HELP!! Curled toes on hatching chicks(only 1 breed out of 3)

[redbarnmeadows]

Hi all - I'm new here and I need some help from the experienced breeders out there. I have a Brinsea 380 and I'm hatching broilers, BC Marans, and Ameraucanas all at once. Here's the catch - only the Ameraucanas are hatching with curled toes - just about all of them. I don't get it. As far as I understand it, curled toes is an incubator/hatching problem and not genetic, right? So why only the Ameraucanas with the curled toes but not everybody else? Humidity is at around 25% which I KNOW is low, but whenever I raise it I get sticky gooey chicks, and everybody pops out just fine at 25%. HELP!!!

By the way - happy to be here. I'll introduce myself properly when I'm done panicking.

 

[NancyDz]

I just had a chick hatch with the curled toes but they straightened out after a couple days in the brooder. I also had to help this chick hatch as it pipped and 48 hours later had only made a 1" hole in one part of the egg. I dont usually interfere but this was my last egg of the hatch and I was tired of waiting hehehe. So I carefully peeled a little shell off. It came off clean and I noticed the chick had no room to move at all. So I think it was too big and couldnt move around to zip. I peeled the rest of the shell off and a perfect chick came rolling out and stretching. It's toes were very curled and it had a hard time walking at first.
I gave it a couple days and it is now fine. I thought i might have to put a cardboard "boot" on it to help them uncurl. So maybe your EE's are big? I guess that is what I was getting at!

Not sure why it would be just them and not your others.


If there feet stay curled, do a search here on curled toes ... you'll find lots of suggestions for making a boot that you tape the foot to for a couple days to straighten them out. Some have also used a coin. It seems to work pretty well.


Good luck!


Nancy

 

[redbarnmeadows]

Thank you. Yes, I've made the band-aid boots before and it seems to work well to a certain degree, but today I have about five hatched so far with curled toes (some severely curled) and about ten more eggs to go. I just can't understand why it's just the Am's. The Marans and broilers are popping out perfectly.

 

[redbarnmeadows]

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, these guys are hatching right on schedule too. Today is day 21. In the past I've only had late-hatchers with curled toes.

 

[Marion]

According to what I read on Feathersite.com, curly toes can be the result of incubation OR genetic... might be something to consider?

 

[redbarnmeadows]

Is it something that can pop up all of a sudden though? Maybe a nutritional deficiency somehow? This flock gets 18% breeder pellets and has an outdoor run with plenty of bugs, so I can't imaging it's that. I've had this small flock of Am's for a year now and this hatch and the two before it (I'm hatching about once a week) are the only ones suddenly getting curled toes. The last two hatches were a day or so late (I'm still tweaking the temp in the new bator and had it a hair too low before - I think the temp is good now though). I had assumed before that it was due to the slower hatch before, but now this batch is right on time and still has curled toes, and just the Ameraucanas. I'm just totally confused

 

[PECULIARPETE]

Greetings, I`m new here too. I`m not even sure I`m doin this rite? We had our first hatch this weekend. The first little guy/gal? has got curled toes on one foot. Everyone else seems ok, but the last little one`s navel ain`t rite. it was protruding quite a bit. I read that this is like an open door for bacteria n all kinds of nasty little things to get in. So I came up with the idea of tieing it off with some string I soaked in alchol first. So far it`s workin we been callin her button n she`s eatin n drinkin n wanderin round the brooder. does anyone else ever tried this? And did they make it or??? Anyway we`re havin a blast doin the chicken thing! So far I`ve figgered out how to build a coop, incubator, candleing lite, and brooder from all you guys out there in BYC land. And I`ve finally joined up. Thanx Ya`ll. I gots quite the flock goin now. And now I`m raising my own from pups.