Deformed chick?

[Kcharb22]

I incubated eggs recently and ran into infertility issues. However I had a fully developed silkie mix chick in the egg that never hatched. After doing an eggtopsy a few days later after the others had hatched, the chick had an under bite and large amount of brain matter exposed and was still breathing. I'm not sure if it was the brain stem that continued on with the respirations or if it was still alive. It past away shortly after removal. Did it died trying to get out or was it developed like that? Has anyone else ran into this issue?

 

[blackandtan]

Can you take some pics?

 

[MiniBirdsMi]

Heat, Humidity, and Genetics all play a huge role in the chicks embryonic development. If a line becomes too inbred (several generations of sister-to-brother mating), you can get genetic defects and infertility issues. Silkies already have a vaulted skull that causes the brain to be partially exposed under the skin, so it could be that gene going a bit "haywire", as it were. Otherwise it could have been an environmental issue. Extremely high temperatures or fluctuations in temp/humidity can seriously damage a chick's development.

 

[Kcharb22]

Ok thank you. No I didn't take pictures. I buried the chick 2 days ago. I have a fairly young flock. I don't believe I have any inbred. I got several from a friend a year ago.