What are your thoughts on these stillborn babies

[camarogirl79]

So, this year I bred my female Upper Keys corn het amel, caramel, blood to my male amber het amel poss het blood, hoping to prove out the male. The female laid 21 eggs earlier about May, all hatched and I had some normals, caramels, amels, and butters, no bloods. I was going to just say the male wasn't het for blood when the female double clutched on her own laying 9 more eggs. Had 4 hatch out already, one normal and 3 amels but the other eggs wern't pipping yet. Today I went to go check on them and one had pipped but it was dead. I cut open the other eggs to see what was in them and found 3 still born babies, looked fully formed, one slug and one dead that wasn't fully formed. 2 of the formed still borns have little head pattern and no belly checkers. Could I assume that my male IS het blood or should I try again next year and see if I can get live blood babies before assuming that? Here are dorsal and ventral pics of the 3 stillborn babies and pics of the parents.

Normal stillborn baby

amel

blood looking normal

Female

Male

 

[camarogirl79]

The amel is the one that had pipped then died

 

[HazAnga]

I'm not completely experienced but I think the blood looking, looks like a blood. (the head pattern makes me think that way)

 

[Christen]

The first one just look like it had het blood markers but the other two look like it. I would shoot again next year.

 

[camarogirl79]

The amel is the one that had pipped then died ????

Yes, sad too, that one looked really pretty. I don't really know what happened with them, my incubator worked perfectly, never fluctuated.

 

[iculatr]

Looks like many of us experienced the same thing this year. I have spoken with many breeders that had "DIE" and "Kink" problems this year. Murphy was definitely stalking my clutches this year as well. I am actually waiting to see how Susan's Upper Keys het Cinder X Cinder pairing turns out. They are being incubated at a lower temperature. Hopefully she will post some results soon. I am considering incubating at a lower temperature this coming year if she is successful. Sometimes nature just has a different plan for us. Chin up and good luck next season.
Troy