Maran Assortment coming soon...Newbie needs help

[SarahInAlaska]

Oh my. My hubby has been bit by the chicken bug. It all started when a friend of mine offered us chicks if we would give her our unused dog kennel for a brooder. Before the chicks hatched we stumbled across an Australorp for sale on Craigslist and we brought her home. Soon after that we added another Australorp girl and then our baby chicks arrived. All our baby chicks are brown or blue layers with maybe and EE in there (they are all mutts really) but none of her chickens lay white eggs so we know we won't be getting any of those. Then we were fortunate enough to add three 10 month old white leghorn hens to the bunch and they have been stellar egg layers. Well, with all the other shades of eggs we have DH and I have been drooling over the Maran's deep brown eggs after seeing them for sale on Craigslist near where we live. I basically just wanted an older pullet or hen. Alas, we were too late and today DH made a plunge and purchased a dozen hatching eggs from a company. They are assorted and say "You could receive: Black Copper Marans, Blue Copper Marans, Blue Birchen Marans, Blue Splash Marans, White Marans, Wheaten Marans, Golden Cuckoo Marans or more..."

Sigh. Not sure I was ready for this but I'll have to be now.

I've been reading up on incubation and whatnot and I was hoping to get some expertise from Maran owners that can put us on the best track. I'm in Alaska and we are suffering through late winter storms this year so I'll probably be setting up out in my garage where I can keep the temperature the warmest/most consistent and where my curious 18 month old can't get to them. I think I'd die if she broke any after the money he spent getting them shipped here.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

[erinnyes]

Hi! I'm still sort of a newbie myself, but I'll help if I can!

Are you using an incubator for hatching, and if so, have you tested it to be sure it holds it's temperature when it fluctuates? Basically just turn it on, get it to the desired temperature (I use 37.5 C for my marans eggs), and check it when the weather gets much hotter/colder. If you're using a woodstove for heat you might run into humidity issues as well, but if not you'll be fine probably.

Also, be aware that shipped eggs can have greatly varied results! It all depends on whether they were handled nicely or exposed to extreme temperatures in route. Once you get them to your house, let them "rest" for 24 hours, blunt end up, in an open carton. The room temp for this must be between 60-70 F. Don't put them in the incubator immediately.

If you have any specific questions about marans in general I might be able to help, let me know!

 

[SarahInAlaska]

We are doing an incubator as I have no idea how to get my hens to do it and I don't want to risk it. I just went to the store and bought one (the only one left) and caught the last day of their 20% off chicken stuff sale. This is the one I got:

We have a gas powered garage heater and its pretty dry in there.

Any help you can give at all will be very appreciated! Thanks so much erinnyes!

 

[erinnyes]

In my experience, still air incubators can be great when dealing with room dryness. Fan powered incubators tend to dry out the eggs a little more. Did your incubator come with an egg turner? If not, be sure to turn the eggs once daily. Mark them with a pencil on one side if you need help remembering which you've turned.

As far as room dryness goes, I feel your pain, I use wood stove heating. One thing that helps is to (if you can) put a pan of water on top of the heating source, or near it. Helps put a little bit of moisture back into the room, which can be helpful when you have to open the incubator to turn eggs or candle them. Be especially careful to keep the water reservoir full in your incubator so the eggs can't dry out on you. If you have time before the eggs arrive and are able, I would buy one of these too: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Digital-egg...008?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a271f2d10

Oh, and marans eggs are SO hard to candle! I use my best LED light on my darkest ones and I can't see anything but the air sac! It is up to you if you try to candle your eggs, but if it were me, I would definitely at least try it around day 13 or later. I just had a rotten egg explode, so I can tell you with experience that it's something you'll want to avoid if you can!

It doesn't have to be exactly that one, but knowing the humidity helps! If you're not able, you should still be fine though. Good luck with your hatch!

 

[SarahInAlaska]

Thank so much for the info! This one does not have a turner and I really didn't want to spend $70 on one when I've got these two lovely little hands I can manage just fine with, lol I'm sure they are super helpful, but I'm trying to save money right now and had to spend $69 on the incubator plus the $68 hubby just spent on eggs. I've heard that a lot about candeling but we'll see what I can manage. How do you do a setup to candle? I don't really understand it from the written descriptions. I always need to see pictures or videos as I'm a super visual type person. I don't think I can get a humidity gage here in time but the incubator did come with a thermometer.

 

[SarahInAlaska]

Aw man I think we've made a huge mistake and I'm a little sick about it. Decided to read up on the place my hubby ordered the eggs from and it's almost all bad or indifferent. I would have thought that with something like this one would have to be good at it to stay in business but perhaps that's not the case. Has anyone actually had a successful hatch of Marans from Gabbard Farms? I'm going to be so upset if we wasted $69 on bad eggs . But I also don't want to have the $10 cancellation if they might do well.

 

[Bantymama]

Just want to say that I have hatched out many BC Marans. All my eggs hatch on day 21 except my Marans they Hatch on day 22 for me. Make sure to give them more time if they do not hatch right away.

 

[erinnyes]

Hmmm... I have never ordered from Gabbard farms, but it sounds like many people feel pretty strongly about them. One reviewer said that the eggs they got weren't even fertile, which is a pretty bad deal. :/ If it were me, I'd cancel and prevent the risk of a pretty big investment, but if you want to go for it anyway, definitely let us know how it goes!

If you do cancel (and that is totally up to you), here are some breeders I can recommend if you're looking for marans specifically:
http://fitzfarmandpoultry.net/ I've ordered eggs from this farm several times, I can't recommend them enough. I've had excellent hatch rates from them, SUPER dark eggs, and healthy, correct-type chicks. They can offer assorted color marans too.

http://www.adamsonacres.com/eggs.htm I haven't personally ordered eggs from here, but I've heard good things from other people. The lady who runs it, Wynette, is a very knowledgeable BYCer and a super friendly person.

http://creefarm.com/marans.htm I year or so ago I emailed Bev Davis asking her if she had any stock available, and she referred me here. These guys have some really top-of-the-line marans!

If you do want marans and quality is important to you, I do strongly urge you not to buy chicks or eggs from hatcheries, even reputable ones. These marans tend to be crossed with Welsummers, and it's almost guaranteed that you will not get the nice dark eggs of a true marans from them. Of course, if you just want chickens for backyard fun and enjoyment, hatcheries aren't always a bad bet. They tend to not sell out this early in the season, so chances are if you ordered from one of them, you could get some eggs right away. It just depends on what's important to you!

As with all shipped eggs though, the hatch you get varies most depending on how they are handled during transit and the incubation process. No one can guarantee hatching success because of that. However, if the eggs weren't fertile to begin with... yeah. :/

 

[SarahInAlaska]

Thank you so much for all the info. We went ahead and cancelled. I found someone about 40 minutes from me with hatching eggs that are $20 a dozen, much better than the $69 we were going to spend, even with the $10 cancellation fee. We are wanting the deep, dark brown eggs. I haven't even got chicks yet and have local people wanting me to start a list for buying eggs! It's funny but I've had a lot of people say things like, "I've never tasted a dark brown egg before!" I've tried to explain that eggs are eggs no matter what color they are but they seem pretty intent on it, lol. Maybe it's just because they are pretty rare in Alaska.

 

[SarahInAlaska]

Picked up my eggs and they are in the incubator...and they are HUGE!