Worse hatch of my life

[NYRIR]

What were the conditions of the place you got them from? Did it appear unkempt?Does this person seem like they would have had a poor animal husbandry practice? Sounds to me like you know what you are doing....so I agree it had something to do with the eggs...parents...something else besides you or your bator!How much do you know about the persons chickens you got the eggs from?
Sorry you went through that! It must have been awful!

 

[mandelyn]

I bought the eggs at a poultry swap and went by the condition of the cages and how he had everything set up, and the birds he had there with him. He showed me cell phone photos of the Maran parents out in their run, same sort of photos you'd see on Ebay or something, just tiny.

Wish I could tell him about it, but I don't have contact info. One of those, I saw, looked around, asked a ton of questions, beat him up on his price, and walked off with them. They hadn't been sitting in the sun, he was under a shelter in shade.

You know how you can tell if the person set up cares about the animals or not? (or if they're putting on a show, you'd never know I guess) Like there will be half naked hens shoved tight as they'll fit into a wooden crate with no food or water, and then there will be a kid with his dad, only 2 birds per cage, water bottles, and feed given to them periodically, cause you can see some still in the cage.

This guy had A LOT of birds, double booth. I looked at wings and tail feathers to see if they were split up and beat up looking from over crowding, didn't look too bad. No "naked" birds missing more than half their feathers. Handled some chicks to see if they had bugs on them, you know, I really looked around after eyeballing those eggs, I knew they were Maran, I saw that color from 5 booths away! And eggs would be a safe bet anyways, they're not covered in mites or sneezing. Little did I know...

My thought process.. they'll hatch or they won't, can't be worse than shipped eggs. Well... lot's tried to hatch. And it was brutal.

Diet seems like it could play a role. Bad genetics coming into alignment in that generation could too. Several viruses from my reading can be the cause. But I didn't see any information on if the virus would pass live to the chick? Now I'm totally freaked out about if these chicks are walking carriers for something.

I gave them a vitamin mix and some egg yolk from my own birds, they're quite perky now. Specially the first one that popped out of the egg. Maybe she's fathered by a neighbors rooster or something.

#4 with the swollen head and curled toes passed away last night. I got the foot thing sorted with these "boots" I saw during my research, but it wasn't enough, it was too messed up.

The remaining 2 that hatched with issues are actually doing pretty good. The one with the bent around leg is now back in place where it should be and it can stand and walk. It rests a lot, so we'll see. It's a 5 steps, sit, 5 steps, sit. The second one, it had come out as if it couldn't use it's leg, one or the other or both would be rigid out behind it. Every hour I would go down there to the incubator and put the legs back and set it down again.

Chinese take out trays I learned is perfect for something like this. They're a sturdy enough plastic to be useful, and short enough in height to go right into the incubator, but tall enough to keep a chick in until it gets it's bearings and motor skills going. I'd dampen a paper towel and lay that down, and put each chick in a tray. Using the corner for it's butt, so that it couldn't put the feet behind it again, it could either rise up or go forward. Helped those two a lot.

There could also be hidden things I don't see. I felt around gently on all their bones... keel bone was straight and everything seemed ok. But they could have issues later too, which might lead to a more definite cause.

I'm not hatching anything else until my ducks start laying. I need a long break.

The good news is, I have 3 pullets that I paid $25 for. That's $5 cheaper than the other two I have outside from shipped eggs. Not one shows any indication of being male, so that's something. But that's how many eggs I've hatched, I can spot gender right out of the egg on single comb varieties.

 

[NYRIR]

Quote:
Well at least something good came out of it! I really feel it had something to do with the stock....so sorry you went through this

How do you spot gender right out of the egg? I can usually tell by 1-2 weeks on single combs just by feathering and by face and comb features...hard to explain...but I am generally correct so far!
ETA You seem to have done everything I would have done...I wouldn't beat yourself up at all about it.If you have been doing this for over ten years...you know what you are doing so I myself would also look for other factors.

 

[mandelyn]

I do the same thing with the comb and how much room there appears to be in the fluff for further growth or limited hen comb growth... a lot of "baldness" indicates a future giant roo comb. That and size/drabbiness of the comb. The Blue and Splash maran girls I hatched last fall were easy with black, tiny, worthless little combs. These girls have bright yellow, but everything on them is bright yellow. So, I really stared at them and noticed how TINY those combs were, with fuzz up close and personal to them, how flat it was where the comb meets the forehead.. all those little details.

The longer you do it, the closest to hatch you can do it. I hear it's the same with vent sexing ducklings, something I'm going to learn to do. Start with older ones and work your way backwards each time.

My little Hamburg pullet, I bought her when she was about 4 weeks or so, and it was so easy to pick her out I shocked myself. Like riding a bike! I looked at the group in the cage, and grabbed her and other. I was more sure on the other than this one, but a couple weeks later, I'm still right. Her buddy got snatched by one of the dogs who snuck into the basement when the door was left open. Very sad but valuable lesson about trusting the men in this house to shut doors. They sure got an earful after that. So she lives with two call ducklings that think she's momma. Hilarious and SO cute. Shes super tame too, flies onto my shoulder as soon as I sit down.