Hands on hatching and help

[AmyLynn2374]

well, anyway, we have the most adorable little chick. The mother is a black rock, the father a silkie/frizzle cross, so this baby is black like mummy, but looks like a silkie chick, very tiny with same facial features as a silkie, will post a pic when I can get in for a better look <3

Congrats!

 

[AmyLynn2374]

I just wanted to say HAPPY MOTHER"S DAY to all the mom's here on the thread!!! Have a great day ladies!!

 

[ShanandGem]

Happy Mother's Day to you as well, Amy!
I've been really busy and it just struck me today that I need to start thinking about raising humidity etc in the next few days and getting a brooder ready because MY BABIES SHOULD START HATCHING THIS FRIDAY!!!!!!
We lost our little buff Ameracauna hen we bought at the poultry swap to egg binding not long after we got her and there are three of her eggs in there. Really hoping they hatch.

 

[WildHens]

Happy Mom's Day everyone. Whether your kids have 2 legs or 4, skin, fur or feathers ♡♡
Last hatch has been an almost total failure. .got 2 jubilee and 1 blue so far..one more left that's still alive.. no more eggs from this source unless I am there to see them removed from the nests . That's 4 possibly surviving chicks from about 40 eggs..not happy at all..

On the plus side, moved a ton of my own eggs to hatcher last night..silkies, polish, and a menagerie of others ♡♡
And the best part..18 eggs from the lovely @WVduckchick.. didn't care if I had to hand turn..those babies were all getting set ♡♡
Hope y'all have a great day. My mom is spending the day with my grandma, so my day is gonna be spent enjoying my youngins and working on cages and coops and enjoying my fluffy butts. Guess I have to build a rabbit play yard today for my daughter's new rabbit adventure ♡♡

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Happy Mother's Day to you as well, Amy!
I've been really busy and it just struck me today that I need to start thinking about raising humidity etc in the next few days and getting a brooder ready because MY BABIES SHOULD START HATCHING THIS FRIDAY!!!!!!
We lost our little buff Ameracauna hen we bought at the poultry swap to egg binding not long after we got her and there are three of her eggs in there. Really hoping they hatch.

Awww, well good luck!!!

Happy Mom's Day everyone. Whether your kids have 2 legs or 4, skin, fur or feathers ♡♡
Last hatch has been an almost total failure. .got 2 jubilee and 1 blue so far..one more left that's still alive.. no more eggs from this source unless I am there to see them removed from the nests

. That's 4 possibly surviving chicks from about 40 eggs..not happy at all..

On the plus side, moved a ton of my own eggs to hatcher last night..silkies, polish, and a menagerie of others ♡♡
And the best part..18 eggs from the lovely @WVduckchick .. didn't care if I had to hand turn..those babies were all getting set ♡♡
Hope y'all have a great day. My mom is spending the day with my grandma, so my day is gonna be spent enjoying my youngins and working on cages and coops and enjoying my fluffy butts. Guess I have to build a rabbit play yard today for my daughter's new rabbit adventure ♡♡

Ouch. Good luck on the next ones!!!

 

[RubyNala97]

Another long one! Sorry!

I have four of the large heat bulbs hooked up for my babies right now. I'd like to change over simply for electric costs, but I don't have 100$ to spend on all the heating pads I'd need. Currently have two batches of CX, 7 of em at 4 wks and 20 at 2 wks. Then there's 6 Svart Hona, 3 Mearlault or Lyoniese X(sp?) 9 assorted bantys, 18 quailings and 48 eggs due today, 2 currently hatched in the bator w 14 pips. 11 call ducks due in another two wks. Oh and 4 ducklings 2 wks old.
been too long since I've seen u ladies, glad ur lil one is on the mend. I like your strategy there and it would probly be mine once I can invest in heating pads. I have two or three, but I Need my heating pads for my body im not ready to give em up to the birds (they get Everything! )

Hey Hun!! I've been getting your ovations and I appreciate them! You've got a lot going on! Spring is busy for us animal keepers. I'm trying to set up and arrange brooders today and move broody hens and eggs. I've got 1 batch of call eggs in lockdown and a large batch of my eggs going into lockdown on Tuesday. And of course my single baby call in the living room. And then 4 broody hens! Glad to hear you're doing good. So sorry to hear about your grandpa!

Oh my GOSH!  Watch that carefully!  I had two small lipomas removed from the top of my hand. Got the stitches out and it looked great. One teeny little spot was still a bit open, but the doctor put Steri-strips on it and said when they fall off, they fall off....just leave them off.  A week later and all was well, strips had fallen off, and little open spot looked healed.  Our compost was delivered so I put on vinyl gloves and then then work gloves over them and helped Ken in the garden.

