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I read on a Marans standard page that the quality can never be judged by the amount of white on a chick. Didn't really go into any details, but that's what I read anyway. Bit off subject but I learned something just from my experience on egg color though. I have five BCM hens and two of them lay fairly light eggs (probably around a four to a six on scale) and the other three lay 7-9s and I finally figured out who was laying what and studied them for differences and found that the two that are laying light eggs have completely black eyes and the other three that are dark layers have black eyes with copper rings around them.
Anyway, I just put 15 on lockdown earlier this evening... been having shrink wrapped membrane problems and having to help them, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed (had the hatcher on for last three days just getting it regulated and ready) that this week's hatch is a lot smoother than the last three. The first few hatches this year were wonderful, was having anywhere from 97% to 100% hatch rates and not doing anything but watching the little things pop out. The last few have been nightmares and I haven't changed a thing, but just can't figure out what is going on. We have a huge Humidaire cabinet incubator that is in my boyfriend's building and he used a lot of carb and brake cleaner on some four wheeler parts (which is known to be extremely drying to skin) so we are wondering if just the fumes in the air of the building of our bator may have caused it. May find out since this batch went in after he got done with his "hobby."
