Incubator Humidity for French Black Copper Marans Eggs

[valleyhoneybee]

Again Thank you so much for your guidance! One question... what is "mossy" in a BCM?

 

[valleyhoneybee]

I agree, but learning about the new breeds (for me anyway) is half the fun! I also enjoy the interaction with people who are interested and passionate about the topic. I also enjoy the sharing of ideas and experiences! (Oh, and i love the birds! LOL!)

 

[One Chick Two]

Again Thank you so much for your guidance! One question... what is "mossy" in a BCM?

Happy to help.

Mossy is the term for the obvious copper color leakage (or pattern) pattern showing up on chicks, juvies or adult, from the presence of Wheaten genes mixed in the blood.

Here's a chick showing red breaking through on wing feathers. See the very pale toes too?



Feathers on juvie pullets or cockerels.


Mossiness can encompass large areas of feathers on adults, including wings, and even tail feather like our split hen, Beauty. She's in our layers-only flock.


On males, it can show as large amounts of copper leakage on chests to legs, speckling or areas of copper on low wing feathers (which should appear as black only).

Again, not all Wheaten split birds will show these signs... so all new lines should always be tested anyway. If there is one mossy chick like this in a hatched set of eggs, any that look normal should all for sure be tested as you need to separate out the genetically correct young. Again, if it a pet for yourself only, none of this won't matter, but if you plan to sell or give away the young, it's really best for the breed to keep them pure and correct because birds have a way of getting back into breeders flocks and propagating.

So, if you have a purebred Siamese cat and you have an orange tabby, you're not going to pure Siamese kittens even though they are both cats. With the expensive cost of feed being equal for all chickens, it all boils down to if you want to raise birds worth $50- $150. each, or $2.

 

[valleyhoneybee]

One Chick Two, Thank you again for your time! I have learned a great deal from you and the 8 chicks I hatched out. I must say they are a good "starter set" in that so far they have provided a visual aide for all of your topics! LOL! One is white, 1 has toe issues, 1 is all black, 1 has yellow and upon reading your last post 1 is indeed "mossy"! Odds are if you had 3 more breeding topics to instruct me about the remaining three chicks would prove to illustrate you points! LOL! They will obviously be an "egg only" learning flock. I am actually glad for the opportunity to see some of the issues first hand and learn from them (I would much rather learn now as opposed to much later on in the process!)!

 

[One Chick Two]

One Chick Two, Thank you again for your time! I have learned a great deal from you and the 8 chicks I hatched out. I must say they are a good "starter set" in that so far they have provided a visual aide for all of your topics! LOL! One is white, 1 has toe issues, 1 is all black, 1 has yellow and upon reading your last post 1 is indeed "mossy"! Odds are if you had 3 more breeding topics to instruct me about the remaining three chicks would prove to illustrate you points! LOL! They will obviously be an "egg only" learning flock. I am actually glad for the opportunity to see some of the issues first hand and learn from them (I would much rather learn now as opposed to much later on in the process!)!

This is a worthy, however, challenging breed.

Getting birds that have correct genetics, then bred to SOP, and that lay very dark eggs together are tricky- like the odds of finding a four leaf clover. Ideally, get birds that are genetically correct. Then, without genetic mutations (like missing toes/ toenails, no sprigs/ coronation comb, etc.) Then bred toward type, SOP, color and dark eggs. It is not easy to find lines that aren't clean- it has taken us a very long time and a lot of testing to get where we are.

There's a guy with a website online (and FB) who sells Bev Davis line (from Bev's direct stock) from very dark eggs, and reasonably priced for what you get. This could be a good start for you that could cut out years of testing, and fixing the big issues. I suggest at least speaking to him. His name is Brian Parks, Frazier Creek Ranch, and he's in Oregon.

 

[valleyhoneybee]

Thank you yet again! I will look him up. This endeavor is much like graduate school...sometimes you have to know the answer before you know what questions you should have asked! Lol!

 

[Kathy48653]

I had 17 Olive Eggers (French Copper Maran and Americauna) in the bator last week. 9 hatched, 3 were duds and the rest died as full term chicks in their shell. After much research, I think I may have drowned them by having my humidity too high during the first 18 days of incubation. I had 50-65 % humidity and I think when they pipped into the air cell prior to hatching they drowned because there was water in there. I am starting a new hatch of OE today and plan to do a dry incubation and jack up the humidity during lockdown.

 

[One Chick Two]

I had 17 Olive Eggers (French Copper Maran and Americauna) in the bator last week. 9 hatched, 3 were duds and the rest died as full term chicks in their shell. After much research, I think I may have drowned them by having my humidity too high during the first 18 days of incubation. I had 50-65 % humidity and I think when they pipped into the air cell prior to hatching they drowned because there was water in there. I am starting a new hatch of OE today and plan to do a dry incubation and jack up the humidity during lockdown.

Yes, with the denser, darker eggs, dry hatches seem to fare better. Some of your eggs may have too much liquid in them even before lockdown. However, if these were shipped eggs, then you did better than the 50% average of most shipped eggs.

Don't know what you're using, but we have a cabinet incubator, and like to keep the humidity at around 60% at hatch (especially if there are other eggs already in the incubator releasing moisture). We always seem to be running 200 eggs at any given time. However, it gets tricky with moving air drying things out quickly, and the fact you're not supposed to open up the incubator to check the water level in the tank from day 18-24. Use the sponges if you need to.

Also, Marans is always with an "s" at the end as the birds are named after the towns in France. (Yes, there are two towns named Marans.)

 

[tcblues]

if are selling some Black French Copper Marans let me know. and opossum got into my chicken coop .

 

[kuchchicks]

If u r selling i too am interested!