Owie, Aimee!!!!!!! Arnica Montana... in the healthfood section of the grocery store. Either gel, or pellets you take orally (but the gel you rub on, gently), either will help with the swelling and bruising.
I am trying to hatch more marans, but not very successful yet.
Out of the 12 chicks I hatched from Deb and a couple of other breeders, I think all but 3 are roosters.
Two are REALLY red... the coloring is all over the place! But I just set some more not-so-dark eggs, so we'll see what we get. Maybe we can replace some of your babies, unless Deb has some extras.
Comfrey is awesome too for bruising. You mash the leaves a bit and make a poultice. That's a class A lump Aimie, it's going to get ugly! Or pretty depending on how you look at it. Hope you aren't hurting too much though I expect it's worse today.
Thanks everyone, I slept with ice on it, and the swelling is down today. I'm starting to see some purple around the perimiter. Woo hoo!
Tori, I'm going to try and hatch some more, I know these Marans are hard to get through incubation, thanks for thinking of me!
Hey, all you fine Alaska folks! This thread has gotten so super-long and is more chat than anything else. What say you start a new one for June and let us close this one down? I'm afraid all the actual hatching is being lost in the chatty social stuff.