Last chicks to hatch having problems and defects

[Egg_newton]

I put 65 eggs into lock down all have hatched except nine. I am starting to see defects in the last few that have hatched. One has curled toes, one has zipped but I can see yolk and it has a big blob of yolk stuck to the end of its beak so it may have problems finishing hatching and the one that just hatched has a big bulging eye. I know how to help the little one with curled toes what about ol' bulgie and the one with yolk on it?

 

[Suburban Sprouts]

Quote:

 

[miniwhipkey]

I don't know what to tell you about ol' bulgie. I am sorry to hear that.

 

[A.T. Hagan]

If it were me I would leave them be. This is the first test of whether they are fit to keep or not.

.....Alan.

 

[texasgal]

I noticed that on my last hatch .. I started with 30 something eggs .. ended up with 26 hatched, but the "slow" ones all had problems. I had crippled ones, yolk issues, etc with the last 5 or six that hatched, all over a day after the others ..

Does hatching late cause these problems, or

do the chicks have problems and that's why they hatch late??

dunno ..

 

[SunChick]

Quote:
I had the same problem this week hatching in my classroom. The only thing I could figure is that my temps probably got too hot (using a still air) since my room gets pretty warm. I ran the bator pretty dry for the first 3 weeks (we are in Florida) only added half a cup each week and didn't add water for the rest of the bins until lockdown. We hatched a day early but like with yours, the later hatches all had problems, two with curled feet and a few with unabsorbed yolk sacs and the rest died in shell at some point.

 

[texasgal]

Quote:
I had the same problem this week hatching in my classroom. The only thing I could figure is that my temps probably got too hot (using a still air) since my room gets pretty warm. I ran the bator pretty dry for the first 3 weeks (we are in Florida) only added half a cup each week and didn't add water for the rest of the bins until lockdown. We hatched a day early but like with yours, the later hatches all had problems, two with curled feet and a few with unabsorbed yolk sacs and the rest died in shell at some point.

Exactly .. and same conditions too. Dry hatch, humidity at lockdown, still air... How did your kids take that?

 

[SunChick]

We try to be pretty realistic with the kids. I think kids take things better if you don't sugar coat it and treat it as a fact of life. Most them have never held a chick or seen one outside of pictures. My students have bigger problems accepting that the birds may be eaten by humans than dying on their own. I explain to them that they have been "disney-fied" and use this as an oppurtunity to teach them about where food comes from. They think that everything should be a pet at this age (I teach 6-8 grades). I do have a lot of them wanting to bury them and have prayer sessions but we get around that.

 

[texasgal]

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I hear that! I've always "shot straight" with my own kids .. they've seen the process -- breeding, birth, death, etc. But it's always OTHER people's kids that you don't know about .. that's why I asked.

On a side note, DD13 is having a friend over friday nite .. and we have chicks hatching right now. DD13 wanted to know what she could tell her friend we were having for dinner ..

I told her "If these chicks will hurry up and hatch .. CHICKEN NUGGETS" .. We both laughed, then she said "Mom, I can't tell her that. She got mad at me during the last hatch when I made a similar joke."

some people's kids, huh? lol

 

[SunChick]

Quote:
I hear that! I've always "shot straight" with my own kids .. they've seen the process -- breeding, birth, death, etc. But it's always OTHER people's kids that you don't know about .. that's why I asked.

On a side note, DD13 is having a friend over friday nite .. and we have chicks hatching right now. DD13 wanted to know what she could tell her friend we were having for dinner ..

I told her "If these chicks will hurry up and hatch .. CHICKEN NUGGETS" .. We both laughed, then she said "Mom, I can't tell her that. She got mad at me during the last hatch when I made a similar joke."

some people's kids, huh? lol

Too funny. I do have some of the older kids making similar jokes, it tends to break up the tension in the room. We had this funny discussion about what chitterlings were today, one of the female students loves them, didn't mind when i told her what they were made of. She still had a problem with me eating the birds I raise though...which I thought was pretty funny.