory one by.

 

[JJMR794]

Quote:
YOUR BRINSEA IS AS GOOD AS THEY GET. CURLED TOES COMES FROM LOW HUMIDITY DURING LOCKDOWN/ HATCH.... FOR ANY GAMEBIRD HUMIDITY AT LOCKDOWN SHOULD BE 65+%... THE ONLY PROBLEM WITH YOUR BRINSEA HATCHING IS THEY TEND TO DRY OUT THE SLOW HATCHING CHICKS DUE TO THE FAN MOVING AIR CONTINUOUSLY... HIGHER HUMIDITY OR EVEN PLACING A DAMP FEMINE NAPKIN OR DIAPER BETWEEN THE EGGS AND FAN DURING HATCH WILL HELP.

 

[destinydot6]

Quote:
I dont think it was anything you was doing in temp or humid area I heard of the way of the "parents" health was at the time and it just happends!