different size chicks in eggs????

[monita]

i candled my eggs again tonight and still i think 1 of my eggs has quit but don't really want to toss it yet just in case. the other 5 are doing fine, very active and due to hatch the 19th or 20th but i noticed that some of the chicks do not fill the egg as much as the others. there are 2 eggs that are almost completely dark with chick (other than the air sac of course) and don't move as much as the other 3 that don't look as "full". is this normal? and why would some of the chicks be bigger than the others when they were set at the same time? the eggs come from a standard size RIR roo and OEGB hen if that helps any.

 

[Laney]

I would guess that some of the chicks will have a more OEGB characteristic and be tiny and others will be more RIR and be larger. So the ones that are filling the egg already are probably tending more toward the RIR build. The ones that have a lot more room tending toward the OEGB build?

That is just my guess. OEGB chicks are teeny.

Laney

 

[Akane]

When crossing a standard roo with bantam hen the bigger chicks may not hatch. They will run out of room early and either try to hatch too soon or be unable to position to pip. The only 2 I had that survived a standard roo on bantam hen cross I had to help hatch and their heads were stuck under their wings with no space to move for breaking the egg beyond the tiny hole they'd managed to make. The rest of those more than 2 dozen eggs died. I try not to set eggs crossed that way for that reason.

 

[monita]

yea my OEGB hen is less than half the size of my white Leghorn hen and the OEGB is about a month older...lol. do you think the eggs being so small will affect the progress of the bigger chick's development? considering they are almost filling the eggs completely now and still have a week of growing to do?

 

[monita]

you answered my first question now about the 2 bigger chicks... how long should i let them go after day 21 before i should try to help them? the other 3 look like they will be fine, just the 2 big ones kinda have me worried.

 

[k2chickens]

Quote:
exactly what i was going to say. crossing always throws the numbers off.