Severely deformed SFH chick. Too much inbreeding?

[BlackBrookPoultry]

I'm wondering what everyone's thoughts are on this chick. I have never had anything like this fully develop. I got 4 Swedish Flower Hen hatching eggs from someone here on BYC. Two made it to lock-down (I also got 3 bantam orps and they all hatched and were healthy). One SFH hatched fine. The second had internally pipped but was not making progress, and when I candled I could see something wasn't right. I put a small hole in the egg and found an exteme cross beak. I decided to just let the little thing die in the incubator. Well, 4 days later it was still in there peeping away so I put it down. I opened the egg to find that it also did not have an eye.

Is this an inbreeding issue? I have heard that the SFH gene pool is too small in the US and they are not very hardy due to it, and maybe thats where this deformity occured. Just wondering what everyone else thinks about this, especially SFH breeders. It's heartbreaking to have to deal with this, especially when the little chick was peeping away happily until I had to end its life.

 

[countrygoddess]

Someone else just posted about this same thing (or was it you?). I breed the very rare Silver Gray Dorking. I had two eggs that died in lockdown and when I opened them they both had this same deformity. One was missing both eyes, the other just one. Both had severe cross bills. It could be because of inbreeding (my flock is one year old this year and all came from the same place) but it also could be due to improper storage--specifically, being chilled. My eggs had gotten really cold in the basement. Big mistake--I'll never store them down there again. At least not in March in Vermont.

 

[countrygoddess]

Oh, also, it could be due to improper nutrition in breeder stock. In my case, I know that was not the problem, but with eggs bought online, you just don't know...

 

[BlackBrookPoultry]

I was thinking that maybe the shipping process could have caused this. But to have another breed from the same person have 3/3 hatch and be healthy while 1/4 of the SFH hatch and clearly one is deformed, its hard for me to blame it on shipping or breeder diet. I guess maybe it could have been improper storage of the eggs before they were shipped. This just concerns me. I have a friend who purchased white wyandotte hatching eggs from a very well known breeder and had had a lot of deformities. I suggested it was maybe her incubation methods, but the chicks from her own flock hatched out fine. Its kind of sad.

 

[countrygoddess]

I found this very helpful when I was incubating/hatching: http://www.natureform.com/kb/index.php?article=1011

 

[BlackBrookPoultry]

Very interesting. It says cross beak is caused by heredity. Missing eye by incubator temp or lack of enough oxygen during the first 6 days.

 

[countrygoddess]

I know--it's so hard to determine for sure what causes this problem. In my opinion, the craniofacial deformities are all part of the same cause when seen all together like that.

 

[Bulldogma]

As a SFH breeder, I'd like to chime in. While the gene pool in the US is narrow, it is not dangerously so. That said, If one person gets eggs or chicks that hatched out of brother/sister pairs and then hatches a number of generations down from there without adding to their bloodlines... sure - there can be problems.

That said, any breed can throw some cross-beak chicks. I have not yet had any in the hundreds of chicks hatched from eggs from my flock.

Failure to develop eyes, brain or other organs on the outside of the chick - - most of those tend to be incubator issues or issues with the handling of the eggs. I CAN say that SFH eggs tend to be much more sensitive to those of other breeds. They could have gotten chilled during shipping - interstate USPS trucks are not heated in the trailer. And just being joggled about can lower their viability rates quite a bit.

SFH eggs are harder to hatch than other eggs... this is a known factor. They hatch best under a broody hen, and hatch well in the higher-end incubators. Not so well in the cheaper 'bators... and they are really sensitive to the humidity, doing best with dry incubation and only boosting humidity after hatch. Of course it's always a crap-shoot with shipped eggs any way.

In this particular case I don't think it is a breed issue, but more of a bad luck, "stuff" happens issue. I'm sorry the little one had issues.

 

[casportpony]

As a SFH breeder, I'd like to chime in. While the gene pool in the US is narrow, it is not dangerously so. That said, If one person gets eggs or chicks that hatched out of brother/sister pairs and then hatches a number of generations down from there without adding to their bloodlines... sure - there can be problems.

That said, any breed can throw some cross-beak chicks. I have not yet had any in the hundreds of chicks hatched from eggs from my flock.

Failure to develop eyes, brain or other organs on the outside of the chick - - most of those tend to be incubator issues or issues with the handling of the eggs. I CAN say that SFH eggs tend to be much more sensitive to those of other breeds. They could have gotten chilled during shipping - interstate USPS trucks are not heated in the trailer. And just being joggled about can lower their viability rates quite a bit.

SFH eggs are harder to hatch than other eggs... this is a known factor. They hatch best under a broody hen, and hatch well in the higher-end incubators. Not so well in the cheaper 'bators... and they are really sensitive to the humidity, doing best with dry incubation and only boosting humidity after hatch. Of course it's always a crap-shoot with shipped eggs any way.

In this particular case I don't think it is a breed issue, but more of a bad luck, "stuff" happens issue. I'm sorry the little one had issues.

From: http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/vm095
Deformities

In any animal population during embryonic development, there is a predictable incidence of embryos that die or are not able to hatch due to deformities. Based on this comprehensive investigation, data demonstrated that the percent of deformed embryos ranged from 0.22 to 0.30% of the total hatch. These findings suggest that hatchability declines on the average of 0.25% due to malformed chicks. A combination of deformities and malpositions can be manifested simultaneously. Table 2 shows the incidence of common deformities observed from embryos at 15 to 21 days of incubation. The most common deformities are those of exposed brain (29%), without eye(s) (25%) and with beak abnormalities (+/-35%).

Table 2.
Incidence of common deformities
Deformity

Description

%
1

Exposed Brain

29
2

Without eye(s)

25
3

4 legs

10
4

Deformed beak

27
5

No upper beak

8
6

Deformed twisted leg

1

 

[BlackBrookPoultry]

Oh wow! That's an interesting chart. I've only had one other chick hatch with a missing eye. It was from a shipped bantam cochin egg. The chick lived less than a week.