Deformed chick/chick death (WARNING! GRAPHIC PHOTOS!)

Winnie123

Chirping
Apr 25, 2020
36
36
94
I wanted to breed some “Showgirl Silkies” so last year in July I ordered some female Turkens and some white male Silkies from Cackle Hatchery. They are about 8 months old now and the hens have been laying for about 3 or 4 months. I put 9 eggs in my incubator. It is a little giant incubator with a fan and an egg turner. I had the humidity at around 40-45% for the first 18 days, then I took them out of the egg turner and put them into lockdown at around 55-65%. Only one chick hatched. I opened up one of the eggs to see what was going on and found a fully grown chick with a deformed beak and what looks like it’s brains on the outside of its scull... I’m very sad and confused. What would cause that??? I don’t even want to open the other eggs because when I candle them they look super liquidy inside and I don’t want to see (or smell) what might be in there.

*Did I do something wrong during incubation? (I have 3 different hygrometers and thermometers in there to be sure everything is right)

*Is there something genetically wrong with my parent birds?

*Could it possibly be that my parent birds are just too young for breeding?

The one chick that did hatch is healthy and happily sitting under one of my Silkie hens that went broody while I was incubating these eggs. It doesn’t appear to have anything wrong with it.

Thanks for anyone that took the time to read and I really appreciate any advice/tips that anyone has for me!
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That condition where the brain is exposed is called exencephaly. It is often caused by genetics but is sometimes influenced by extremely high temperatures during incubation, especially during the first few days. That may have caused the death of your other eggs as well. When did your surviving chick hatch? It's possible that the temperature was too high.

The age of your birds would not have influenced the development of the chick in that manner. You would have just had more infertilities.

I would open the other eggs. Mid-deaths do not occur as often as late or early deaths. They won't smell really bad unless there is a bacterial infection, which would also be good to know. This will be accompanied by discolored yolk and degrading chick. But if it was just because of temperature, the yolk should be a relatively normal color and not smell so much.
 
That condition where the brain is exposed is called exencephaly. It is often caused by genetics but is sometimes influenced by extremely high temperatures during incubation, especially during the first few days. That may have caused the death of your other eggs as well. When did your surviving chick hatch? It's possible that the temperature was too high.

The age of your birds would not have influenced the development of the chick in that manner. You would have just had more infertilities.

I would open the other eggs. Mid-deaths do not occur as often as late or early deaths. They won't smell really bad unless there is a bacterial infection, which would also be good to know. This will be accompanied by discolored yolk and degrading chick. But if it was just because of temperature, the yolk should be a relatively normal color and not smell so much.
Sorry, I forgot to mention I had the temp set for 99.5 degrees Fahrenheit. I had two thermometers in there that didn’t always have the same reading which was frustrating but they were usually pretty close to matching.

I candled all eggs and all were alive and moving on day 18. All of the eggs were still wiggling up until day 20 and then stopped. So I know they were all alive until then.

My one egg that hatched, hatched at the beginning of day 22.

unfortunately the dead eggs already went out in the trash... so I don’t have that option anymore.

Could it still be that the temp was too high if they survived all the way up to day 20? They never internally pipped. Just wiggled until day 20 and then stopped. The only peeping I heard was from the one that did hatch.

What would cause the deformed beak? Also why would the eggs look so liquidy inside?
 
I'll include a couple of links that can help you eggtopsy the eggs, which I also recommend. It is certainly not the age of the pullets that laid the eggs.

Did you calibrate any of those thermometers. I don't trust any of them with their factory presets.

Mississippi State Incubation Troubleshooting

http://extension.msstate.edu/content/trouble-shooting-failures-egg-incubation


Illinois Incubation troubleshooting

http://urbanext.illinois.edu/eggs/res24-00.html
Thank you, I read through those. I did not calibrate the thermometers, I’ll do that before trying again. I also worried if the air cells were big enough on day 18 and if I should have the humidity be lower for the first 18 days on the next try. I don’t know if that would cause the issues that the dead chick had though. You can see the drawn on air cell on one of the eggs in the photo with the live chick. Those air cells were drawn on the 18th day.
 
