Genetic or egg position issue? -Crooked beak

[LunaMarieWolf]

I had a chick hatch out about 30 mins ago and I noticed that it has MAJOR crooked break!! It also has crooked toes and is missing an eye. Its skull is deformed to where the eye isn't even there.

I have been hatching chicks for almost 2 months now. I have only been hatching my Black sex links and my easter Egger hens egges because those were the eggs I got during the cold days. This time I put in 2 of my either my Rhode Island red hen or my Barred rock hen. (I can't tell them apart because their egg color is the same) These hens are older. I don't know their exact age because they were given to us as full grown hens a year ago. Plus they have an older hen look to them.

Most of the time when I tried to hatch out eggs from those hens, the chicks would quit developing around 15 days.

I decided to see if it was my incubator at fault and I decided to hatch 2 eggs from those hens and a black sex link egg.

I candeled at day 18, right before lockdown and one of the light colored eggs had quit developing. So I still had the black sex link egg and one of the RIR or BR eggs.

Day 21 came and went. No movement, no sounds, no nothing. All of my chicks that I hatched popped out on day 18-19. And I was not going to open the incubator to see if the chicks were okay.

Today (day 22) I saw that the chick had hatched! Well the black sex link chick was chirping and happy. The other chick had a deformed skull, toes, and crooked beak. Also there was blood all in the egg and all over the chicks bottom. It has a protrusion from its backside where the chick was attached to the egg and it is bloody.

I honestly don't know what to do at this point for the chick..

But could this be a genetic thing from the hens or was this all just because the chick was not positioned correctly?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

It isn't positioning.
crossed beaks is hereditary.
Deformities of eyes, skulls, etc. is usually from high incubator temperature.
The fact that they hatched so early leads me to believe the primary problem is high temperature.

Older birds can have hatchability issues. That can be exacerbated with less than ideal breeder nutrition.

Malpositions can be caused by many things. Those include improper turning, old breeders, high or low incubator temperature, nutritional deficiencies, extra large or round eggs, high humidity, eggs stored improperly.

 

[LunaMarieWolf]

It isn't positioning.
crossed beaks is hereditary.
Deformities of eyes, skulls, etc. is usually from high incubator temperature.
The fact that they hatched so early leads me to believe the primary problem is high temperature.

Older birds can have hatchability issues. That can be exacerbated with less than ideal breeder nutrition.

Malpositions can be caused by many things. Those include improper turning, old breeders, high or low incubator temperature, nutritional deficiencies, extra large or round eggs, high humidity, eggs stored improperly.

The incubator I have is a Brinsea Mini 2 advance and I just bought it December 2018. The temperature is set to 100°F and it has autoturn, so it turns the eggs until day 18 and then stops turning.

I had a problem with high humidity with the last chicks I hatched, but this time I didn't add that much water right before and during lockdown. Could my humidity still be too high?

And since crooked beak is a genetic issue, if the chick survives is there any way to help it?

Update on the chick: it is taking a nap on its back and the thing that was sticking out of its backside is now a lot smaller and a dark brown color. Like the color of dried blood. The chick is still chirping and moving around every so often.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

I honestly don't know what to do at this point for the chick..

Cull that poor baby.

Sorry for your trouble.

I completely agree with chickencanoe!

 

[EggSighted4Life]

The temperature is set to 100°F

Did you use other sensors to calibrate?

If all your other chicks hatched on day 18... it was definitely too hot.

 

[LunaMarieWolf]

Did you use other sensors to calibrate?

If all your other chicks hatched on day 18... it was definitely too hot.

It has a temperature reading on the incubator itself. Its been at 100F all the time except for those few times I opened it pull an egg out to candle. There isn't enought room inside the incubator to put a temerature gauge so I relied on the one build into the bator.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Yes, cull the chick now. It isn't worth the time and effort of saving something you don't want to reproduce its kind.
I've never dealt with a crooked beak so I can't help with that.
As for turning, the auto turner eliminates that as a possibility.
I don't care what kind of incubator you have but I guarantee the temperature has been high. Otherwise, chicken chicks wouldn't pop out day 18/19.
Until one calibrates thermostats and thermometers, they don't know.
Unless you calibrate and compare to a guaranteed accurate thermometer, I would drop the temperature to 99 or less for the next setting.

 

[LunaMarieWolf]

I thought the safe range for hatching chicks is 99F to 102F. So I had the first batch at 99 and they hatched on day 19 and the others I changed the temp to 100.

It hurts me that it was my doing that caused the chick to be deformed.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

It has a temperature reading on the incubator itself. Its been at 100F all the time except for those few times I opened it pull an egg out to candle. There isn't enought room inside the incubator to put a temerature gauge so I relied on the one build into the bator.

Those are notoriously inaccurate out of the box. Plus, if it is forced air, 100 is too high. It should be 99.5.

 

[LunaMarieWolf]

Yes, cull the chick now. It isn't worth the time and effort of saving something you don't want to reproduce its kind.
I've never dealt with a crooked beak so I can't help with that.
As for turning, the auto turner eliminates that as a possibility.
I don't care what kind of incubator you have but I guarantee the temperature has been high. Otherwise, chicken chicks wouldn't pop out day 18/19.
Until one calibrates thermostats and thermometers, they don't know.
Unless you calibrate and compare to a guaranteed accurate thermometer, I would drop the temperature to 99 or less for the next setting.

I will definitely drop the temperature for the next eggs.

I wonder if my incubator is reading the temp wrong. If there is something wrong with that part of it.

Also does anyone know how to cull a chick? I've heard of snipping the head off, but I dont have any sizzors rhat are sharp enough to do that.