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!
