Hatching Black Copper Marans the islander's eggs

[Island Coppers]

In my thinking this is sort of a first step, everything else has been in preparation for this. This hatch will be the result of selections made here with eggs laid here. All of the birds so far are the result of someone else's choices and their work. Given our short days here this time of year the fact that the young hens started laying early was a pleasant surprise. But from what I've read here using eggs from young hens can have problems, although there are apparently many cases where there is a good hatch rate and no health problems.

I have read so much good information here but I also believe that hands on experience is really the best teacher. So this is a bit of an experiment. There are far too many raccoons around here so this is also some insurance against a potential tragedy.
I'm looking to sort of unlock the potential from the hatching eggs I ordered by looking at a bunch of their offspring, so I'll hatch more soon.

As of today, there are 8 days to go.

The Maticoopx incubator has been keeping steady temperatures but the power went out last night and I slept right through it. It was 19f so that's not likely to improve the hatch rate.

One thing worth noting. On previous hatches I have wrapped towels around the incubator because it kept the temperature more stable although still variable with cooler areas. This time I made a shallow box out of foam insulation with towels covering it. Surprising what a difference it made. The sensor on the incubator is steady on 99.5f and the more sensitive small sensors show only minor fluctuations.

 

[wrathsfarm]

Best of luck with your hatch.

I've read that it's best to not set eggs from pullets under 8-9 months. But I went against this with my last hatch setting young pullet eggs.
My experience is I've noticed a size difference especially noted with the 3 cockerels I have at 17 weeks compared to my others at that same age hatched from older hens.

Record keeping is important to keep track of who hatched from what egg to document your best traits to move forward with your breeding program if that's a goal.

I've been thinking about the maticoopx 30? How many hatches have you done with it?
Any complaints?

Neat idea with the foam box to keep temp stable.

 

[Island Coppers]

wrathsfarm​

I appreciate your thoughts and suggestions. Record keeping is something I really need to do even if I am not at all fond of the task.

Interesting, smaller chickens from "pullet" eggs, I hadn't considered that. That larger size really contributes to Marans having the desirable "built like a tank look". I maybe re-homing lots of little chickens.

I've done 4 hatches with the Maticoopx. The addition of the insulation box has solved my major concern with the variance in temperature.
Not sure how big a deal that much variance really is. It's also tricky to keep the humidity in a 30% to 40% range right now. Must be due to the freezing temperature outside because the last two hatches I added no water to the incubator and the humidity stayed around 40%. If I add enough water to fill the smaller reservoir the humidity rises to 50% plus. Perhaps a small modification to reduce the size just for Marans eggs... But overall I'd say this incubator is doing it's job quite well.

 

[Island Coppers]

22 live chicks, 6 unfertilized and 2 quitters.

 

[wrathsfarm]

22 live chicks, 6 unfertilized and 2 quitters. View attachment 4055245

Awesome hatch !! Congrats, my friend.

Looking forward to seeing more pics.

 

[Island Coppers]

 

[wrathsfarm]

View attachment 4056223

Super cute...

 

[2ndTink]

View attachment 4056223

Totally adorable!

 

[Titantherooster]

I am mid hatch with some of my own stock of BCM and just candled and the air cells don’t look like they have lost much. I didn’t weigh at the start. Humidity has been in the 20% range most of the time. I had considered “washing” or wiping the eggs down with a warm damp cloth to take the brown pigment off and help expedite the evaporation process…have any experience with that? You seem to have had a good hatch all things considered .

 

[wrathsfarm]

I am mid hatch with some of my own stock of BCM and just candled and the air cells don’t look like they have lost much. I didn’t weigh at the start. Humidity has been in the 20% range most of the time. I had considered “washing” or wiping the eggs down with a warm damp cloth to take the brown pigment off and help expedite the evaporation process…have any experience with that? You seem to have had a good hatch all things considered .

With my Marans, I try to keep 20-30% also for the first 18 days, basically a 'dry hatch' and then increase to not over 50% at lock down. A lot of research I've dug into with other breeders say because the Marans eggs are so much harder, denser and darker pigment this retains more moisture in the eggs not needing the added humidity.
I have a video of one breeder that lightly spritzes their eggs before setting with a hydrogen peroxide I wanna say 3%.
I've never washed my eggs or spritzed them so I can't make a judgement on it.