When last you left the Vance incubator eggs were beginning to hatch and dripping blood...... Guess all's well that ends well. Out of 24 eggs 19 hatched. One of those is a grewsome(sp) sight with what appears to be his brains or a giant pimple on his head. The eggs that were bleeding hatched happy, well looking biddies.

I bought 2 dozen "hatching" eggs from the local livestock auction. Figured it was safe and bringing home eggs wouldn't expose my animals to the nasty diseases that could be going around such places. Kinda makes you wonder what they were feeding the hens that laid these eggs for there to be birth defects and such?

-- Diana in FL (dvance4@juno.com), March 25, 2002

Answers

Soooo glad for you that they made it. Poor little one that is sooooo hurt. Maybe his head was stuck in the egg and it made his skin not form right. Poor thing. 19 out of 24 is a good hatch. Especially being transported from an auction. The hurt one may have been jolted badly or something before you ever got them. You will never know.

-- Nan (davidl41@ipa.net), March 25, 2002.

Could the hurt one have a blister from rubbing the inside of the egg? Congrats on the healthy chicks. Each experience is a learning opportunity.

-- Robin in East Texas (Southpawrobin1@aol.com), March 25, 2002.

Diana, I don't mean to alarm you but be very careful buying hatching eggs from uninspected flocks because eggs can carry a very serious disease called Pullorum. Here in Canada the gov't keeps a close watch because we are classed as "pullorum free". A few years back this disease showed up on the west coast and Vancouver Island so the gov't sent out teams of inspectors to test EVERY chicken around here. Sure enough some tested positive and the whole flock had to be destroyed. Eventually the testing finished and all should be well except that people will smuggle in eggs from the States or use hatching eggs from some small flock that may have been missed in the testing. I hope your chicks are fine but you may want to have them tested, it is a simple and quick blood test. Good luck.

-- Kathy (homefarmbc@pacificcoast.net), March 26, 2002.

The onne with the bump on the head may be a polish, or other crested breed. They frequently have a large bump on the head, of herniated brain. They do fine and the skull closes over the bump. The larger the bump, the better the crest. The excessive bleeding of the shells was due to the chicks pipping a little early; lower the temp 1/4 to 1/2 degree for your next incubation. That will keep them in their shells an extra 8-18 hours, to allow them to mature before they pip. Normally when the chick pips the egg, the blood vessels in the membrane start to close down, shunting the blood in them back to the chicks body. then the navel connection closes off, and the chick is born with a normal navel and a full blood supply; if he hatches a little early he can have an open or bleeding navel, or be anemic. Even so, he can still survive. Yes, you should only buy eggs from someone who is NPIP certified, as several diseases, esp. pullorum-typhoid, are carried in the ovary and spread thru the egg.

-- Deidre Edder (edderland@yahoo.com), April 14, 2002.