chick with legs forwards

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chickenfan

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I fully agree with Chris Seems all the breeds will quickly be ruined in terms of longevity and laying and no-one will have the years to spend getting these qualities back.

Further to my horrendous hatch from Pear Tree Poultry I now have an chick hatch late with the legs forwards. They aren't splayed so I'm not sure how to deal with this. I've had it propped up in the right position and given it some multivitamin. The other two are now fine, but I'm stuck what is wrong with this one.

I'm not sure what has caused this - whether it is inbred stock, poor feed or not storing and turning the eggs properly but its a wretched problem. Three breeds were involved. Most eggs were fertile and grew to full term then didn't hatch.
 
Have you contacted Pear Tree Poultry about these problems, Chickenfan? Would be interesting to find out what they say. If they're a genuine breeder they'll want to know about the poor egg quality.
 
Yes I will be contacting them - but my first priority is to see whether this chick can come right. Its a lovely little thing but I've not managed to improve the strange angle of its legs.
 
Is it a skeletal disorder Chickenfan?

The reason for going full term but not hatching is usually because the humidity was too high for the first 18 days. This means the air sac doesn't fully develop and the chick can't manoeuvre for pipping. We have stopped running to a humidity figure and now run 'dry' for the first 8 days and monitor the air sac development. If the sac is the correct size the incubator remains dry, but if too big we add water for a while. Our incubators are semi-automatic with water troughs. We then transfer to a well insulated Suro20 for the hatching (the cradle motor has failed so we can't use it anyway) set to 75% humidity. Last hatch was 11 from 12 fertile and previous was 8 from 8, so we must have got it right?
 
That's very interesting Chris. The eggs were under a broody for the first 14 days, then in the incubator at 45 degrees and the weather has been extremely dry here. All the eggs had big air sacs and the ones I had in the incubator from a hobby breeder all hatched with strong chicks, as did one of mine (put in in case the hatch was poor). However its possible that the humidity might have been high for too long for it (because it hatched late). Does this cause leg problems? It seemed to hatch easily but as it was getting on its feet (on kitchen towel) had its legs straight in front of it with the head between the legs (like a yoga forward bend). It stayed like this for over 24 hours in spite of gentle physiotherapy and trying to prop it up in a ring with the legs in the right position. I'd lost hope by this morning and thought it must have cerebral palsy, but it bagan eating today and then seemed to realise where its legs needed to be and they are gradually coming right so it can now stand and walk. Its a little Thuringian (having seen how lovely Dinosaw's birds were) and the other Thuringian was weak to start but is now fine so I'll just have to wait and see.
 
Chickenfan, if you want to try again with Thuringians then this is the ebay seller I got mine from.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/christa3902012?_trksid=p2047675.l2559

She hasn't got any eggs up at the moment but has listed them as recently as 31st July. I got quite a few eggs from her, fertility was excellent and hatchability very good. 6 Silver Sussex of which 5 hatched, 6 Araucana of which 5 hatched, 10 Thuringian of which 7 hatched and the only disappointment was the White Orloffs which in fairness I was told that the fertility had dropped and got an extra 6 eggs for free to make up for it. The Count and two girls hatched from 12 eggs.
 
Many thanks Dinosaw. I'll keep her details for the future. Would be lovely to find an Araucana from The Count's bloodlines!
 
He's an Orloff chickenfan, though two of his brood brothers were white Araucanas and I often photographed them together. I have to admit I lose track of who has what and which bird is which.
I certainly wouldn't give up on keeping Thuringians, they are a real joy, so so friendly, easily the friendliest breed and the happiest to be handled I've come across.
 
Very friendly - now tries leaping out of the coop when it sees me.
 
Unfortunately after a long period of being normal this Thuringian chick's legs went wrong again at c6-7 weeks old. Just seemed to want to spend most of the day sitting down, just getting up when it wanted to eat. I tried multivits etc but the legs didn't strengthen again so has been pts today. Most unimpressed with Pear Tree Poultry. They weren't interested in knowing there had been some problems and just blamed everything on the postal system and myself re my poor hatch and the weak chicks that did hatch.
 
That's a shame chickenfan. Try again next year with the breeder whose link I gave you.
 
Thanks Dinosaw. I probably have too many birds now anyway, but will definitely keep on file for the future.
 
Yes I'm back down to 27 now after peaking at 32, a lot of the growers are looking like boys so it will fall away to a more manageable level by the new year and perhaps leave some room for a new project in spring.
 
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