Hatch dates vary by breed? Marans question...

[theperdews]

Our eggs are hatching today, but we've noticed a couple variances:

Buff Orpingons, Out of 5, 2 are piped and 2 are hatched
Welsummers, 5 of 10 are piped, none far along or hatched
Marans, Zero of 24 are piped

Some of the Welsummers that are piped came from the same place as the Marans.

First pips were noticed at 6:30 a.m. A few more piped around noon (it's now 4 p.m.). First two hatched at 1 p.m.

Have you noticed differences in incubation timing between breeds? We basically are doing this hatch for the Marans, but included some Welsummers and Orps for fun and variety. Should I be worried that the Marans are not going to hatch? I know there could be rooster fertility issues, but they are 2 different Marans colors, so that would mean both roosters were infertile.

Thanks!

Toni

 

[Christie Rhae]

Quote:
Is today the 21st day? Did you set them in the am or pm?
The marans I have hatched seem like slow pokes to me. But I have not hatched TONS.

 

[theperdews]

We set them on a Saturday afternoon, so it's been almost 22 whole days (a couple hours short, as it's Saturday afternoon now). We used a still-air incubator, so our internal temps must have been a bit low since they didn't start hatching until 21 1/2 days. Egg-O-Meter and fan kit are in the mail for our next attempt! But, that doesn't help these little ones.

 

[Azriel]

I have seen that different breeds have different hatch times. My EE's are always early the Orps right on time. I've only hatched out a few Marans, but they do seem to be slow. I have eggs hatching now, 10 of my own, 10 shipped. My eggs were Orps, mixed and pure, the shipped eggs are Marans. All the chicks from my eggs are out and in the brooder the Marans are just starting to hatch on day 22.
If you set them on a Sat afternoon, you are on day 21, you don't count the day you set them as day 1. Sunday afternoon would have been day 1
I set mine on a Fri at 6pm, yesterday was day 21 and they started hatching about 4:30pm. All my home grown eggs were done by 6am today.

 

[theperdews]

That is very comforting! We finally had a Marans hatch a little bit ago, and another one has piped. So, maybe by tomorrow we'll have some more, as it sounds as though the Marans are not unusual in their tardiness! We have been getting worried, with about 20 Marans eggs and no chicks, but only 5 Buff eggs and 3 chicks. Our Welsummers are also slow apparently. Morning could bring a big surprise...hopefully a bunch of chicks!

Thanks!

 

[GrannysRoost]

For a Thanksgiving hatch I had marans and silkies, but difference in egg and chick size...Marans came first, "He" blue was raised with them and acts like a silkie....I thought smaller eggs hatched first?

 

[theperdews]

Update at 5 a.m. Still 3 buff orpingtons, and now 5 Marans. No Welsummers (they came from 2 different places). A few eggs are still piped and may hatch. It has been nearly 24 hours since we saw the first pips yesterday morning.

Humidity is running 65 to 70%. My daughters are begging to move the chicks to the brooder, but since our incubator is still air, I'm worried that the temp will drop even if we remove the current chicks quickly, and it takes a while for the temp to get back up.

 

[theperdews]

One of the welsummers has zipped but not broken the membrane. Should I open the membrane?

Also, the eggs are loose in the incubator. The hatched chicks keep rolling them over. Could this cause problems with chicks that are trying to pip/zip because they are getting moved so much? So far, we've been hands off and haven't opened the incubator.

A few eggs have slightly piped but made no progress in 12 hours.

 

[theperdews]

We have 7 stalled eggs that have piped, but for more than 12 hours all we've seen is a beak breathing in the hole. Two like this have died.

At what point would you help, or do we just not help at all?

Stressful first hatch! Are they all like this? ;-)

Toni

 

[Christie Rhae]

Quote:
I have found that if they are eggs that you really care about and are important it is always very stressful.
If they are eggs that are no biggie then it is not stressful at all. One day you peek in and tada! chicks. lol Ok I might be exaggerating. Hatching eggs is always stessful to me. My last hatch I had a chick totally shrink wrapped and glued into it's shell. There was no way it was ever getting out so I decided to intervene and had to peel that poor thing out of its shell. This egg arrived cracked and I actually put a piece of duct tape over the cracks. That might have been why it was so dry. But the baby is doing fine now!


edit for spelling.