Incubating French Black Copper Marans

[MrsEllis11]

My friend said Marans are hardest to hatch. I feel they are!!!!

How do you candle your dark eggs?? It drove me crazy at the first 8 day level.

 

[mattsinger]

I picked up the brighest LED flashlight I could find... only does a so..so job. Some eggs just dont let the light through.
Im hoping this spring my blue opr will go broody and ill let her have a go at a bunch of eggs. when I got these birds last hear, I also picked up a partridge cochin with the hope she would be my broody bird.... but she died at about 3 weeks old.

 

[MrsEllis11]

Ahhhh that's always so sad. I'll be watching your other thread to see how the candling went. My husband had a really bright flashlight and I'm thinking of using that with a maybe a short black rubber hose wide enough to have the egg set in pretty close.

Which side of the egg do you candle- large end or pointy ?

 

[mattsinger]

Which side of the egg do you candle- large end or pointy ?

I dont remember what I did....I think the pointy end....and the side. I was just trying to get light to pass through anyway I could

 

[Farmer Viola]

Thanks for the replies.
I am in California and picked my eggs up locally. She doesn't ship unfortunately.

So question regarding the humidity...does too much or too little humidity affect the thickness of the membrane and their ability to get to the air sac? I did add some water thru the vent holes carefully only to keep the levels between 25-45% but Viola my average stayed to the 40-45%. If humidity levels drop below 25% on dry incubation is that still okay? I think I went maybe too high on the lockdown humidity level at 65-70 vs 55-65% as you suggested. In the room that I kept the incubator it would get pretty dry so I would add enough water to keep within that level.

Viola, what is your humidity range without any water until day 18? Did you have a good hatch rate? Without any water I'm thinking my humidity level would dip often in the 15% range.

Thanks for all the advise so far!!!
Kristie

the humidity affects how quickly the egg evaporates or loses water weight. so with lower humidity conditions (dry hatching), the eggs own evaporation is contributing to the incubator humidity. if your incubator is pretty full, it should regulate itself well (depending on your house (and region) humidity). I find that if I only set 6-8 eggs in my incubator that holds 40 eggs, the eggs don't regulate as well (10-15%) and in that case I add a small sized wet sponge, cut up about the size of a quarter. another factor is still air vs forced air. a forced air incubator has a fan kit and seems to evaporate the sponge very quickly. a still air will maybe run slightly lower humidity because there isn't a fan moving air on the sponge.

25% is the lowest humidity I allow and 45% is the highest, but I don't usually run it that high.

I try to aim for about 30% at first. around day 16ish I might increase it to 40%, this depends on their weight (I weigh on day 0, 7, 14, 18 to check proper weight loss - goal is 13% loss). so if on day 14 they have lost plenty of water weight and are close to goal, then I might bump it to 40% to slow down the weight loss before lockdown happens. you can also look at the size of the air cell to judge weight loss.

I candle each day and look for an internal pip..it should happen on day 19. you can increase the humidity on day 19 if you want. I like to wait until the internal pip happens, then humidity is raised to 55-65% and I do not open the incubator anymore (lockdown). when a chick hatches, it will cause a humidity spike up around 70-80% and that is fine and expected!

 

[Farmer Viola]

Quote: by contrast, having too high humidity throughout incubation is often what causes chicks to "drown" in the clear egg white (albumen)

they are unable to evaporate as much as they should, so they make it all the way to the end with clear liquid still inside. sometimes they hatch very wet! and sometimes they just hatch later than expected. it's not always death, by any means.

it's a shame because most of the incubators out there seem to include instructions that say to add water day 1 and keep humidity at 50-60% or something incredibly high. and I think their lockdown is 70-80% or so(?). I really wish we could help re-write their instructions!!! so many people have to learn the hard way (by experience)

also, knowing the humidity % in your house/room is super helpful! EG in winter when it freezes, my house humidity drops from 40% to 10% and that is a huge change when it comes to incubation.

 

[Farmer Viola]

it's also not "ruined" if your humidity is too high for a time. EG if it's too high for the first 4 days, the following 4 days run it lower than you normally would (20% ?) and it can even it self out!

 

[MrsEllis11]

Voo

the humidity affects how quickly the egg evaporates or loses water weight. so with lower humidity conditions (dry hatching), the eggs own evaporation is contributing to the incubator humidity. if your incubator is pretty full, it should regulate itself well (depending on your house (and region) humidity). I find that if I only set 6-8 eggs in my incubator that holds 40 eggs, the eggs don't regulate as well (10-15%) and in that case I add a small sized wet sponge, cut up about the size of a quarter. another factor is still air vs forced air. a forced air incubator has a fan kit and seems to evaporate the sponge very quickly. a still air will maybe run slightly lower humidity because there isn't a fan moving air on the sponge.

25% is the lowest humidity I allow and 45% is the highest, but I don't usually run it that high.

I try to aim for about 30% at first. around day 16ish I might increase it to 40%, this depends on their weight (I weigh on day 0, 7, 14, 18 to check proper weight loss - goal is 13% loss). so if on day 14 they have lost plenty of water weight and are close to goal, then I might bump it to 40% to slow down the weight loss before lockdown happens. you can also look at the size of the air cell to judge weight loss.

I candle each day and look for an internal pip..it should happen on day 19. you can increase the humidity on day 19 if you want. I like to wait until the internal pip happens, then humidity is raised to 55-65% and I do not open the incubator anymore (lockdown). when a chick hatches, it will cause a humidity spike up around 70-80% and that is fine and expected!

Viola thank you so much for the info. I'm going to work with your suggestions. One quick question, how would you suggest I use the red plugs? Came with two and not sure if better to leave in while dry incubation or take out...also during lockdown I'm not sure what to do with the plugs.

Thanks again! Kristie

 

[Farmer Viola]

you're very welcome!! glad I could help
I removed the red plugs and never looked back
I don't use them at all at any stage. I find that this helps the room's humidity help regulate the incubator humidity slightly (my house is around 30-40% typically in oregon)

 

[MrsEllis11]

So

you're very welcome!! glad I could help
I removed the red plugs and never looked back
I don't use them at all at any stage. I find that this helps the room's humidity help regulate the incubator humidity slightly (my house is around 30-40% typically in oregon)

So you candle daily first 18 or just when close to pipping? Since I would be doing the dry incubation method I shouldn't have to worry about humidity dropping. Temp should come back to norm pretty quickly?