UPDATE the past 24 hrs
Well I haven't been online in about 24 hrs b/c it has continued to be not such a happy hatch for me
I had the 2 of 3 I had to assist alive and acting great yesterday afternoon, w/ the surprize of new peeping from the pure Maran egg L
I'd only gotten 2 hrs sleep the night b/f so I thought it was safe to take a nap.
2 hrs later my special little Chick W was slumped over acting listless, I moved him closer under the heat from where he was laying on the wet washcloth
which was under the piped egg L (Brooder humidity was very high and this quick opening didn't change the reading).
I went to make some gator aid to as someone had warned me the assisted chicks might need it.
I can back to see the 2x larger half Maran Chick B pecking the life out of poor little W, I think he broke its neck before I could save him.
I was REALLY upset and regretted not seperating them, which I had considered due to the size diff. but they were both so lively I didn't think I needed to worry.
So then I spent a couple hrs on the floor resting my chin on the edge of the battor being sad & thinking maybe I don't want to try this again,
& watching Egg L start to unzip, which was going very slowly but I could tell L was moving freely to rotate so that was great. Then all of the sudden I head some tapping and an odd sound
while Egg L was resting, & of all the crazyness when I looked literally under my nose, below the egg turner pvc one of the eggs that was amoung the 4 I almost didn't put it at lockdown,
a pure Maran Egg K that had been silent, and not piped 2 hrs prior, was fully zipped & just hatched!! What the heck!! The chick I was sure would make it died and a "dead" egg suddendly hatches ???!!!
Egg L eventually hatched but the exhausted chick never really walked and died about 2 hrs ago.
So as of right now.
23 Eggs Set, 22 Locked Down.
Lots of mellow drama of didn't make it and late hatching maran eggs later
2 LIVE CHICKS : "B" & "K"
I still have the other eggs in the bator just in case like K they suddenly turn out to be alive and pip-zip-hatch-walk-start looking for food! all in some 2 hr burst of what the heckness...
I have to say I would not recommend Dark or Maran eggs for anyone's first hatch.
Also, these Maran chicks are nothing like any day old chicks or broody hatched chicks I've ever had, they litterally were eatting every speck they could tear up eggshells etc and pecking at the zipping L mercilessly like little sharks. While that was tragic for W & L I expect these 2 survivors to be some robust chickens! Has anyone else noticed the Marans to be different? or is it that I've only delt w/ non-vigorous hatchery quality chicks in the past and all of the better quality birds are like this?
Well I must confess, I have skipped all the 230 posts I missed in the past 24 hrs, I read everything else on this thread but I'm not going to read those, if I missed anything important or that I need to respond to pls pm me.
Hope all is going well for everyone else
