Incubating Marans Eggs - tips, please?

[pfmoore17]

Quote:
I cook all my egg the first 18 days with the trough filled. I top it off every 4 days. That's 36%, its okay.


From day 18, I crank it to 60% through the hatch.

Thats how we roll...

 

[pfmoore17]

I just did a Marans hatch.
I set 6 eggs and 3 hatched by day 22.
On day 23, I went to discard the eggs and drop one.
It pipped!
The shell was still hard, and I tapped on the top and removed the shell enough to remove the shell the covered the air sac.
The chick was peeping and the membrane surrounding the chick was not "shrink wrap" white, but still moist.
I gentlely squeezed the shell, breaking it and taking great care not to start a bleed.
Turned out another chick was in similar distress.
I got them both back into the bator.
After about 3 hours they hatched and were active.
I was lucky they didn't bleed out.

Next time I'll really crank the humidity

 

[they'reHISchickens]

How low can I let the humidity go? We have pellet heat and even with a humidifier in the room, I am getting low 20s where the incubator is. Last year I used dry incubation +/_ 30 % but it was after the heating season.
Anyone have experience with how low can you go?

 

[ChooksChick]

I use extra low humidity to incubate Marans that are shipped, unless they go in my RCom.

If the color is particularly dark, I sand off part of the color to allow better evaporation. The color layer makes the shell less permeable and they evaporate poorly.

This is something many folks will debate about. I just know what works for me, and I've had good experiences with what I do.

 

[they'reHISchickens]

After reading all the marans hatching threads, I have decided that 20% and under is just too low for me. I added water. This will likely pop up the humidity to about 40 and then decrease it during the next two days as it evaporates down to about 20 again. I am OK with that. I was OK last year around 30-35% but they were not marans eggs. I am thinking " The hen went out and went through the wet grass and came back in". I think I may " send the hen through the grass" a few times in the next two weeks but I will let it dry down inbetween. Then a big boost for hatching to the 60+ range.
At least they are my own eggs. Nothing ventured nothing gained.