May 30th I was fine.  May 31st I was in the emergency room at St. Vincent's Hospital signing permission for amputation.  I had gas gangrene.  It came on fast, and it was ugly. If you touched the top of my hand it sounded like walking on Rice Krispies.  I was up there for 10 full days, had 3 operations on it, debridment in a whirlpool every day, and 3 different IV antibiotics going in 24/7 - they alternated. As soon as a bag of one type was empty a bag of the next kind went in. I was NPO every single night because until the surgeon came in for rounds in the morning and checked it, we didn't know if I'd have a trip to the OR. (I hung him in effigy from my hospital room door to get through to him that waiting from 6 PM until whenever he decided to wander in wasn't acceptable - he got the message)  Amputation was always on the table.  All this was the last of May.  I got my bandages off the end of October. The cultures showed both E.Coli and Clostridium Perfringens, plus a couple of other pathogens....so I had anaerobic and aerobic thingies living in there.

Folks tease me sometimes about being such a germaphobe.  I learned first hand the power of those microscopic little boogers, and nothing scares me more than contact with compost, poop, garden dirt.......gives me the heebies!  I don't tell you this to scare you - well, yes, maybe I do a little.  I don't ever want to see anyone go through that nightmare!!!  So watch it carefully!!  

Wow, that's a crazy/terrible/glad you're ok story!!

Yeah our doctors around here aren't the brightest.. their suggestion at first was to just let it be, and soak it..
I insisted the culture the infection so at least we knew which bacteria we were dealing with... results still aren't back from that so we're still treating with Keflex and Bactrim..
Usually he avoids the compost pile and just goes for the dirt..but his dad was out with him and well..we all know guys aren't the best judge of..well anything..
I have no doubt that he will lose the nail.. there's too much damage already not to. But even at 6, he's been super about keeping up with it..set an alarm on his tablet and everything to remind him when it was time for a soak or meds. We have been doing an alternating schedule..we soak in straight hot tap water with Epsom salt, that's every 3 hours..then in between soaks it packed with neosporin and wrapped. ..
I don't think he'll go near the compost pile again.. as for keeping him out of the dirt..yeah, that probably won't ever happen
ETA.. I'm holding your hand on the germaphobe part. .. my mom works at a hospital and all the horror stories of staph and MRSA.. I can't even walk in a public bathroom without wanting to hose off with Chlorox..he did wash his hands when they were done finding worms, but apparent was already too late.. we're still not sure if the entry point was a hang nail or a splinter. At first I thought it was from an infected splinter.. only after I checked it over really good and didn't see a splinter, did his dad admit to the compost pile adventure the night before..but it is our best guess that it was the cause..
I was bit by a dog a few years ago, on the palm of my hand..I was training horses at the time and it was cold out, so I was wearing gloves. .about 3 days after the bite, I couldn't close my hand but ignored it and kept working..well one night I was working, my hand got hot and I heard a sound I could never describe..my hand had split. . I went straight to the ER, was there 48 hours with IV antibiotics. .it was awful

My middle son gets his nails on his hand/feet infected like this every couple months. He's a really dirty boy. We call him "Messy Jesse" because he's just always a mess. And he cuts his nails way to short and does not tell me about the infection until it's filled with puss. Just one tip, when you soak his finger with salt water, do not use hot water. Just mildly warm water. The heat from the hot water will increase swelling. The finger tip is already hot from the infection, and the warm water will actually pull out the infection more then hot. After every soak I squeeze a little and eventually it will all come out. I know it's hard with kids because as soon as I touch it my son screams. Keep it all up, you're on the right track

I figured out why my hatch was so late and disappointing - my fancy new incubator (brinsea octagon 20) turns out to have been over a degree Celsius too cold from the factory settings. I just reset and it's jumped to where it should be. What a waste of a hatch. How can it be ok to send out such an expensive product "ready to use" when the temps are so off? I'm really annoyed!

Is it the Eco or advanced? My Eco came around xmass time and I didn't realize some of the liquid in the thermometer had separate and it was running a degree higher then I thought. All the bantam eggs popped out on day 18!

Funny how things just seem to work themselves out sometimes, isn't it?  Ken got a call today and his meeting has been set back to later in the day tomorrow.  That means we don't have to leave tonight, we can leave early tomorrow morning, get there in plenty of time for the meeting, and get back here tomorrow night.  It's only a 4 hour drive down there and then 4 hours back, so no point in spending the night!  I can turn the eggs just before we leave, then when we get back.

So in the meantime, Katie stopped over after school (she just lives across the street) and said, "Gramma, they are the eggs you got for me, so I need to learn to do this."  Okay, let's go back where the incubator is and try again.  I told her if she got too worried she could just stop, and it was okay.  

