Deformed at hatch CAUTION graphic images.

[Granny Hatchet]

i am sorry, i did not know. i have seen people say i bought eggs from so and so but i guess this is a different situation . my bad

 

[casportpony]

i am sorry, i did not know. i have seen people say i bought eggs from so and so but i guess this is a different situation . my bad

It's probably okay to mention someone in a positive way, but I remember reading a thread where someone was unhappy about their hatchery chicks and I think that thread got deleted.

-Kathy

 

[Haunted55]

The head deformaties bring to mind anecephaly in humans which is caused by a lack of B vitamins, most importantly the Folic acid. Seeing this, I would bet that the parent stock are not getting proper feed, either through a companies neglect or the breeder not providing the right feed. No clue which. I can say this...this wasn't caused by your incubator. If it were me, I would never use them again and PM anyone you hear of who is thinking of using them as a supplier.

 

[hoofpawclawacre]

Haunted55, Thank you for your response. Even though I hatched my own healthy chicks in the incubator with these malformed chicks I still feel terribly guilty. I still question myself what did I do wrong? Then I tell myself your own eggs hatched okay this go around.

One might think that someone who is hatching eggs for the first time or second time or maybe has children involved may not open the eggs that are not hatching. But I want to know what happened to the ones that were peeping in the shell for 2 days and did not pip scared me. I open every egg placed in incubator to figure out why a fertile egg did not hatch.

The chicks with the most severe deformities never could have hatched out on their own. They would have just died in the egg. Having the heart to open the eggs is not fun in any way. It is so hard when you are hoping for life to deal with death.

I suppose if you are hatching thousands you do not have time to be emotional. My husband asks, "Is it worth all of this to save money by purchasing hatching eggs? Why don't you just buy chicks?"

I am going to buy chicks from now on. I will continue to hatch my farm raised eggs.

We purchased about 180 hatching eggs that were all mailed to me from different regions in the US.and have enjoyed great success up till now. Although I have not hatched thousands my discipline and carefulness shows me that no incubation is perfect. My expectations are fair.

My lesson is to be open to feedback and if I ever sell hatching eggs to treat my buyer with the respect deserved.

 

[Haunted55]

Don't feel guilty, if I am correct, this happened in the mother, not having the right amount of vitamins to produce a healthy embryo. You can't fix that. Look at it this way. Your experience will help someone else. Sometimes, at the end of the day, that's all we have and it has to be enough.

 

[craftiekids]

So sad for all involved! I'm not a vet so I'm not an expert but after 20 yrs of working with vets and different species of birds I've only seen one other hatch that came out that badly and was through bad inbreeding. The breeder may not know one of their hens or rooster was that inbred. Maybe they got a new hen or rooster to add some genetic diversity and got whammed too. I hope that was the case and they were able to cull that bird from their breeding flock. Did you call them on the phone and tell them what happened and what did they say? I'd love to know.... Susie Q

 

[casportpony]

I now open all eggs to see what might have caused the hatching issues and I've only ever seen one deformed chick, it had a leg that looked like it was backwards.

-Kathy

 

[craftiekids]

Wow, I also agree that it could be lack of vitamins in the hen. But still informing the breeder is top on the list because again they may not know until someone tells them. If it was me I would want to know so I could figure out what to do about it. I plan on hatching my own chicks this spring and selling the baby chicks but I won't do that unless I can keep a diverse enough flock. I'm also going to start putting vitamins in my hens water. I already give them all warm soaked beet pulp in the winter like I do my ponies. Every thread I read gives me info I didn't have before I don't have a huge flock and everyone we have is part of our little farm family so keeping them healthy is the only way to go.

This has made me think twice before ordering or selling hatching eggs and the value of vitamins etc.. So don't feel bad at all... Valuable info, keeping up with health issues good or bad and asking questions is extremely important for all of us! Congrats for being tender hearted and Chicken Crazy "like the rest of us"!!!

We all just do the best we can!

 

[hoofpawclawacre]

Well the seller is only angry at me and blames me and my incubator. again I simply notified seller stating I am not seeking money back, or new hatching eggs. Simple want to let you know that I think there is something wrong. Seller agreed that something is wrong but the wrong doing is/was me and my incubator. Seller will not consider anything else. Communication was via email and her last message was yelling at me how dare I question her, the expert. I did not respond to her last send.

I posted here not to blame anything or anyone I posted here for my own well being as I want to know and learn. Maybe someone else will learn also. It just seems to me if you have 16 hatching eggs and seven of them are severely deformed and the ones that actually could hatch out on their own cannot even stand up something is wrong. I would have blamed the entire situation on myself if my own farm raised hatching eggs had been deformed from the the same incubator and the same incubation period.

One chick deformed.... luck of the draw, two luck of the draw three luck of the draw or bad luck! For me when the fourth chick demonstrated the similar deformities and there were only 16 hatchings eggs to begin with.... I didn't think it was bad luck or bad hatching techniques. My Ameraucauna chicks are fine healthy little chicks running and hopping all over the place.

This is just a bad experience that could have been made a little better if the breeder would have simply said, "I will check into this."

The suffering of the chicks hurt me and my spirit. and so many of them. Well to me it was too many.

 

[craftiekids]

Don't blame yourself or your incubator, your eggs hatching out of the same batch shows how it's not possibly your fault at all. I bet the breeder knew something was wrong and chose to be a jerk about it. "The lady doth protest too much me thinks!" The angrier she is the more she knows and will not admit to. The least she should have done was offer your money back or offer to give you a new batch of eggs. I would have said Thank you for informing me of such a devastating problem! She should have been also upset at those poor little babies and their suffering not immune to it.

Your absolutely right in informing her of the problem but any good business person would have been respectful, offered alternatives and not played the blame game. That's just not graduating from the sandbox, apparently we are the adults long past that stage. If anyone is interested in Who the breeder is because they buy hatching eggs, don't post it publicly, personally email those that want to know so they don't make the mistake of getting eggs from her.

I'm so sorry it has come to that for you but in posting your story you've given the rest of us important issues, not just ethical to think about and a great place to discuss them!!!

So I'm just like everyone else here in that I don't have dollars to waste. I have been selling my crafts, quilts, painted flower pots, flowers, baked goods, eggs etc... Just to make the money it takes to make ends meet and invest in my small flock for the health of my family. Therefore let me be the first to get a personal email to let me know who she is so I can avoid the problem you've had.
Susie at [email protected] and I thank you for telling us all about this painful issue!!!!