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- #11
KaldakurFarm
In the Brooder
YES, that is exactly what happened to my chick. How they heck do they get the top off!?!?!?Ok first I have to address what you described with the chick that tried to come out the top of the shell and was stuck bent over, simply because I had the same exact thing happen in my hatch this past weekend. I had to take pictures before I helped him though...lol This is mine:
He had managed to get one wing out..... and as you can see he is bent in half in the shell....lol
Don't be alarmed at all the flesh showing he/she is a naked neck, in his case the naked went down to his shoulders...lol
Now for the humidity. I run 30-35% first 17 days and 75+ for lockdown and hatch. Wet sticky chicks could be a humidity issue. The leg/foot issues (according to the chicken chick) causes are:
CAUSES
One cause of spraddle leg is slick floors that result in chicks losing their footing. The legs twist out from the hip and remain in that position unless corrected.
Other causes are:
I have never had yellow sticky substances on my chicks so that's a new for me.
- temperature fluxuations during incubation
- a difficult hatch that makes legs weak
- leg or foot injury
- brooder overcrowding
- a vitamin deficiency
The differences in why some do and don't-some hatch fine while others are sticky or wetter often has to do with different eggs releasing different levels of moisture. Size of egg and egg porosity are two big factors that affect this. I HIGHLY (it's what I base my whole hatch method on) advise monitoring the air cells to know and confirm that your humidity levels are right for your eggs.
Mine didn't have spraddle leg, it was one bent toe on each chick, except for the gooey chick which had two bent toes (one on each foot, always the middle one on all chicks with issues). The toe was curled under like it was contracted. The difficult hatch does make sense though. I read something about taking them out of the bator too fast causing the toe issue too. I use paper towel in the brooder (and bator) for traction.
The substance was like glue, it was crazy sticky. There was a glob the size of two quarters stacked up in the bator that another chick fell in and got glued to - it was that sticky. It was clear, but with a yellowish tinge. I ended up putting another wet paper towel over it so nobody else got into it. Both gooey chicks had the same stuff. Turns into cement when it gets hard. It was like rubber cement almost.
I did check the air cells, they all seemed similar when I candled, I will pay more attention next time to see if I can see anything odd. One shipped egg that quit did have a saddle cell. The porosity of the shell is an interesting topic - I will definitely note that next time too. I do remember seeing an egg that was unusually more porous than the rest, I do remember it was a shipped egg though.
All good things to think about. Thanks for the input!