Navel and cloaca

Navel and cloaca

Assess the quality of the navels. You can see the navel easily by blowing gently onto the navel area. The feathers part and the navel becomes visible. A good, well-healed navel indicates that the abdomen sealed nicely after the yolk was retracted into the body. Poorly sealed navels increase the risk of mortalities. Navels seal poorly if the yolk was an obstruction. Usually, the yolk was still too big when the chick hatched (too moist or incubated too hot).

LOOK-THINK-ACT

What does this tell you?

A well-healed, sealed navel. The chick has a bloody navel. If this is a general picture (1-2% of the chicks), it indicates early hatching caused by too high temperatures in the hatcher. Check the eggshell temperatures. And check whether the sensors are functioning correctly.

This navel is still slightly open. A well-sealed navel must be completely closed. The golden rule applies here too: to measure is to know. You can establish ob-copyright protected jective criteria on black navels (navel scab), which are then used for assessment.

Chicks with a large amount of residual yolk are more susceptible to an E. coli infection because their navels are often not well-sealed. A thick clot of residual yolk is also a signal that the chick’s development was suboptimal, and therefore its immune system too. An E. coli infection is more severe with these chicks. Here, some residual yolk is protruding from the navel. This is a potential portal of entry for infection. Abnormal and unacceptable. This navel will not seal.