Help needed....Incubating Copper Maran eggs for science fair project - day 17

aserrano

Hatching
5 Years
Jan 17, 2015
6
0
7
I am incubating Copper Maran eggs for a science fair project, now on day 17. Early on I had read that you incubate chicken eggs at 60-65% humidity & this is what I did. Recently I have read about Copper Maran's possibly having issues w/ to much humidity during incubation causing sticky or drowned chicks because of too high humidity. My egg weights have not changed much. Now I am worried for my chicks.

What should I do? Bring the humidity down? for one day till I am supposed to go into lock-down, or should I maybe keep them at a lower humidity for an extra day...try to dry them out & get some weight loss before lock-down? Can I go into lock-down a day or two later?

Your thoughts and help would be greatly appreciated
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I am incubating Copper Maran eggs for a science fair project, now on day 17. Early on I had read that you incubate chicken eggs at 60-65% humidity & this is what I did. Recently I have read about Copper Maran's possibly having issues w/ to much humidity during incubation causing sticky or drowned chicks because of too high humidity. My egg weights have not changed much. Now I am worried for my chicks.

What should I do? Bring the humidity down? for one day till I am supposed to go into lock-down, or should I maybe keep them at a lower humidity for an extra day...try to dry them out & get some weight loss before lock-down? Can I go into lock-down a day or two later?

Your thoughts and help would be greatly appreciated
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60-65% humidity for the first 17 days is too high for any breed of chicken eggs.
Me, personally-I would go dry for day 18 and if they have not pipped I would wait until late on day 19 to go into lockdown. There's a chance that if any have internally pipped, or do internally pip before enough moisture is lost-would possibly drown.
If they externally pip though, you'll want to get the humidity back up to hatching rates 65% or more. (I go for more.)
That's my opinion.
 
Thanks for your help, I am doing that now. It is a shame that I did not come across this site earlier. I had two sources that spoke of the 60-65% humidity that I thought were reliable: https://pubs.ext.vt.edu/2902/2902-1090/2902-1090_pdf.pdf and http://shilala.homestead.com/incubating.html\ Keep your feathers crossed for some success. I will keep you posted.
The book that my sister gave me for my first hatch I understood to say the same thing. Of course they were going in depth about wet bulb thermometers should be used in what type of bator and the equivelant wet bulb temp to humidity percentage and had me so confused. It's so much easier to have a place to go and get other's opinions and what works for them. I ended up joining this site because every timeI googled a specific question the best answers came from here...lol

Fingers crossed.
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Marans eggs are definitely the hardest I have ever incubated, and my broody hens even have a hard time getting them to hatch properly. I think it has something to do with the amount of pigment on the eggs, as well as the membrane around the chick being very thick. That said, before I incubate I try and take a little of the pigment off, much like a mother hen does when she turns in the nest. If you look at a broody hen's nest of Marans eggs, the pigment is usually almost all gone by day 21 - they are a light brown and glossy color.

For your specific question regarding humidity, I go dry until day 18 (30-50%) then bump up to about 70% the last 3 days. Be warned if you crack the top of the bator even slightly and drop the humidity when they are pipping, you are almost guaranteeing they stick in the shell....I lost a ton to that my last hatch because I had a chick born two days early and had to get him out to feed and drink. Marans seem to need the high humidity during hatch to break out of the membrane, which at times can almost be like leather.
 
Marans eggs are definitely the hardest I have ever incubated, and my broody hens even have a hard time getting them to hatch properly. I think it has something to do with the amount of pigment on the eggs, as well as the membrane around the chick being very thick. That said, before I incubate I try and take a little of the pigment off, much like a mother hen does when she turns in the nest. If you look at a broody hen's nest of Marans eggs, the pigment is usually almost all gone by day 21 - they are a light brown and glossy color.

For your specific question regarding humidity, I go dry until day 18 (30-50%) then bump up to about 70% the last 3 days. Be warned if you crack the top of the bator even slightly and drop the humidity when they are pipping, you are almost guaranteeing they stick in the shell....I lost a ton to that my last hatch because I had a chick born two days early and had to get him out to feed and drink. Marans seem to need the high humidity during hatch to break out of the membrane, which at times can almost be like leather.
I also do the "dry incubation" during the first 17 days. I do however disagree with your statement that even cracking the top of the bator is almost guarenteeing they stick in the shell. While causing a SIGNIFICANT drop in humidity in the bator during hatch and pipping CAN and does increase the risk of shrink wrapping a chick, it does not guarentee or even close to guarentee that it will happen. I understand that you are talking about a specific breed, but if you have your humidity up high enough during hatch (I shoot for 75% or more, but am satisfied at 70% as long as the humidity rises naturally during the hatch,) then opening the bator to pull out a chick or make an adjustment should not compromise a hatch if they have had optimal incubation standards.
I not only remove my chicks during hatch, but I have also had to assist in helping a severly malepositioned chick and have only had to help one chick that had a problem with shrinkwrapping, and personally I believe that was due to the position under the fan unit while hatching.
I acknowledge those that stick to a strictly "not opening the bator at all during hatch" and that's fine if that's your philosophy. Like I said, it does lower the probability of shrink wrapping a chick, but as one that opens if needed I need to play devil's advocate with and for people with different philosophies.
 
Great news, we have hatched 4 chicks. Two piped and hatched w/in 4-5 hrs. The other two piped & made a little zip, but then made no progress for 24 hrs (from the initial pipe), so I had to help. I did a little at a time, putting them back in the incubator for 1-2 hrs. to see if they could or would do more on their own. Now we have 7 eggs left that we candled and they look like the candled eggs from the chicks that have hatched. But we have seen no piping. How long do we wait before it is time to give up hope, or do something? We are now on day 26. Our hatched chicks came out at day 21 and 23.
 
Great news, we have hatched 4 chicks. Two piped and hatched w/in 4-5 hrs. The other two piped & made a little zip, but then made no progress for 24 hrs (from the initial pipe), so I had to help. I did a little at a time, putting them back in the incubator for 1-2 hrs. to see if they could or would do more on their own. Now we have 7 eggs left that we candled and they look like the candled eggs from the chicks that have hatched. But we have seen no piping. How long do we wait before it is time to give up hope, or do something? We are now on day 26. Our hatched chicks came out at day 21 and 23.
If you are at day 26 chances are your hatch is done. I would suggest (and you could use this in your science project as well, either by pics, which may be a bit graphic, or by recording on paper your findings and conclusions) that you do the eggtopsies. When I do my eggtopsies I put a hole in the end the air cell is on to double check for life/movement before I preceed to open the shell and look at the chick. You can gather alot of info on possibly what went wrong during the hatch, or what the circumstances were that may have contributed to the death or stopped developement.
 

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