I freaking out a little *WARNING GRAPHIC PICTURES*

[missnu01]

Ok. Let me start by saying when I get a late quitter I like to cracked it open and see what's happening in there I was candling my latest batch of eggs before I go into lock down tomorrow and I had 6 late quitters. As in a few days ago they were moving. Tonight they are dead, so around 12-15 day quitters...
5 of them were normal chicks that were just dead.. but then there was a mutant chick...
It has one eye, where the other eye should be it looks like exposed brain. It has severe scissor beak, it's organs are on the outside and get this---it has 4 legs...4...not 2...not 3...but 4 tiny 5 toed legs... only 2 wings..
So 1 eye, 2 wings, 4 legs, exposed organs and brain and a scissor beak. The chicken that laid this particular egg has been having some issues lately, she stopped laying soon after the few of hers in this batch, and now she appears to be eggbound. Could the 2 be related? Now eggbound hen laying eggs with mutant chicks inside? I mean my temp fluctuated some but only between 99 and 102... I'm now terrified of what might hatch out of the remaining eggs... anyway here are the pictures because with words alone this is unbelievable...

I was thinking this might have been a double yolked egg that went wrong, but it wasn't a double yolked egg when I put it in there, unless both yolks were very very small.

Better shot of crossed Beak

Showing what looks like brain where the eye should be..

From the back. This is where to me it looks like a set of conjoined chicken twins..2 butts, each with its own set of 2 legs.. but only one set of organs, one head, and 2 wings. I can even see its tiny little 5 toes. And since this cross is sex linked it would have been a boy if it wasn't a crime against nature.

Better shot of possible brain in eye socket. I'm thinking I should just cull the hen that laid this egg. I now worry she's eaten some active plutonium somehow...

Close up of the exposed organs...


So for real somebody help me out here. The only difference between this time and the last time hatching these same eggs is that a few of these eggs were a little older and had been in he refrigerator prior to incubating, and instead of using my brinsea I'm using a late model food dehydrator that holds the right temps...Surely it doesn't use like microwaves to heat?

 

[subhanalah]

I don't think it does..I thought this came from a safe way egg?
I should probably go to sleep....lol.

Bizarre for sure. Eager to hear other's opinions.

 

[Fancychooklady]

So obviously the dehydrator doesn't do the job . Thank god that poor little thing didn't survive. Honestly you need to go back to basics.

 

[subhanalah]

So obviously the dehydrator doesn't do the job . Thank god that poor little thing didn't survive. Honestly you need to go back to basics.

I believe the hen has some serious reproductive issues that may be why this happened and not the heating element.

Only thing I've found is saying they use regular heating elements but the materials can be carcinogenic.

I really don't think that's what we're dealing with here...missn do you have a link to that other thread about her being egg bound? @Fancychooklady may have some good insight or answers to my questions...or at least theory?

 

[lovetopaint]

Oh my. Don't hatch more eggs from that hen--what if it had survived?

 

[Fancychooklady]

Oh my.  Don't hatch more eggs from that hen--what if it had survived?

X2

 

[missnu01]

What gets me is that I've hatched off her numerous times before and like I said I've never gotten a crossed beak, a curled toe..nothing

 

[missnu01]

Here's the link to the hen in question. I doubt it is because of the dehydrator, simply because an egg doesn't know the difference between 100 degrees under a hen or 100 degrees under a heat lamp, or 100 degrees in my incubator, which incidentally is just a smaller version of the same electric coil heating element as the dehydrator. I've had numerous 100% hatches, and 0 deformed chicks or brooder deaths so I've got the basics. ..
here's what I'm thinking. ..I think it was maybe like how identical twins start out as a single fertile egg that splits into 2... perhaps something like this happened here, only they didn't quite make the split...
Or again my hen has bathed in nuclear waste...?
Definitely the craziest thing i have seen. My first thought was good Lord what if it had hatched. SEeing something like that alive would probably make me sell all my chickens, and stop eating chicken or eggs.... but I've still got 18 eggs set to hatch in 3 days. Only a couple are hers so fingers crossed they aren't mutants.

 

[happyhens1972]

Sometimes nature goes wrong....simple as that! Every species will get its unexplained mutations and deformities. it isn't anything to panic about or anything to cull your hen for. These things happen and it doesn't mean you would ever get another deformed baby from her either. Human beings can have deformed children following and preceding perfectly healthy pregnancies and offspring too.

The good thing, if not rather sad, is that this little thing could never have hatched being so badly damaged therefore if you weren't a 'checker of quitters' you would never have known and I'm sure there are lots of people out there who never check and may have had things go wrong like this without knowing.

I would put it down to rather disturbing experience and enjoy the rest of your hatch. I cannot think for a moment that this was caused by any factor of incubation but merely a genetic code gone awry.

 

[missnu01]

I would think so... it just seems strange that it got so many deformities ya know... and now the hen that laid that egg is ailing with egg trouble..and apparently has been for weeks. She only laid one egg since I gathered the eggs getting ready to hatch and it looked like she had started to shell it twice. It was a normal egg that had another inner white membrane over the normal shell...and it looked like she laid it while roosting in the night. I thought she was hiding her eggs with my woods broody hen, but I guess not. She definitely has an egg stuck now. And only a few of the eggs set to hatch are from her as she had already started slowing down...
Another concern I have.. she basically stopped laying, and has picked her chest clean of feathers, but I swear I can feel an egg in her. But it feels like it is a little sideways, or rather turned slightly a skew, and doesn't line up with her vent. I can feel it from the outside and the inside but can't get to the actual egg.. it's like an ego wrapped in a sock made of skin. She's healthy though. Good weight, good energy level and mobility until yesterday when all she wanted to do was sit on a nest. Any nest... lol that is what made me realize she isn't just a sneaky chicken, she's having laying issues... oh well time will tell on both issues I guess. She will pass the egg and be alright or we will have to cull her, and chicks will hatch out of those eggs, or strange mutant alien creatures. Either I'll be selling chicks, or selling tickets...