One Cause of Dead Chicks in the Shell

Abstract

Since the breeding work began with poultry at the Massachusetts Agricultural Experiment Station those embryos dying after the eighteenth day test have been examined at the conclusion of the hatch. During the spring of 1922 this examination was usually made three or four days after the hatch was completed. Toward the end of that season attention became directed toward observing the abnormal positions of the embryos instead of searching for cripples, which latter were found in small numbers, only. Three major malpositions were noted, the most frequent one observed at that time being that of the head extended toward the rear down the ventral side of the body and between the thighs. It is to be noted here that the normal position for exclusion is with the head bent to the right, the beak at a point near the edge of the air cell line in the large end of . . .