Black Copper Marans discussion thread

[Alaskan]

Got my LP quad in. Love the mellow temperaments so far. I think she handles them a lot judging by their calm demeanors. So far I like the dark skin on the LP feet. Feathering is very dark, but their is copper coming in.

My Heaven Sent LPs are doing well. I will post picks as they grow out. Looks like I have four pullets and two roos.

The Greenfire birds are a huge improvement over the stuff they were sending out last year, but I am not overly impressed yet. I will let them grow out and see what happens.

greenfire BCM? or some other breed?

 

[Eggs-otic]

Anyone have any good advice of hatching eggs with saddle air cells ? I ordered my first online mail order BC Maran eggs, 18 of them. Just candled them tonight for lockdown tomorrow and there are only 8 that look like they could be alive. They all had messed up air cells. I am so disappointed

 

[Alaskan]

Anyone have any good advice of hatching eggs with saddle air cells ? I ordered my first online mail order BC Maran eggs, 18 of them. Just candled them tonight for lockdown tomorrow and there are only 8 that look like they could be alive. They all had messed up air cells. I am so disappointed

did you incubate them on their sides? I think you get the saddle air cells if you incubate shipped eggs on their sides.

I always incubate shipped eggs, at least the first week, upright.... so those messed up air cells can stick on the top part.

Often the air cells are all kinds of catty whompus anyway.... but they usually hatch.... you do have to watch them though...

I am a meddler... especially with shipped eggs.... if they try to pip, and don't quite make it, I make sure they can breathe... then put them back into the incubator.

If you are going to meddle, make sure that you read Sally Sunshine's Assisted Hatch article about 3 times from start to finish.... and then you should be good to go.

 

[Eggs-otic]

Thank you ! I did incubate on their sides. My incubator was set up to incubate on their sides. I just ordered trays to have them stand up for the future.
I just hatched some local eggs for a friend, including a Call duck egg on their sides, but didn't get any of the funky air cells, so I knew it must have been the rough shipping. Even the shipping box was crushed on one end. I was shocked the eggs were not broken, but they had to have been thrown really hard to make that kind of damage.
I will remember your advice for the future on standing them up !
Thank you !

 

[Alaskan]

no problem! And I have found that even boxes that look undamaged, often have detached air cells... so they move any which way... which is why they need to be incubated standing up, fat end up, so the air cell can try to end up where it is supposed to be. The air cells often look a bit odd even when incubated standing up.

Local eggs are still completely intact, (or at least they should be) so the air cell stays where it is supposed to be, even if you incubate it upside down (which I have done every so often... because these silly Marans eggs are so round!)

 

[Eggs-otic]

Are there any safe ways to have eggs shipped without this amount of loss or is this amount of loss normal for shipped eggs ? It is very disappointing !!! Most of the eggs that didn't survive had dead embryos at different stages.

 

[Eggs-otic]

When you say you incubate standing up, do you mean that you don't use your turner either ?

 

[RFR of CA]

Yes Greenfire BCMs. They recently started selling from a group imported from France last year. Mine are about 4 months old now. I will try to get recent pics.

I am also raising a small group of LP, and a second LP group from Heaven Sent. I love the LP line breeding stock, and I am hopeful I have ones that will compare to either of these dedicated ladies in my small groups. Time will tell...


I know zero about the GFF stock as they keep their records closed, but they are showing promise as well.

 

[Alaskan]

When you say you incubate standing up, do you mean that you don't use your turner either ?

I have 2 incubators...

My Brinsea, I can get all the eggs to stand up... and then the entire incubator rolls back and forth.

In my styro bator I stick the eggs in an egg carton. To rotate I prop up one end of the incubator (so it is close to a 45 degree angle) and then after a bit I move the "prop" to the other side of the incubator.

As to how many shipped eggs hatch... my best has been 8 out of 9, my worst has been 1 out of 12 (but I think many of those were clear). It is CLEARLY a BIG gamble.

 

[Ihilani Coffee]

Are there any safe ways to have eggs shipped without this amount of loss or is this amount of loss normal for shipped eggs ? It is very disappointing !!! Most of the eggs that didn't survive had dead embryos at different stages.

If you end up with 8 chicks out of 18 eggs set that's not bad for shipped eggs. Expectations need to be adjusted for shipped eggs, especially when you see detached aircells. Incubating shipped eggs is not for the faint of heart, that's for sure. We have shipped eggs to others that had 85-100% hatch, and those that had 0% hatch, though the eggs were fertile in both cases. It's a crapshoot, and nothing less than gambling.

We bought shipped eggs when we wanted to get started in a breed that was not available locally or required better quality than what was local. The several 0% hatches were heartbreaking, but eventually we go what we needed in those rare breeds. The local eggs that incubated in the same batch as the 0% hatch on shipped eggs were just fine, so incubator settings and methods were fine. I completely understand when people just won't buy shipped eggs.