We stood there in front of the incubator and she just looked at me, like, "Well?"  So I told her to take the lid off the incubator and set it to the back.  She did that.  (**Remind me to add something at the end here).  Then I showed her the clear marks on the eggs again, just like yesterday.  Her little hands trembled, but she reached in and picked up an egg, but didn't lift it up very far.  "I can't do it, Gramma.  I'm gonna drop it."  And she set it back down.  But she turned it to the "O" side before she set it down.  "Hey, Gramma, I don't have to pick it way up, just a little tiny bit!!"  Yep, that's right, Katie. I could see her visibly relax.  She turned every egg in the first two rows, grinning a little bigger as she went along.  Came to the last row, and I said, "Let's try something Katie."  I rearranged the eggs a little and that left an almost equal gap in each row.  "Now, one of my BYC friends said instead of picking them up you could just roll them over.  Do that on this row and see how it works for you."  She did that, beamed up at me and said, "I like rolling better than picking up. I got this, Gramma!  You ROCK!"  She was almost disappointed when I told her that it wasn't as critical to me as it had been the day before when we first talked about it, but she set a time in her head.  When her little internal alarm goes off, she'll be here to turn the eggs.  And if Katie says she's going to do something, she does it.

**Now about the reminder.  The stupid lid on the Brinsea Oct 20 is slippery, anyone else notice that?  You have to use 2 hands, grip tightly, and pray it doesn't slip down onto the eggs.  So I got out my trusty glue gun and glued a little strip of rubberized shelf liner to each side of the place on the top where you pick it up off the base.  They are just thin strips, but they do help me grip. Dunno if it will help Katie much, but by golly it makes it much more secure in my clutzy hands!!  And maybe that will help someone else, too.

I love your stories! I'm glad Katie was comfortable doing it! I have to tell you what happened to me!! Yes, the lid is very slippery!! On the brinsea mini the lid is very similar with the black part and the blinking light, only difference is that on the base there is no lip. The top goes all the way down around the eggs. It was during hatch and I had an egg that was trying to zip but some outter membrane was stuck together. This was not necessary but I lifted the lid and pulled the membrane apart and then the lid slipped right out of my hand and came crashing down on the zipping egg!! I thought for sure that I killed it!! It crushed the entire shell but the little chick was fine. Thank god. It just got a very scary shove into the world. My stomach was in my throat after that and I swore I would only lift that lid if I absolutely had too. I was so mad at myself. So I think I will do what you did. Can you take a pic of the strips you glued on? Maybe a hot glue gun would work good?

lost twomore eggs. One had no development but blood in it.i have to get the hang of these outside thing. The last two try's with the ducks mothering. Why is that harder to do.

I can not tell...what is this a pic of??

Just set 19 shipped Serama eggs

And checked my 6 bantam cochin eggs on day 11. Looking excellent!

I can't believe you're hatching seramas! Post a pic of the eggs. Are they super small? How were the air cells. Good luck. I love those little guys.

Good luck!!! I just ordered some Lav Orp and Lav Ameraucana eggs from @bargain. Can't wait to get them in the bator!!

I've bought shipped eggs (Silkie's) from Nancy (bargain) a few times. Shipped from Georgia to NY. Those eggs were actually my very first tries at incuation and I always had 60%+ hatch rate. She packs good! I think the hatch rates would have been better with a little more experience on my part. Good luck!

I just wanted to say HAPPY MOTHER"S DAY to all the mom's here on the thread!!! Have a great day ladies!!

Thank you, Amy! X2!

 

[WildHens]

We are finally on the road to recovery..we stopped the hand soaks and switched to "bath soaks" bc he wasn't keeping his hand in the bowl.. more like playing in it.. but bathing last night resulted in an almost 100% drain and today it's looking great. He's still on the antibiotics, but we're leaving it open to air today. Still think he's gonna loose at least half the nail but I feel a lot better about it today ♡♡
Hope all is well your little man still..

 

[RubyNala97]

We are finally on the road to recovery..we stopped the hand soaks and switched to "bath soaks" bc he wasn't keeping his hand in the bowl.. more like playing in it.. but bathing last night resulted in an almost 100% drain and today it's looking great. He's still on the antibiotics, but we're leaving it open to air today. Still think he's gonna loose at least half the nail but I feel a lot better about it today ♡♡
Hope all is well your little man still..

Great news!! Trust me, when I saw your pic, it looked just like my little mans hands and infection. Mine is 8. Once it drains then it should be good. Just have to keep it clean and like you said, let the air dry it out. Everyone here is good, thankfully! I have two big hatches this week and one of them is going to need a lot of assisting, so I'm glad all my human babies are doing good!

 

[ShanandGem]

We are finally on the road to recovery..we stopped the hand soaks and switched to "bath soaks" bc he wasn't keeping his hand in the bowl.. more like playing in it.. but bathing last night resulted in an almost 100% drain and today it's looking great. He's still on the antibiotics, but we're leaving it open to air today. Still think he's gonna loose at least half the nail but I feel a lot better about it today ♡♡
Hope all is well your little man still..

I would almost rather he lose the nail just so you can see what's going on underneath. Glad to hear it's looking better.

 

[Dessy]

thanks AmyLynn2374