@fancychickenlover I know I have not been part of your discussion, but I have been reading it.
I think too long in the egg is the cause of most curled toes, feet and wry necks. I think I recall too high of temps also being a cause.
All of that said, instead of the peroxide and denagard spray, try double dipping your eggs. I use 120 degree water to rinse the eggs, then dip in the bleach rinse and dip again and rinse then let them dry for just long enough for me to write the hatch date on the egg.
The USDA vet is the one that had me disinfect in this manner, I was leery but it works fine. The 120 degree water does not hurt the eggs as the internal temp of the egg must reach 117 degrees to inhibit incubation at ths stage.
Next make sure the incubator is disinfected, incase you have a linger bacteria in there. DO NOT TOUCH YOUR EGGS WITH BARE HANDS! I wear latex gloves no matter how short a time I will be reaching into the incubator or touching the eggs. Pretend you are a TV doc and this is your sterile area.
I use 45% for my incubation humidity. I bump it up to 65-75% at "lockdown". Do not break lock down to rescue one chick, others will die if you do. At the point of hatch, "lockdown" do not pay any attention to the air sac. It is too late to help that problem. You need to have that corrected before day 14.
At the point of lockdown, moisture has one purpose. that is to weaken the shell so the chick can come out and moisten the membrane to keep heat wrap shrinking from occurring. If you use a lower humidity to compensate for too little moisture early on you will not help anything just make it worse.
Also know your eggs, 21 days is an average, it is not a tmeline written n stone. I have had to change my hatching on my legbars. They have always been slow hatchers. It has gotten to the point it is screwing me up. I am now putting my legbars in the incubator a day earlier than my other eggs to see if I can get the hatch at one time.
I can tell you my Easter eggers hatch first. Followed by my toads ,Doms, and Yokohamas, (nothing stops those littel fighters, toughest chick alive) in that order.... Then the Sussex and Appletinis and the rest. Legbar always pull up the rear by a day.
Good luck, remember incubation is as much of an art as it is a science, play with it and have fun. You are at about the same latitude as me I would guess, our best hatching is just starting. I start low every year, by May I am at 90% It is frustrating early in the season, but we are fighting mother nature on fertility, eggs freezing or getting to chilled, chckens not making enough vitamin D and who knows what else.
It will come around give it time and make small adjustments not wholesale changes to a lot of things. Then remember them for next year.
I think too long in the egg is the cause of most curled toes, feet and wry necks. I think I recall too high of temps also being a cause.
All of that said, instead of the peroxide and denagard spray, try double dipping your eggs. I use 120 degree water to rinse the eggs, then dip in the bleach rinse and dip again and rinse then let them dry for just long enough for me to write the hatch date on the egg.
The USDA vet is the one that had me disinfect in this manner, I was leery but it works fine. The 120 degree water does not hurt the eggs as the internal temp of the egg must reach 117 degrees to inhibit incubation at ths stage.
Next make sure the incubator is disinfected, incase you have a linger bacteria in there. DO NOT TOUCH YOUR EGGS WITH BARE HANDS! I wear latex gloves no matter how short a time I will be reaching into the incubator or touching the eggs. Pretend you are a TV doc and this is your sterile area.
I use 45% for my incubation humidity. I bump it up to 65-75% at "lockdown". Do not break lock down to rescue one chick, others will die if you do. At the point of hatch, "lockdown" do not pay any attention to the air sac. It is too late to help that problem. You need to have that corrected before day 14.
At the point of lockdown, moisture has one purpose. that is to weaken the shell so the chick can come out and moisten the membrane to keep heat wrap shrinking from occurring. If you use a lower humidity to compensate for too little moisture early on you will not help anything just make it worse.
Also know your eggs, 21 days is an average, it is not a tmeline written n stone. I have had to change my hatching on my legbars. They have always been slow hatchers. It has gotten to the point it is screwing me up. I am now putting my legbars in the incubator a day earlier than my other eggs to see if I can get the hatch at one time.
I can tell you my Easter eggers hatch first. Followed by my toads ,Doms, and Yokohamas, (nothing stops those littel fighters, toughest chick alive) in that order.... Then the Sussex and Appletinis and the rest. Legbar always pull up the rear by a day.
Good luck, remember incubation is as much of an art as it is a science, play with it and have fun. You are at about the same latitude as me I would guess, our best hatching is just starting. I start low every year, by May I am at 90% It is frustrating early in the season, but we are fighting mother nature on fertility, eggs freezing or getting to chilled, chckens not making enough vitamin D and who knows what else.
It will come around give it time and make small adjustments not wholesale changes to a lot of things. Then remember them for next year.
