Has anyone ever seen a "breetch" chick?

[Chicken Keith]

I incubated 18 Cuckoo Marans eggs once in my Turn-X 7 forced air 10-turn incubator. There were 12 that hatched. Of the 6 that didn't make it, 2 in particular were strange.

The fully developed embryo had turned completely backwards, head at small end, its butt at the air sac. The chick had drowned in its own fluid. Again, fully developed. All eggs were positioned with the large end tilted up, pointy end down (well, actually if you're familiar with TX-7s the eggs lay on their side.

I've been hatching eggs for 36 years, small scale, no fancy cabinet incubators here (I wish I had one!).

Has anyone else ever seen this? Last year is the first time I had seen this in 35 years.

I've hatched OE bantams whose air sac was so big (humidity set too low) that the chick pipped THROUGH the shell near the small end, but the chick was healthy as a horse after hatching.

 

[stevetone]

They didn't "make the turn," which occurs at a particular point in their development, day 14 I believe.

It is my understanding that this can be caused by too rapid of development, under high incubation temperatures, causing the embryo to grow too big too early, or by low incubator humidity, causing the air cell to grow too big. In both cases, they simply do not have the room in the shell to make the turn towards the air cell.

I am sure there are other possibilities, but those are two that I recall hearing about.

 

[Chicken Keith]

Thanks for that, That makes sense. The trouble with my TX-7 incubator is it turns eggs in a circular motion. The auto turner turns eggs every hour 24/7. When this happens, often an egg will go pointy end up. Argh! I think i may disconnect the auto turner at day 12 or so, then turn by hand, 3-4 times per day, once every 4-5 hours so that I can be more in control of how the eggs are situated, i.e. pointy end down.

Hope that may put an end to it.

I hear ya on the too high temp. I'm not surprised this is a cause too. Makes sense.

THANKS!!!!

 

[stevetone]

I have a TX-6, so I know the situation you are referring to.

I usually just let it be. I figure the hen wouldn't have a protrator to measure the angles, so why should I?

(I've heard you can stop turning at all after day 15...)

 

[flgardengirl]

I have a cuckoo that was born upside down. He was born at 3am making the biggest racket and I had to remove him from the egg since he was stuck in there wrong. Crazy cuckoo baby!!
Egg was set right he just didn't turn right side up I guess. He is always getting himself into all sorts of trouble but he is nice and healthy lol.