Black Copper Marans discussion thread

[MobyQuail]

glad I found this thread, have some reading and learning to do.

 

[wolftracks]

Quote:
Its trial & error until you find what works for you. I think that Bev needs more humidity because the air conditioning is on a lot in Florida, and that dries out the air.

I have trouble with too much humidity for the Marans, and not enough for my other breeds. I'm trying now to find a happy medium. The last hatch I had, was still too wet for some of the marans, but a few did hatch ok. But, I had some shipped eggs in and it was too dry for them....it is a hair ripping out hobby! LOL

I haven't bought eggs & had them shipped in in years, so I';m thinking that they are drier than eggs one has from their own chickens. Unfortunately, when you use a large incubator with various breeds of eggs, its always going to be hit & miss, unless one just incubates one breed at a time.
Sue

There may be something to that. Just recently I had 2 batches of Ameraucanas due to hatch a day apart & set the humidity up for their lockdown & both batches hatched out really well, but again back to that"don't open the incubator door" thing. I did that this time too. I was ust happy for the good hatch & will try both things again with my next big hatch. I only have one small hatch coming up on the 29th & it's a breed I have never done before so we will see. Then I am back to Ameraucanas & Marans........LOL...too many others to mention...I think I need a 12 step program. I have become a hatchaholic...........LOL

Ya know what really gets me?

I hadn't hatched a chicken in a while and last April, my husband and I hatched out 5 FBCMs on a test hatch. Those are my Prestley/Valentine birds. Since then I get one or two. We used an LG and humidity was 70%. That much humidity drowns them now. This time I was at 65% and only got one chick. None of the shipped eggs hatched, none of my Olive Eggers, none from my Davis birds. Only 3 of all those ggs were clear when I opened them. The membrane was wrapped, the inner one, not the think outter one. I spent way to much on those eggs. Can't afford to order any more. The shipped eggs stopped around day 5 or 6 I think. Two were scrambled and

I know I have fertility going on out there with my birds, but they are up in age and I need fresh stock.

Thursday or friday killed me. For hours I had 4 birds fighting over one box. At one point all four were in there. Five other boxes were empty and they use 2 of those also. I heard all kinds of squaking and noice and ran outside.

SIX hens! One box! They looked like cartoon charactors. I had to help them all out. I had legs and head and tails sticking out and they were jammed in there tight. What would make them do that???? It was unreal. Then once I got to the last hen, she was trying to lay, so left her alone, but reached in to grab any eggs. I had 4 BCM eggs crushed. Yolk and gunk all over my hands, running down my sleeve, and to top it off they were all nagging me. I wish I had taken a pick. I mean you would not have believed what this looked like. I've had 2 and even 3 try to climb in at once, but 6? That box isn't huge. It's just a regular sized nesting box. I was so mad I didn't give them treats. Silly feather brains.

OK so I have 16 more BCMs in the bator. Seven are due the 3rd. The rest the 13th. I have 5 from yesterday and today, that I should be setting right now, so guess I better do that. Somebody better hatch!

 

[VillageChicken]

Here are some pictures of a nine week old hen that is the nicest I've hatched so far.
She has the nicest type so far, and good size. She's still bigger than all the roos from this hatch.
Her comb looks neat, and so far no obvious faults. Pretty sure the white in her primaries will molt out.
I've got a few good dark layers, but they all have more of a brick shaped RIR type with squirrel tails.

Best of all, she's really sweet. That's not stink eye she's giving me.

 

[sewandgrow]

Quote:
There may be something to that. Just recently I had 2 batches of Ameraucanas due to hatch a day apart & set the humidity up for their lockdown & both batches hatched out really well, but again back to that"don't open the incubator door" thing. I did that this time too. I was ust happy for the good hatch & will try both things again with my next big hatch. I only have one small hatch coming up on the 29th & it's a breed I have never done before so we will see. Then I am back to Ameraucanas & Marans........LOL...too many others to mention...I think I need a 12 step program. I have become a hatchaholic...........LOL

Ya know what really gets me?

