Stella's Social Club

[tazcat70]

Ron, why copper pennies? And do you put them in the water pan?

Will the copper from the pennies leach into the water and then when the water evaporates it travels throughout the incubator?

Sorry I have been away for so long, summer is a really hard time for me to spend time on BYC.

 

[The Sheriff]

Hi Tonya!

 

[ronott1]

Ron, why copper pennies? And do you put them in the water pan?

Will the copper from the pennies leach into the water and then when the water evaporates it travels throughout the incubator?

Sorry I have been away for so long, summer is a really hard time for me to spend time on BYC.

The copper makes copper sulfate. It is a fungicide, so oxine for Bacteria and pennies for fungus.

 

[lonnyandrinda]

I think your chicks had Mushy chick disease. The Bacteria gets into a wound where the egg yolk is absorbed.

Yes, it is ecoli bacteria and it usually comes from the incubator. There is a component of the yolk not absorbing correctly, which could come for lack of vigor in the Isbars.

I would think that oxine in the water or Copper Pennies(check the date when copper was removed form pennies. I think it was 1987) would kill the bacteria, even on the egg if it was there. Other than vigor, there could be incubation temperature and humidity issues that cause the yolk to not absorb correctly.

Litter life in the coop and yard will remove ecoli bacteria from those areas. Litter life is sold by Southland Organics(I bought mine from Amazon).

I probably am not explaining this well at all so here is an article from Sally Sunshine:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/mushy-chick-disease-yolk-sack-infection-omphalitis

Yes I looked into that. The problem was I was disinfecting the egg trays, incubator, and brooder every single batch. Still losing all Isbar chicks at 2-3 weeks of age. It didn't LOOK like Mushy Chick disease, and her article said it usually kills chicks just before hatch up to 10 days. These guys were all kicking fine at 10 days. Also, ONLY the Isbars were dying, not the Black Copper Marans, Ameraucanas, Cream Legbars, Easter Eggers, Olive Eggers, or any of several other breeds of hatching eggs I purchased. You can see then why I was stumped.

So I took three dead chicks in to the local university for testing, and they came back positive for bacterial infection of the yolk sack, but I couldn't tell what all the mumbo jumbo was about for exactly which bacteria.... I need to move "CALL THEM" up on my To-Do List for tomorrow.

I'm thinking the problem is with the hens in the Isbar pen, not the incubator/incubating process. This pen is at least 20-50 feet from all the other breeds at all times as I rotate it around my open yard (the other pens are permanent). Most likely only one hen had it originally, but the roosters actions spread it to the other.

I did look into the Litter Life, tried to order online, failed, sent them a message, and then forgot about it.

I don't think much of their customer service... guess I'll look on Amazon. I did treat all my chicken yards with Tetroxy-HCA for 2 weeks. Also I added Colloidal Silver to the chicks' water, and began disinfecting the hatching eggs/hatcher/egg trays with Oxine solution. I have only lost ONE chick since starting the antibiotic so I must be onto something.

On another front- tried to introduce my injured (but mostly healed) Cream Legbar hen back into the flock overnight, found her on her side this morning with a bloody comb.

So I pulled her back out. She's still pretty light but is eating and drinking better. I felt bad for her being stuck in the garage in a tub so I switched her to a slightly larger cage next to the Cream Legbar pen so hopefully she will perk up not being quite so alone. She went right to work on a big slice of cantelope rind.

One thing I have noticed with all my chickens- they don't seem to be a fan of scrambled eggs- which really puzzles me! I thought chickens loved them. Oh, they'll eat them well enough if they are mixed with the scraps. But for instance this hen totally ignored the scrambled eggs (with added vitamins) I kept trying to give her. She devoured the mealworms I poured on top of the eggs though!

So at least I knew she had enough appetite to eat that and also some layer feed!

 

[ronott1]

Yes I looked into that. The problem was I was disinfecting the egg trays, incubator, and brooder every single batch. Still losing all Isbar chicks at 2-3 weeks of age. It didn't LOOK like Mushy Chick disease, and her article said it usually kills chicks just before hatch up to 10 days. These guys were all kicking fine at 10 days. Also, ONLY the Isbars were dying, not the Black Copper Marans, Ameraucanas, Cream Legbars, Easter Eggers, Olive Eggers, or any of several other breeds of hatching eggs I purchased. You can see then why I was stumped.

