[aaadawnb]

Only my second go at incubating. First time around had really good success rate. This time only 6 out of 12 chicks hatched, 5 eggs subsequently turned out to contain dead chicks and one was infertile. Of the 6 that hatched, 2 have something wrong with one leg - kind of looks dislocated or something - they stand on one leg with the other sticking out to one side. Any ideas where/why things have gone so wrong this time?

[technobob]

We had a batch of eggs with a significant number of deformaties and dead in shell. We put it down to the temperature in the incubator going a bit high for a period of time.

My understanding (and I am sure that others will correct me if I am wrong) is that when incubating, the eggs are much more suseptable to higher temperatures than lower temperatures. After all in the wild the mother would have to get off the eggs occasionally, so cooling is something that can be survived.

Did you keep a daily record of incubator temperature?

[mercury]

Just had a look at your blog techno, realy enjoyed reading it, i'll be visiting it again  

[Foxy]

Hi
Just seen your post re: chicks with splayed feet -might be too late now but a friend who hatches hundreds ties their feet loosely together which apparently works a treat to gently staighten their legs. They look like mechanical toys at first though!