I hadn't hatched a chicken in a while and last April, my husband and I hatched out 5 FBCMs on a test hatch. Those are my Prestley/Valentine birds. Since then I get one or two. We used an LG and humidity was 70%. That much humidity drowns them now. This time I was at 65% and only got one chick. None of the shipped eggs hatched, none of my Olive Eggers, none from my Davis birds. Only 3 of all those ggs were clear when I opened them. The membrane was wrapped, the inner one, not the think outter one. I spent way to much on those eggs. Can't afford to order any more. The shipped eggs stopped around day 5 or 6 I think. Two were scrambled and

I know I have fertility going on out there with my birds, but they are up in age and I need fresh stock.

Thursday or friday killed me. For hours I had 4 birds fighting over one box. At one point all four were in there. Five other boxes were empty and they use 2 of those also. I heard all kinds of squaking and noice and ran outside.

SIX hens! One box! They looked like cartoon charactors. I had to help them all out. I had legs and head and tails sticking out and they were jammed in there tight. What would make them do that???? It was unreal. Then once I got to the last hen, she was trying to lay, so left her alone, but reached in to grab any eggs. I had 4 BCM eggs crushed. Yolk and gunk all over my hands, running down my sleeve, and to top it off they were all nagging me. I wish I had taken a pick. I mean you would not have believed what this looked like. I've had 2 and even 3 try to climb in at once, but 6? That box isn't huge. It's just a regular sized nesting box. I was so mad I didn't give them treats. Silly feather brains.

OK so I have 16 more BCMs in the bator. Seven are due the 3rd. The rest the 13th. I have 5 from yesterday and today, that I should be setting right now, so guess I better do that. Somebody better hatch!

Are you still trying to repair the Sportsman Kim? The girl at J.S. West said she thought you had been in & ordered a part for it. Do you know what's wrong with it or have you already fixed it? Can we help?

 

[sgtmom52]

Great thread! I just got my first FBCM eggs and set them in my Genesis 1588 due to hatch on April 16th. They are Jean/Presley lines. I will now have to sit down and read this entire thread for hatching tips!

 

[sabella]

I'm not at this point yet, but what lines cross to Wade well? I will have to get new stock one day and I want to be informed. For that matter, what are the differences and benefits to the different lines? I've gathered that Davis has the best eggs and I'm seeing those birds are coming closer to the SOP.

My flock is straight Wade.. Conformation is all over the board.

What line(s) give you the lowriders? (I like those

)

 

[Wynette]

Sgtmom - BEST of hatching vibes coming your way!!

Sabella, I know geebsie calls her stock "lowriders" and I BELIEVE she has pure W. Jeane stock also - though I am not 100% certain on that! Most definitely the Jeane line is known for egg color and initially stock was chosen based soley on that. Which is why we see so much variance in that line, IMO. It just means we need to cull a bit harder with that line, but in the end, whatever you choose should lay a super dark egg!

 

[Germaine_11.20]

Quote:
She IS a beauty. Great conformation and at just 9 weeks. Wonderful.

 

[jeanniejayne]

I had to chuckle reading about the lady with 6 hens in one box. I decided to try a communal nesting box after reading about it on one of the BYC threads. We had made a 3-nest box out of a chest. We took the dividers out and remade a front with one hole right in the midddle. It is about 3.5 feet long, and I have never seen more than 3 hens in it at a time, but they like it a lot. Below it I had two closed kitty litter boxes, and only one was being used, so I brought that one back in the house for the cats. They all tend to either lay on one end of the communal box or the other, or one of them is gathering them all up at one end to sit on. When I gather them, they are almost always in a group of 6 or 7 eggs in the communal box and 2-3 below in the litter box. I have 13 hens -- 4 Wellsummers, 2 Sex links, 2 silkie/Wyandotte/Ameracauna mutts,1 RIR and two Barred Rocks. I am planning on getting some Marans eggs plus a couple of other breeds to do my first hatch in a HovaBator I bought last year. I am hoping to pick up some good tips on here!

 

[sewandgrow]

Quote:
Alright Wynette,............What ar Tamaru longcrowers?????????? Are you trying to confuse girl????