Incubating French Black Copper Marans

[mattsinger]

I'm so excited for you Matt! Are you going to candle them or anything before lockdown? Where's your humidity now and for lockdown?

Kristie

Since I was a bit high on the first 10 days...I let it go down to 12% for the last 6 days. we'll see. For lock down I think I need to get up around 60%

 

[MrsEllis11]

Since I was a bit high on the first 10 days...I let it go down to 12% for the last 6 days.  we'll see.  For lock down I think I need to get up around 60%

Matt you are hatching marans eggs right? Because I'm so anxious to see how yours hatch out!

 

[mattsinger]

Yes....Marans. Im pretty nervous myself. 9 are blue copper, and the rest should be a mix of blue copper, black copper and spash.

 

[MrsEllis11]

Do you use an auto turner or by hand? I am buying a scale today to see if that helps me at all. We will see...if not I will just use it for something else!!

 

[mattsinger]

Ive got an auto-turner.....with as little as Im home.....I dont think I could do it any other way

 

[mattsinger]

Im starting to collect another bunch of eggs........If I learn anything from this hatch, Ill probably throw some more in next week. I gotta make this work one of these times

 

[PlatteRiverPs]

You would think that the marans eggs would not be any different than any other egg but I had better luck with the other breeds in my first and only other hatch had one marans hatch out of 7 fertile eggs.

Kristie

Its the dark "bloom" and shell thickness that make them difficult for most people. The darker eggs do not evaporate as quickly as other eggs. In order to hatch them consistently, humidity must be kept low. Like a few have suggested, dry incubation is where its at with the Marans . I put NO water in until day 18. I have great luck at 20-25% humidity bumped up to 40% at lockdown.

If you see fully formed(drowned) chicks that didn't not pip, humidity was too high.

 

[MrsEllis11]

Its the dark "bloom" and shell thickness that make them difficult for most people. The darker eggs do not evaporate as quickly as other eggs. In order to hatch them consistently, humidity must be kept low. Like a few have suggested, dry incubation is where its at with the Marans . I put NO water in until day 18. I have great luck at 20-25% humidity bumped up to 40% at lockdown.

If you see fully formed(drowned) chicks that didn't not pip, humidity was too high.

If my humidity in first 18 days goes below 20% do you suggest adding any water or just leave it for dry hatching? It can get dry in our home. Thanks!

 

[GaryDean26]

My first Marans Hatch was my first hatch in about 17 years. I had done dozens of hatches in my younger days and had a pretty good idea what I was doing, but I was using a new incubator that I hadn't play with very much. I set the temperature at 101 deg., but about two weeks into the hatch I accidently hit the wrong button when rotating the eggs (no automatic turners at the time) and the temperature went up to 102 deg. I left it as was because I feared I would do more harm than good trying to mess with the temperature. I had 11 out of 15 eggs hatch. Only 13 of the eggs were viable though, so I call in 11 out of 13 eggs. They were all on day 21. Two got stuck in there shells and after the other were done hatching we went in and rescued them. Our humidity was between 25-40% the first 19 days and 65 degrees on day 20.

The following year we got some egg from a breeder in another part of the state that we drove 3-1/2 hours to pick up and another 3-1/2 hour home. The breeder told us his last hatch was 16 out of 18 eggs and that he set them a degree higher than standard breeds. We hatched them at 100.5-101 deg and got 4 out of 8 chicks to hatch with humidity between 35-40% for the first 18 days. 5 of the 8 eggs were viable. One was fully developed, but didn't pip. One got stuck in its shell and again we helped it get unstuck.

Then we stared hatching other breeds. We turned the temp down to 99.5 deg and the humidity to 40-45%. We were getting 75-85% hatch rates and life was good. After about 10 hatches in a row it was time for more Marans. Our hatch rates were in the range of 25-35% range with the Marans. We tried dropping the humidity, increasing the humidity, rotating by hand, using the automatic turner and the hatch rates stay the same...then reading back through the records for the first two hatches I remembered that the other breed has said to hatch a degree higher and that our first hatch was way to high to begin with and went up to from there. So we went back to 100.5-101 deg F. and a humidity of 25-35%. That hatch resulted in 14 out of 16 eggs hatch and we didn't assist any of them (we weren't even home at all on hatch day). We were so happy with the results that when we put in a batch of eggs of a standard breed right after that (which we were getting 75-85% hatch rates at the other setting). That standard breed resulted in a 45% hatch rate.

So...lesson learned. All eggs are not created equal. I like to incubate bany eggs and dark brown eggs a little higher tempurature. Those shells are thicker and it seems to work for us. I use lower humidity on the dark brown eggs than I do a white/light egg breed. The white eggs must loose water faster than the Marans eggs.

I started last fall to mark the air sacs on the white/light eggs I was hatching and try to use that as my guide to water loss. Turns out that is easier said than done. I had no idea if I needed more humidity or less humidity. At the same time I also started weighing egg. Also easier said than done. I was putting one egg on the scale at a time and it only read to one decimal place on the scale so I could get enough resolution on the weight loss early on to know if what I was doing was correct or not. I do feel that monitoring the egg air sells and weight lost is a better method than using a set temperature and humidity every time, because every breed could be a little different, but the egg will always tell you what it needs with out the trial and error for 100's of eggs first. But, if you are in the learning curve of how to tell what the air cells should look like on every day of incubation you might consider some of the things that worked for me (i.e. 100.5-101 deg F & 25-35% humidity for the first 18 days and 65+ humidity on hatch day).

Note: I don't always have enough Marans eggs for their own hatch. When I am hatching with other breed my settings are 100 deg F and 38-42% humidity.

 

[PlatteRiverPs]

I would leave it and not worry much. Matter of fact, some of my 100% hatches came when I pulled the hydrometer and didn't bother stressing over humidity %. I just left it dry til I saw a pip. Not recommended, but it did work.

Also, there is a way to monitor your evaporation levels by checking the air cells. This is how I candle my dark dark eggs. I'm not looking for blood vessels or movement, I'm looking at the air cells. If the air cells are getting bigger, the chick is growing. If your humidity is correct, you can pencil mark the air cell and each week your lines should get lower and lower. By day 15-18 the cell should be very large, almost 40% of the egg.