Lumbering Lumps -- Chicks that don't make it

[thepiedpiper]

I've been hatching chicks in my incubator. Occasionally the dang incubator suddenly gets hot or cools off -- not exactly a precise machine.

Well, several -- maybe one in 20 -- chicks that hatched were what I've come to call "Lumbering Lumps." They're pancaked a bit (flatter rather than round like a ball) and they lumber from side to side -- sort of like a scoot. These just never make it. Does anyone know if it's the variable temperature that's causing this? or something else? It's like chicks with Down syndrome. They're really beautiful, but they always die. Very sad.

 

[MuranoFarms]

I'm guessing either the temp was a tiny bit too low, or the egg wasn't rotated enough. Do you have a turner?

 

[thepiedpiper]

I do have an egg turner. But I think the temperature is the issue -- sometimes this incubator goes along for days and days at 99.5, then suddenly it shoots up to 102 or so. So I adjust it, and it drops to 97 or thereabouts. it's so frustrating. And sad. the little lumps are just beautiful babies. But they just don't make it.