sprayed/spalded leg problems at hatch

kingbee

In the Brooder
11 Years
Sep 20, 2008
63
1
41
Wetumpka, Alabama
I have 300 quail eggs incubating,100 set over a 3 week period. The first 100 was taken out of turner on day 14, the eggs started hatching on day 15,20 hatched by day 16 but 6-10 have bad legs and can not stand. I held the eggs 6 days indoors at or near 70 degs before setting them.
My incubator is a sportsman 1502 . Readings for temp is a constant 100, humidity was between 50 and 55 until day 14 when I added the wick pad which raised it up to 65%.

Eggs were not candled but my breeders are in breeding pens with 1 to 4 ratio so I figured most are fertile.

Has anyone run into this problem before?
What is the fix?
 
The dollar store sells shelf liner, it comes in a roll with different colors. I always use pink. It has little holes in it and it feels like a rubber. Thats really good or you could try paper towels if you can‘t get it tonight. That may have a little better texture then newspaper.
 
Are you talking about splayed or spraddle legged hatchlings? I second the suggestion for the non-slip shelf liner. It's great, they get very good footing on that, and are running around in no time.

You might want to put some poultry vitamins in the drinking water, as well. I use the powdered vitamins available at most feed stores, and mix it 1/8 tsp per quart. That's what I think is the correct dilution, the instructions are only for huge amounts at once, such as you'd use in a big commercial operation. The vitamin powder absorbs moisture very easily, I dump it out of the envelope into a glass jar with a tight lid when I open it. Even then, it cakes up rather quickly. If you have a few of those silica filled desiccant packs (like they put in bottles of vitamins/medications) to toss into the jar, it might help.
 

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