So all said and done we have 110 babies that made it out of their shells and (so far) survived.. I am a little concerned with some issues we have with some of them and wonder what we can do to help the chicks improve and be healthy. We had several that died during hatch or in their shells with abnormalities (crooked lower beak, missing beak, turned wrong way in egg) and one that hatched and we knew wouldn't survive so we culled it.. It hatched but did not have anything covering is brain!! Never heard of this before but looked on the forum and found it does happen.. Several of the babies are hatching and have "splayed legs".. I KNOW its not what I place on the floor, and I have never had a problem until this hatch.. I use a textured paper towel to line the incubator and then the brooder for the first while until they can go on the wire floor. It seems that mostly the tuxedo babies have this problem, but a couple others do too.. Read on one of the forums that a lack of proper vitamins maybe the cause of most of these problems?? Is there anything I can do about it now that they have the problems and how can I prevent them from happening? I am trying to help the babies with the splayed legs one at a time to learn to hold themselves on their legs. It worked with a couple of them, but there are 2 that are really bad off.. I don't want to cull them if we can fix them, but was not sure how to go about taping quails legs and then later safely removing the tape.. No one has curled toes, or any other feet issues I can see, just the splayed legs.
The last 3 eggs hatched about 2 hours ago. Of those babies, only one is doing good. All three were VERY lethargic once they hatched, and in fact they never actually finished coming out of their shells, just lay there with their head and some upper body out of the egg. I finally helped them the rest of the way out, and they look normal, but just have no energy and I am afraid they are dying. I keep trying to encourage them, and they wiggle a little, but have yet to try to get up. The third baby did the same as these two, but is now up and about and trying to get going. Hopefully they will come out of it and be ok.
Anyone know what might have caused so many troubles?? Could it be just a poor nutrition of the hen? Or is there something I am overlooking?
We checked our daily log (keep one during incubation just in case of issues) and did not seem to have any temp issues, we used an egg turner so they were turning every 4 hours, humidity levels were good through hatch (little high at first on lock down, but back in normal range within a few minutes). Cannot think of anything else to check.
Once we get everyone out of the incubator I will get some photos of all the babies!! So many babies running around and peeping!
gongrats on your hatch! 
