International Black Copper Marans Thread - Breeding to the SOP

[kfelton0002]

As long as the eggs are not pipped there is no harm in opening the incubator to get the chicks out. I only say hands off if there are eggs in there pipped and hatching still. Usually day 22 is when I am satisfied the hatch is done. By then all that are going to hatch have hatched and the rest of the eggs are discarded. Since yours decided to make their debut early your hatch may be completely done by tomorrow.

 

[chickengr]

How's everyone doing ? I missed quite a bit in thread since life got a bit busy there for minute . Hope everyone is well .
Still really enjoying watching my marans grow up ,there are def my favs in the flock with those beautiful colors .View attachment 1405374 View attachment 1405375

the bird on the left looks like he? has saddle feathers which means he is a boy. on the contrary the bird with red comb and wattles has no saddle feathers.

 

[Red Banks]

74% hatch rate 14 new chicks..... I had 19 eggs in that incubator not 18 as I thought. I put the chicks in the brooder and moved the eggs that haven't pipped from the other incubator to the good one. I will wait on all those eggs until tomorrow. Three chicks tried to hatch and died in the still air. The dry hatch was good for me.

 

[chickengr]

74% hatch rate 14 new chicks..... I had 19 eggs in that incubator not 18 as I thought. I put the chicks in the brooder and moved the eggs that haven't pipped from the other incubator to the good one. I will wait on all those eggs until tomorrow. Three chicks tried to hatch and died in the still air and died. The dry hatch was good for me

congrats!

a friend of mine always opens the incubator to let the oxygen in. I don't understand why we are not supposed to open the bator the last 3 days. broodies get up to feed the first hatched chicks while the last ones are hatching. I have 5 silkies hatched by a broody within 4 days. there were 6 and only the first or second died (not sure which one). the youngest one is smaller than the rest but fine.

 

[kfelton0002]

the bird on the left looks like he? has saddle feathers which means he is a boy. on the contrary the bird with red comb and wattles has no saddle feathers.

The bird on the right is getting red in his shoulders which means he is a male. He may not have any pointy feathers yet because he is a baby still with his juvenile feathers. His male sex feathers (pointy, colorful, bright, decorative) will come in as his juvenile feathers molt out.

 

[kfelton0002]

congrats!

a friend of mine always opens the incubator to let the oxygen in. I don't understand why we are not supposed to open the bator the last 3 days. broodies get up to feed the first hatched chicks while the last ones are hatching. I have 5 silkies hatched by a broody within 4 days. there were 6 and only the first or second died (not sure which one). the youngest one is smaller than the rest but fine.

The reason you dont want to open the incubator while chicks are pipped and in the process of hatching is because the drop in humidity will dry out the membrane inside the egg and cause the chick to get stuck to it. Indoor heating/cooling dries the air and causes a lower relative humidity than what is suitable for hatching eggs. That is why we put water in the incubator to simulate the proper humidity under a hen outside. When the chick is stuck in the egg it cant turn around to zip through the shell and hatch.

Also a good hen wont leave the nest while her chicks are hatching unless she has given up on the unhatched eggs to bring the other chicks off the nest to eat. That has been my experience over the years anyway.

 

[kfelton0002]

74% hatch rate 14 new chicks..... I had 19 eggs in that incubator not 18 as I thought. I put the chicks in the brooder and moved the eggs that haven't pipped from the other incubator to the good one. I will wait on all those eggs until tomorrow. Three chicks tried to hatch and died in the still air. The dry hatch was good for me.

That's great! Glad to hear the hatch in the Genesis went so well. Just chalk the still air up as an experiment and dont sweat it. You may get lucky and a few may hatch by tomorrow! *fingers crossed*

 

[Red Banks]

That's great! Glad to hear the hatch in the Genesis went so well. Just chalk the still air up as an experiment and dont sweat it. You may get lucky and a few may hatch by tomorrow! *fingers crossed*

Got a good pip on one of the eggs I just moved to the Genesis. I noticed that the temp/humidity device I used in the Air incubator doesn't jive with the one in the Genesis. Hopefully most of these eggs are just behind.

 

[Red Banks]

Two more eggs have hatched. Some membrane was stuck in a little patch on one of the chicks hip. Not anything major. Since this is the due date and they were not at the right temperature maybe more will hatch. Thank goodness I didn't set these eggs one week later. I probably would have lost them all. We have a tropical storm headed this way and I always lose power.

 

[kfelton0002]

Two more eggs have hatched. Some membrane was stuck in a little patch on one of the chicks hip. Not anything major. Since this is the due date and they were not at the right temperature maybe more will hatch. Thank goodness I didn't set these eggs one week later. I probably would have lost them all. We have a tropical storm headed this way and I always lose power.

I hope you and your animals weather the storm okay! Glad you got two more chicks! Hope there are more to come!