Birchen Marans Thread

[lazymoney]

I've been having a little trouble with incubating the Birchen eggs. Humidity is staying 50-60% day 1-18 and then increasing to 70-80% for the remaining few days. Temp staying between 99.0 and 100.8. However, hatch rates have been low. Avg 5-7 chicks out of 25-30 eggs. Many never peep through and of the ones that do, the membrane seems super thick and they end up dying before they can get out. I've helped a few of them out after 20 hours or so of trying to break through the membrane. Of the few that I have helped, they have all done real well and are growing normally. However, with other breeds, I have never had to help any out or noticed the membrane being so tough. Anyone have any ideas on where I'm going wrong?

 

[mikeypalone]

I've been having a little trouble with incubating the Birchen eggs. Humidity is staying 50-60% day 1-18 and then increasing to 70-80% for the remaining few days. Temp staying between 99.0 and 100.8. However, hatch rates have been low. Avg 5-7 chicks out of 25-30 eggs. Many never peep through and of the ones that do, the membrane seems super thick and they end up dying before they can get out. I've helped a few of them out after 20 hours or so of trying to break through the membrane. Of the few that I have helped, they have all done real well and are growing normally. However, with other breeds, I have never had to help any out or noticed the membrane being so tough. Anyone have any ideas on where I'm going wrong?

I don't think it's you,all my birchen eggs seem to be very hard to hatch. My best luck has been under a hen because she just knows when to help. I have about a 35 percent hatch rate and the Hens are much greater. It seems like I end up helping several each time I incubate. I even contracted out hatching to a friend that has a top of the line bator but not much better than my cheap one. I have been keeping the number of eggs down to no more than 10 and this seems to help. I guess it just looks better to hatch a third of ten than to hatch a third of thirty. Marans eggs are harder to hatch.

 

[lazymoney]

Thank you. I think I may try letting some hens do the work on them and see how that works out.

 

[GaryDean26]

My hatchrate of Marans eggs under a broody hen is 100%. I have only put one Marans egg under a broody though.

My best hatch rate on Marans has been at 100.5 to 101.5 def F. If you haven't tried playing with the tempurature and humidity you might try other setting and see what works best.

My first marans hatches two years ago were all at 101.5 deg F and around 35-40% humidity the first 18 days. I did get some "thick membranes" and had to help about 1 out of 5 chicks to hatch. I was getting about a 55% hatch rate. Then I started hatching other breeds with the Marans and lowered the incubation tmepurature to 99.5-99.9 deg. and upped the humidity to 40-45% and my hatch rate dropped to about 25% on the Marans. I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong because I was getting over 75% hatchrates on the other breeds. I figured it was the eggs that were the problems. I ran about 6-7 consecutive hatches like that this spring with hatch rates all under 30%. Then after going back through my daily log of temp and humidity from some of my first hatches I went back to 100.5 to 101.5 and dropped the humidity down to 35% for my last Marans hatch of the spring and got 14 out of 16 to hatch and none had to be assisted. Things worked so well I used the same setting for another breed for their last hatch of the season and we went from an average of 75% hatch rate with a low at about 60% to a 48% hatch rate. So...what works for the famous small pored shells and thick membranes of the of the Marans and what works for other breeds will not be the same. I am hoping to see more 14 out of 16 hatches in the future.

 

[lawatt]

my two little birchen chicks are two weeks old today -- and i've noticed, one has longer/more primary wing feathers than the other at this point, although they otherwise look identical. is there anything to be read into this re: gender, or is it just natural variation? (both still have very dark brown/black little combs, so no hints there.)

 

[tbird9]

Here are some pics of my Birchen Marans. I'd love some feedback on what the hens are "supposed" to look like.



This rooster and the hen below came as a breeding pair from Greenfire.


She is almost solid black, but if you look very closely, there is a small patch of silver just below her ear.


These next four hens were part of a batch of day-old chicks, also from Greenfire:
#1

I really like this penciling on the breast.

#2 & #3

#3 on the right definitely has gold hackles


#4



I like them all. I know the gold hackles are not desirable and won't breed from #3, but what about the other four?

thank you!