Sorry, I forgot to mention I had the temp set for 99.5 degrees Fahrenheit. I had two thermometers in there that didn’t always have the same reading which was frustrating but they were usually pretty close to matching.

I candled all eggs and all were alive and moving on day 18. All of the eggs were still wiggling up until day 20 and then stopped. So I know they were all alive until then.

My one egg that hatched, hatched at the beginning of day 22.

unfortunately the dead eggs already went out in the trash... so I don’t have that option anymore.

Could it still be that the temp was too high if they survived all the way up to day 20? They never internally pipped. Just wiggled until day 20 and then stopped. The only peeping I heard was from the one that did hatch.

What would cause the deformed beak? Also why would the eggs look so liquidy inside?
Thank you, I read through those. I did not calibrate the thermometers, I’ll do that before trying again. I also worried if the air cells were big enough on day 18 and if I should have the humidity be lower for the first 18 days on the next try. I don’t know if that would cause the issues that the dead chick had though. You can see the drawn on air cell on one of the eggs in the photo with the live chick. Those air cells were drawn on the 18th day.
I'm not entirely sure what would have caused the deformed beak, but if I had to guess it's probably related to the other problem. Without photos, I can't be certain of how liquidy you're referring to, but it's probably just because they never finished absorbing their yolk sac.

The humidity is a little high, I would drop it down to 35% for the first 18 days. Temperature is more important though. Yes, you can and should calibrate your own thermometers but the best one I have had is a Brinsea Spot-check. https://www.brinsea.com/p-394-spot-check-digital-incubator-thermometer.aspx
Never looked back. I always set my incubator temp based on that now.

The other thing to watch out for is temperature fluctuations. Little Giants are notorius for this. Since all of them survived till day 20, there might have been some spike (more deadly than a drop) that killed all but one. Not much you can do about it even with a good thermometer -- that's an incubator problem.
 
I'm not entirely sure what would have caused the deformed beak, but if I had to guess it's probably related to the other problem. Without photos, I can't be certain of how liquidy you're referring to, but it's probably just because they never finished absorbing their yolk sac.

The humidity is a little high, I would drop it down to 35% for the first 18 days. Temperature is more important though. Yes, you can and should calibrate your own thermometers but the best one I have had is a Brinsea Spot-check. https://www.brinsea.com/p-394-spot-check-digital-incubator-thermometer.aspx
Never looked back. I always set my incubator temp based on that now.

The other thing to watch out for is temperature fluctuations. Little Giants are notorius for this. Since all of them survived till day 20, there might have been some spike (more deadly than a drop) that killed all but one. Not much you can do about it even with a good thermometer -- that's an incubator problem.
Thank you! I just ordered one of those thermometers and will calibrate my thermometers before trying again. I was so confident that everything was fine because the last time I hatched eggs, 5 out of 9 of them hatched perfectly, and they were shipped eggs!

I think I will try one more time and if this happens again I was considering getting a brinsea incubator!
 
I have a older little giant. Just the rheostat adjustment,fan, egg turner. Due to the temp fluctuation I now use a stc 1000 controller with it.
I have hatched mixed large eggs and silkie bantam eggs. Large eggs hatch at close to 90 percent, but similar problems with silkies as you.
I have come to the conclusion temp problem. The only thing I can come up with as the chickens eat the same food.
Using 2 different digital thermometers I have noticed hot and cold spots the fan creates, then mine is older with older heating element.
 
I have one that hatched with this. I don't know what it is but it seems to be ok. It eats and drinks. Chirps. I can't put it with the rest of the population because they peck at it.
That is really sad! I hope it gets better, I’ve never seen that before!
 

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