Deformed and malpositioned chicks

Crandox

In the Brooder
Jun 10, 2022
39
24
34
I’m incubating quail eggs right now and having a horrific hatch rate, most of the chicks are pipping and never unzipping, or unzipping and never hatching, or hatching and then dying because they’re feet are all curled up and deformed for some reason. Of the chicks that have hatched HALF had deformities and died, curled up feet, can’t live their heads up etc.What THE HELL is going on??😭 what could be causing so many chicks to be malpositioned in eggs and unable to hatch or hatched with deformities???Almost of the eggs were fully developed and looked great when I candled them right as I moved them from the incubator to the Hatcher, then as soon as they get in the Hatcher everything goes haywire. I think it’s a humidity issue, I just want to know, is this devastation being caused by too low of humidity or too high??? Because I keep hearing it’s too low then hearing it’s too high so I raise the humidity and more die, then I reduce it and even more die.
 
Deformed chicks come from long stints of high humidity during incubation, or bad genetics. What incubator and hatcher are you using? Are they calibrated. I think I've asked you that before so I'd lean towards genetics.
 
Deformed chicks come from long stints of high humidity during incubation, or bad genetics. What incubator and hatcher are you using? Are they calibrated. I think I've asked you that before so I'd lean towards genetics.
Personally I’m now leaning towards too low of humidity, many of the eggs appear to have gotten shrink wrapped, although I’m not exactly sure how to identify if that’s what has happened. There is a hole in the membrane where the chicks are emerging but no unzipping, and the membrane is very brown around the hole, the rest of the membrane appears dry. The Hatcher is calibrated to the best of my ability, and the rate of deformity is so incredibly high I don’t think it could be caused by genetics, the rate is just too high for that. My best guess is that the chicks got shrink wrapped because of me opening the incubator and then somehow the shrink wrapping bent their limbs. Here’s a picture.
 

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Deformed chicks come from long stints of high humidity during incubation, or bad genetics. What incubator and hatcher are you using? Are they calibrated. I think I've asked you that before so I'd lean towards genetics.
I pulled the dead chick out of the egg and there was absolutely no fluid and the membrane was papery, is this for sure a sign of shrink wrapping due to low humidity specifically in lockdown?
 

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