International Black Copper Marans Thread - Breeding to the SOP

[KF0002]

Here are a couple eggs I've gotten from the pullets with Maximus the past few days. They are still in the group pen and not single mated yet, so while I am tempted to set the eggs I may just wait until I know which eggs come from who. My husband is nearly finished with one of my single mate pens, and will finish working on the rest soon.

 

[KF0002]

Here is my Marans breeding pen #1. We still have to winter proof the roost end of the pen to prevent as much comb frostbite damage as we can. The dimensions of the pen are 4 ft wide, 8 ft long, and 4 ft tall. Plenty of room for a pair or even a trio or quad. Now at least 2 pens more to go!

 

[Red Banks]

Here is my Marans breeding pen #1. We still have to winter proof the roost end of the pen to prevent as much comb frostbite damage as we can. The dimensions of the pen are 4 ft wide, 8 ft long, and 4 ft tall. Plenty of room for a pair or even a trio or quad. Now at least 2 pens more to go!

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Great looking pen! Do you put hardware cloth around the bottom of the fence wire?

 

[Red Banks]

Put the eggs in lockdown a day early @RedBanks to give them an extra day to get positioned for hatching. I like to do that with shipped eggs. I won't raise the humidity for another day or two. Only 9 out of the 14 made it to lockdown, but I went ahead and put a few of the others in the hatcher just in case. Only 9 looked as they should when I candled. They are due November 9th.

There were eggs from 3 different hens, so I separated them in the hatcher as best I could tell them apart. I will wingband them and record them as chicks from RedBanks FRF: Antonio x hen A, RedBanks FRF: Antonio x hen B, and RedBanks FRF: Antionio x hen C, along with other information such as egg color and shape, chick down info, etc.

Here they are in the hatcher to show how I use baskets and such to separate chicks in the hatcher. I bought the little baskets at Dollar General for like a $1 and they are just the right size to fit inside the hatcher. I used a piece of cardboard and zipties to further partition off the basket on the right. I use paper towels to line the baskets to absorb the moisture from the eggs/chicks during hatching and give the chicks traction to prevent splayed legs.

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I'm keeping my fingers crossed for these 9!

So you don't put all your eggs in one basket? Just my warped sense of humor. Everything looks great! Gosh..... time flies, already in lockdown. I have everything crossed. Antonio's son is looking a little better and although his tail is long he carries it at 45 most of the time.

 

[Red Banks]

@kfelton0002 Does the egg at the bottom of this picture look different than the top too? It is probably just the picture. It doesn't look like it has the mottled look. I have forgotten.... did you start with 27 eggs?

 

[RanchRichey]

8-9 week FBCM. Mossy girl or Roo color development?

 

[KF0002]

So you don't put all your eggs in one basket? Just my warped sense of humor. Everything looks great! Gosh..... time flies, already in lockdown. I have everything crossed. Antonio's son is looking a little better and although his tail is long he carries it at 45 most of the time.

I have definitely learned to not put all your eggs in one basket over the years! lol

I'm glad Antonio's son is looking better! The long tail part would be fairly easy to balance out I bet, just pair him with a shorter tailed female. If you see any improvement, its better than no improvement.

 

[KF0002]

8-9 week FBCM. Mossy girl or Roo color development?
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At 8-9 weeks that looks like a pullet by the comb. She just has a lot of leakage and mossiness. I have been wrong before though. I have had some I have sworn were pullets that were just late developing cockerels.

 

[KF0002]

@kfelton0002 Does the egg at the bottom of this picture look different than the top too? It is probably just the picture. It doesn't look like it has the mottled look. I have forgotten.... did you start with 27 eggs?

Maybe so.. You're probably right. I will take a close look with better lighting when I open the incubator to raise the humidity. I started with 24 eggs. If I can get a 25% hatch rate I will be happy. That's the best I've ever been able to get with shipped eggs. A 25% hatch rate would be 6 chicks.

 

[RanchRichey]

At 8-9 weeks that looks like a pullet by the comb. She just has a lot of leakage and mossiness. I have been wrong before though. I have had some I have sworn were pullets that were just late developing cockerels.

Thanks. Since we are just backyard chicken raisers for fun we don't mind the leakage and like color variety in our flock, so we are hoping for that rather than a Roo