Weird hatch situation on eggs I shipped...need some opinions/advice!

[bugladyleah]

Well, as stated before, I have hatched out lots of chicks from this pen this year and have had minimal trouble....even with incubation issues (I had temp. spikes early on with some hatches...love those LG's!!). So, I guess we can chalk it up to probably a compilation of many different factors (shipping, possible x-ray?, distance, rough handling). Maybe the bantam eggs faired better b/c of yolk to albumen ratio (less room for them to slosh around on the inside of the egg??). I know it is a stretch! I didn't think anyone would have a "ah-ha!" answer for me, I just thought I'd throw this out there. I also have asked people incubating eggs now to let me know if they are seeing the same problems....so I can at least keep track of things if it is a trend. Thanks!

Leah

 

[coffeemama]

Hi all-I'm the "buyer"

Ok-here's the pieces to fill in: I had 2 dozen bantam eggs from a local guy, 6 of Leah's EEs, and some other bantam eggs from her in the bator. I also put 4 EEs under my broody, but have yet to go check on them(I know there are a few chicks). They started hatching just a few hours after the bator EEs.
In the bator there are 2 EEs and about 4 bantam eggs that didn't hatch, 2 of Leahs and 2 of the other guys. I have a hova 1588 and temps. were right on the whole time. I did have two humidity drops on around the 10th day. The strange thing about this is that all of the other chicks are fine. I have a whole bunch, and only the EEs had issues. I don't think it was anything from Leah's stock at this point, but it is a mystery how only the EEs out of her shipped eggs had the problem. I think it may have something to do with egg size!

 

[bugladyleah]

~heaving a sigh of relief~ Coffeegirl just PM'd me that all of her EE under the broody hatched and they are all HEALTHY! YEAH! So...the mystery continues..... I was starting to get a little worried that I was developing a new strain of "Frankenchicks" as Coffeegirl called them...lol.

Anyway..thanks, Chelsea for the update on the hatch. Sorry you are having to deal with this mess, but I am glad you at least got a few healthy ones. Thank god for broodies, huh?

Leah

 

[Wildsky]

The tail-less could be a throw back to a breeding with an Araucana..... I believe thats where EE's come from anyway - a mixed breed with Araucana in there somewhere.... please someone correct me if I'm wrong!

 

[luvmychicknkids]

Quote:
That is kinda what I was thinking. I was actually kinda hoping that was it on the tailless one and I might end up with one.

 

[M@M@2four]

Hey--I believe it's x-rays! I bought a ckutch of eggs of someone here and had 8 fertile. Was SO excited to have such great fertility on shipped eggs. Day 21 came and went...then 22, then 23. One pipped on 23 and when it hatched, it's beak was severely crossed. Then day 24 came and another pipped--this one had a severely crooked neck! So day 25, I figured nothing would hatch, so I cracked open the eggs to see what the problem was and I was shocked to see ALL of them had severely crooked beaks. Poor things turned to hatch out and couldn't because their beaks were so crooked! I contacted the seller just to make sure it wasn't a genetic thing and she has hatched out a ton of her own eggs with no defects. So, the only thing I can think of is the stupid PO x-rayed! Anyhow, to make matters worse, both chicks died. It was just sad and such a shame.

Just wanted to share my experience and that's what it sounds like may have happened to yours as well.

 

[snowydiamonds]

Something no one is mentioning is whether the eggs are being turned consistently... humidity, turning, temp all factor in for failure in some manner.

I've got 10 bantam eggs mille fleur due to hatch the 14th...have not candled but the eggs "feel heavy" every time I manually turn them even though I have an auto turner and I may be causing damage opening the incubator too often!

 

[coffeemama]

Yes I have a hova 1588 with a turner. The only thing that was off is that I had two different days when the humidity dropped to 35% for a few hours. The temp on these incubators is super reliable and consistent.

 

[DuckyBoys]

Well the only thing I can say for certain is that it was a DNA issue - either environmental or genetic. I'm leaning towards environmental (X-rays etc) because genetic would not have the pattern of "only the shipped ones in the incubator". Genetic defects don't care about that stuff - they just show up.

 

[SundownWaterfowl]

the eggs could have been x-rayed. Were they wrapped in foil?, if not, they were probably x-rayed and that caused the deformaties.