BackyardVillans
In the Brooder
- Apr 5, 2025
- 3
- 4
- 14
I have a French black copper marans chick that hatched Friday and it looks like there is a bald spot on its head above the left eye or possibly some swelling? A little back story that may help. I found hatching eggs on eBay and the seller was only 150 miles from me so I agreed to purchase 2 breeds. And they also have a YouTube channel that I had seen a couple of videos but i didn’t closely follow because it was a lot of drama. And I should have taken that as a red flag. As the transaction was chaotic and the seller was scattered and very frustrating on my part I got the eggs came home let them rest 24 hours put them in my incubator and as for the BCM eggs they were heavily scratched up by the hens and I did a peroxide wash before putting them in my incubator it was a personal judgment call. The cream legbars I was frustrated with as well as most of them were very tiny and shells had thin ridges in them one of the cream legbars eggs was so tiny and very round like a small ping pong ball I decided to open that one and check fertility as I questioned my entire purchase. It was not fertile. So I crossed my fingers and incubated the rest. Of the 8 BCM 5 of them were scratched up pretty badly 4 of them did not develop at all and one that didn’t have any scratches didn’t develop either. One quit around day 4-5 ( it was not scratched up) that left 2 BCM eggs one with deep scratches one without that went into lockdown and hatched. The one with scratches hatched and has this bald spot on the left side of its head above the eye and looks like it may have some fluid. The other one hatched with no abnormality. Out of the cream legbars, I had 13 eggs I had checked the tiny one as explained above, 4 had no development 5 of them were quitters around day 5 and 3 of them went into lockdown and one hatched and seems to be doing well. After the painful transaction of buying the eggs I went down a YouTube rabbit hole of this persons breeding program and i figured out why her eggs were so scratched up from her BCM her nesting boxes she puts in the small run area of her breeders and not in their coop so it just gets trampled. And that’s how she has her breeder area set up with a shipping container as their coop/roosting area with hardware cloth runs and dividers separating the breeds and 4-5 hens and one roo and the shipping container is sectioned off with the hardware cloth giving them separate runs and coop/roosting space that honestly doesn’t look like enough room. And the nesting boxes in their run area instead of inside the shipping container to give them privacy and a sense of safety. The cream legbars didn’t even lay eggs in the boxes the boxes were repurposed hinged plastic totes that had half lids that lift up. Also she did a video on her BCM’s showing she had a egg eater. She also did a video on her “nutritional feed blend” where she takes various types of grains and seeds and mixes to feed her chickens. When I cracked open the tiny egg to check fertility the yolk looked like a store bought egg very pale yolk not what you would expect of a farm fresh egg. And when I did eggtopsy’s all the yolks were very pale. My opinion is of the cream legbars she has some very young layers as the reason I had so many very small very round eggs and her over all nutrition is bad. As far as the BCM’s the roo was very aggressive one of the hens was a egg eater so I feel like that explains the mangled eggs. But it looks like she has been breeding these 2 particular breeds about 3 years with no new genetics so breeding back consistently. So could this be a result of not having any new genetics? Or a combination of nutrition of the mother hen and genetics? I have this gut sinking feeling these guys won’t be joining my breeding program which is a bummer. I am going to pull these guys out of the incubator tonight I was hoping the other 2 cream legbars would hatch but it’s not looking like it here are a few photos. This one is getting picked on by the other two and just doesn’t seem as active. I have rooster booster and vitamin drench and electrolytes hopefully that will perk up the chick. I will take better pictures of this baby when I transfer to the brooder. Thank you in advance and sorry for the long post.