 

[Papillonlady]

Hi Folks!! I live in Tacoma Washington and I ordered 6 birchen Marans from greenfire farms. Well, 2 maybe 3 have turned out to be roos. One is a slow grower so I cant quite tell yet. I also have 1 lavender orpington who turned into a roo. I am looking to trade for Faverolles, Favaucana, Wheaten Ameraucana, blue splash americana, blue american, or any rare blue egger, blue green egger or green egger. I have to get pullets though that way I can be sure they are hens. Please email me at papillonlady at yahoo dot com

They are both healthy and pretty tame so I would like to find them a home where they could be your roosters for someones hens.

Thanks!!
Amy

 

[Broad St Farm]

The Incubation settings I use in my GQF sportsman for Marans is this: 40-45% for 1-18, 65-70% 19-21. Temp was 100.6 and avg 90% or more. Brinseas website I read the sweet spot for temp is 100.6. I just lowered my temp to 100.2 because they continually hatch a day early. I have Mainly Black and Blue Coppers. I just hatched some Birches from Rodney Reeves 2.5 weeks ago. Here are some of the little guys.

 

[Broad St Farm]

Hi Folks!! I live in Tacoma Washington and I ordered 6 birchen Marans from greenfire farms. Well, 2 maybe 3 have turned out to be roos. One is a slow grower so I cant quite tell yet. I also have 1 lavender orpington who turned into a roo. I am looking to trade for Faverolles, Favaucana, Wheaten Ameraucana, blue splash americana, blue american, or any rare blue egger, blue green egger or green egger. I have to get pullets though that way I can be sure they are hens. Please email me at papillonlady at yahoo dot com

They are both healthy and pretty tame so I would like to find them a home where they could be your roosters for someones hens.

Thanks!!
Amy

how old is that birchen? the feathering looks female to me. males typically dont color like that. i could be wrong though.

 

[Broad St Farm]

My birchen marans are six weeks old today. These are from crfarms here on BYC and were hatched from really dark eggs. I apologize, I am new to this world, so I don't know what number they were. Much darker than the second batch I got for a different source, but those didn't hatch. It appears that I have four boys and a girl. One might be a girl, but I am doubting it. I am doing my pre-assessment of them.

Out of the boys, I have one blue. Shanks seem appropriately feathered. He is already starting to get the silver in on his neck and saddle. Until I saw those pointy feather and colors in the wrong place, I was thinking he might be a girl. So far he seems to be a good boy. Pretty blue lacing and silver feathers.

The other three boys are black. I am still hoping one is a girl, but at six weeks, I don't think their comb should have any pink to it, so probably not ( the one girl is very obvious in comparison). So, of the three boys, one does not have feathered shanks, so he is a cull ( I want to raise these for meat also, and have limited space). He is also one of my iffy ones but his comb is bigger than the blue's, so I am sticking with boy.

Of the two boys left, one is the all black chick. He could still get silver. His comb has way too many points, does that change as they mature? I also think it may be crooked, but probably too early to decide. He is huge! I can always spot him because he is so much bigger than the others. If size is an issue in this variety, maybe he will be worth keeping for that purpose?

Last boy, nothing special, nothing bad. Too many points also, but otherwise seems fine. He may be the keeper. I will have to do a weigh in and picture analysis with them sometime soon.

Im new to Birchens as well, however not new to Marans. If you havent done so read the Black Copper SOP thread and visit the Marans Discussion thread. Lot of relevent info to use for the Birchens. These birchens are a mess, they are way behind the Black Copper. Unless you are getting consistent type and conformation in your birds I wouldnt even worry about comb points or even leg feathering. Only time I would cull for combs is if the birds comb was a disaster, like Sprigs. Wavy combs somtimes go away as they get older. If they get full grown and have the wave gone. Leg feathering can be improved fairly easy. Egg color, not even worried about until I get the bird right. Build the barn, paint it later. My opinions, and if you just want pretty birds for your backyard, no breeding or showing....forget about what I said.