Deformed embryos

[b2c2chicks]

I know I ask a lot of questions y’all....esp in regard to hatching.

Last post it was dirty eggs from the same “reputable” breeder causing yolk sac absorption issues.

This most recent hatch, I set eggs from a totally different place. They all had hideous saddle air cells...but all that needed to hatch, hatched indeed. I didn’t want these others to hatch after doing an eggtopsy.

Out of 12, 4 hatched unassisted. Two more hatched with help (glued to their shells, not sure what was up with that but it was the worst case of gluing I’ve ever seen....but the little boogers are thriving now). Two quit early on but we couldn’t tell due to dark shells. And then the 4....4 jacked up chicks that never hatched.

One was missing an eye, misshapen head, and had a crossed beak. Another had a crossed beak and two toes instead of one back toe...on both feet. One was actually okay, maybe a malposition. And the last one had this gigantic odd shaped profile, like a skull deformity. Also, one of the successful ones had the two back toes but only on one foot. The breeds were EE, OE, and BCMs.

We used all of our normal settings and have only had one other crossed beak out of probably 100 chicks. I’m thinking inbreeding or poor nutrition to have so many do this in one hatch, from a new place.

What do y’all think?

 

[Pyxis]

I'm sorry you had this happen.

The two back toes thing is normal, they most likely have a breed in their background that has five toes, like silkie or houdan, etc. Shouldn't be the case with the BCMs but EEs and OEs are just mixed breeds so it's anybody's guess what's in their lineage. And the odd skull, did it look anything like a vaulted skull? Those are pretty common in crested breeds, like, again, silkies. They aren't so much a deformity as something that is selected for to increase crest size.

As for the missing eye and crossbeaks, that could be bad nutrition that caused it, or it could be genetic in nature.

 

[b2c2chicks]

I'm sorry you had this happen.

The two back toes thing is normal, they most likely have a breed in their background that has five toes, like silkie or houdan, etc. Shouldn't be the case with the BCMs but EEs and OEs are just mixed breeds so it's anybody's guess what's in their lineage. And the odd skull, did it look anything like a vaulted skull? Those are pretty common in crested breeds, like, again, silkies. They aren't so much a deformity as something that is selected for to increase crest size.

As for the missing eye and crossbeaks, that could be bad nutrition that caused it, or it could be genetic in nature.

Thank you for that information! I had to google vaulted skull because I’m not familiar. It’s in the first picture I’ve attached if you’re able to see it. It actually looks flat on top and most of the weight was on the neck/bottom portion of the face. And then the one chick with the missing eye was flatter on that side but it’s skull looked normal on the side with the eye. It was really odd.