G'Morning, I have 11 cuckoo maran eggs on day 23 in a Little Giant forced fan incubator. After not candling at all I decided to give it a go and see if I could see thru the dark shells. I could not see very well...and did not know if I was seeing movement or not on day 18. Let them alone and none never hatched. I gave up on the batch...but left them in the bator for one last ditch day. My DH and I went to bed last evening (the bator is in our room so we can monitor it during the night) and after turning the light out and almost falling asleep we hear a chirp. We both sit straight up in bed and run to the bator. I cannot see anything pipped thru the windows. My friend told me that you have to PIP the shell for cuckoo marans because they are a breed who has a tough time getting out of the shell? I did pick an egg and broke away the shell and it contained a dead chick developed to about day 14. So I gave up on the whole hatch...GLAD I didn't unplug the bator.
I just hatched out 14 cuckoo chicks for a friend and didn't have any problems. Just make sure your humidity is around 70%. Only tough shells I've run across is the turkey eggs that I had in the incubator. Good Luck on your hatch and hope you get a few chicks today. I have 35 RIR and 5 pheasants in the hatching tray now due to hatch.
It is not true that marans need to be helped out of the egg. They can hatch just as easily as any other breed, as long as conditions have been proper in the incubator. Every time you hear a peep, please do not open the incubator. It lets out all of the humidity and can ruin the chances of anything else left in there. Leave it shut and allow the chicks to hatch. Richard
I had a feeling I should not listen to her...NO way am I going to pip every egg. I told her I'd wait on it. I LOVE this forum...when your confidence is low you can just post a thread and get all this support. I had given up on this batch we are at day 23-24 and the humidity is running low. Should I add water? I've been keeping IT very humid...the windows have a ton of condensation on them. The one I cracked open was at day 11 or 12 in development...looked up the Hamburger Hamilton Stages of Development!
Well it looks like this hatch is going to be dubbed the FOREVER hatch. After a transformer fire and losing power for upwards of 10 hours I all but gave up on the batch. I let it go till the 21 day and thought I'd let it ride for a couple extra days. Well...I've had 5 pip and 2 actually hatch...4 others are rocking in their shells but NO pips. I'm wondering when I should give up on the rest? One laid in its shell for 48 hours after pipping...so I intervened...it finally died this morning. It appeared to have some sort of deformity/swelling bulbous filled with fluid head. The humidity was fine...high for a while but I got it back down to normal...temps a steady 99.5 for most of the hatch except for the first day when the bator kept going all wacky temps UP and down like crazy...come to find out my digital thermometer was on the fritz. So it looks like this will continue on into the 26th day...I'm tired.