chicks dying

[coey]

hi all. i have had a couple of chicks break through the shell and make a pea size hole, but then die. do people encounter this regularly or is something wrong?

[matt]

couple of mine have done that this year i put it down to them being weak best they dont break out last thing you want

[doo]

Happens to everyone now & then ...all yb's can't be top class atheletes best they did not hatch, you get weak in every form of life nature usually sorts them out......don't ev er be tempted to give yb's struggling to hatch a helping hand as they never seem to turn out to be any good.  my opinion  

[coey]

thanks alot. i was a bit worried.

[Guest IB]

I had a nasty experience with this last year and on thinking about it I think I understand what happened. Think if you see this in future, don't expect a successful hatch.

 

A youngster doesn't hatch out by knocking a single hole in the shell, its supposed to turn in a circle 'pecking' at the shell with an egg-tooth on its beak as it goes. This creates a continuous line of  breaks which weakens the shell so that the youngster can force its way out through the top of the egg, which breaks away, leaving two neat 'half-shells'.

 

Had a single-hole job last year. Discovered the yolk-sac hadn't been fully absorbed. If the youngster had tried / been able to turn, this would have broken off and the youngster would have lost every bit of fluid from its body.

 

The egg got damaged (cock sitting too tight) the youngster got out of the bottom of the egg, the yolk-sac didn't, it died almost immediately and the nest and parent birds got messed up real bad, covered in egg-yolk more orangey than yellow - mixed with blood.