So I took three dead chicks in to the local university for testing, and they came back positive for bacterial infection of the yolk sack, but I couldn't tell what all the mumbo jumbo was about for exactly which bacteria.... I need to move "CALL THEM" up on my To-Do List for tomorrow.

I'm thinking the problem is with the hens in the Isbar pen, not the incubator/incubating process. This pen is at least 20-50 feet from all the other breeds at all times as I rotate it around my open yard (the other pens are permanent). Most likely only one hen had it originally, but the roosters actions spread it to the other.

I did look into the Litter Life, tried to order online, failed, sent them a message, and then forgot about it.

I don't think much of their customer service... guess I'll look on Amazon. I did treat all my chicken yards with Tetroxy-HCA for 2 weeks. Also I added Colloidal Silver to the chicks' water, and began disinfecting the hatching eggs/hatcher/egg trays with Oxine solution. I have only lost ONE chick since starting the antibiotic so I must be onto something.

On another front- tried to introduce my injured (but mostly healed) Cream Legbar hen back into the flock overnight, found her on her side this morning with a bloody comb.

So I pulled her back out. She's still pretty light but is eating and drinking better. I felt bad for her being stuck in the garage in a tub so I switched her to a slightly larger cage next to the Cream Legbar pen so hopefully she will perk up not being quite so alone. She went right to work on a big slice of cantelope rind.

One thing I have noticed with all my chickens- they don't seem to be a fan of scrambled eggs- which really puzzles me! I thought chickens loved them. Oh, they'll eat them well enough if they are mixed with the scraps. But for instance this hen totally ignored the scrambled eggs (with added vitamins) I kept trying to give her. She devoured the mealworms I poured on top of the eggs though!

So at least I knew she had enough appetite to eat that and also some layer feed!

I would contact the place that did the Necropsy and share the report with dawg53. It is a weird situation you have going on and does not sound normal for most of the e.coli deaths in chicks.

 

[debs_flock]

Quote: Oxine is an anti-bacterial, anti-fungal & anti-viral.

I know that it works on fungus..................I've been using it to cure my nail fungus. After two years of the doctor being unable to do anything, I turned to Oxine...............it has worked

 

[lonnyandrinda]

Oxine is an anti-bacterial, anti-fungal & anti-viral.

I know that it works on fungus..................I've been using it to cure my nail fungus. After two years of the doctor being unable to do anything, I turned to Oxine...............it has worked

Interesting... may share some of my Oxine with my mom! How are you treating?

ronott- I will do that, thanks for the suggestion.

 

[Happy Chooks]

Congrats Mary on the photo being accepted!

Kelly I just saw your photos from your hike and the scenery is glorious!!

Thanks! The scenery was amazing. It was a very fun trip.

 

[debs_flock]

Quote:
I've kept the nail cut as short as possible as it grows to try to keep the edge as close to the bad parts as I can. As the bad parts come to the edge, I try to keep it cleaned out as deeply as possible so the Oxine can reach as far under the nail as I can get it. Then I just mix Oxine 1/4 teas to a quart of water. Every night I would put about a tablespoonful in a cup and soak the nail in the Oxine mix for about 5 minutes. The discolored part where the fungus is changes to a normal color almost immediately wherever it was exposed to the Oxine. Each day the discolored part got smaller. Literally I had the fungus continually growing out for about 18 mos. I've been working on this with Oxine for less than 6 mos (maybe 4) and it's almost completely grown out and the nail looks normal where it's new. I have less than a 1/4 inch of nail to grow out before it will be normal.

My doctor wrote in my record what I was doing when I told him about it. He said he probably wouldn't be telling his other patients. I think he's going to change his tune, LOL

 

[Hangtown Farms]

Look at the cream legbar hatching egg I got from Greenfire.

It didn't develop.

I wasted a lot of money...again.

bummer sorry