International Black Copper Marans Thread - Breeding to the SOP

[Bantambird]

Hi everyone...
I''ve been away for a week or two trying to do some spring clean up.
Hope all is well. Welcome new people! It has certainly been a rough year + for all, but especially health care professionals. I hope a break is on the horizon.

So, its day 21 over here..... If you recall, I had a really hard time finding marans eggs to hatch out- well... I found some. Less than an hour drive (2 hr round trip) and they are beautiful.. 7/8 colour I think. She also gave me two very dark olive eggs, which was super nice.

So- in my incubator (little Giant) is 2 olive eggs, 15 Red Laced Blue Wyandotte eggs and 15 marans eggs.

Incubation went well, no issues or power outages.etc...
Today is day 21. (set on a Sunday, hatch on a Sunday)
13 of my 15 wyandotte eggs have pipped and hatched. In fact they started on Friday night, and the last one came out this morning (I dont think the last 2 will hatch).
One of my olive eggs hatched this afternoon. It was from the same lady as the marans eggs.
None of the marans have even pipped. I pulled 5 out and tapped on them, no chirping.
They are large (75-80 g) and maybe they just need one extra day???!!!! She said she has 100% fertility since there are 3 roosters in with about 20 hens. She really did seem like she knew her chickens. They were all fresh, laid that day or the day before. I treated them well, tried to candle a few, but it was hopeless, so never touched them for 3 weeks...

Should I sand them down a bit? I heard the grit and sand and dirt from being under a broody helps with Marans.

I'm just worried, becauseand I dont want them to all die in the shell.
The lady who sold them to me said " they are real buggers to hatch"." "I always go in and crack them all the way around on day 21".

Should I do this? Tell me what to do. Going to bed now. When I wake up it will be day 22...still no one has pipped.

indeed maran's eggs, due to the extra pigmentation, can be harder to hatch. Lower humidity during incubation is necessary for them, and often they take an extra day to hatch compared to others. They need less humidity during hatching, but that's a catch 22 for me if they don't unzip fast enough. Even with excellent fertility and hatching my own eggs, I find it hard to reach 100 percent hatch rate.
If it is day 22, don't worry yet. Marans can take up to 23 days to hatch, they can be slow. Let them be. You will know for sure by day 24, by then they definitely should have hatched.

 

[chickengr]

Hi everyone...
I''ve been away for a week or two trying to do some spring clean up.
Hope all is well. Welcome new people! It has certainly been a rough year + for all, but especially health care professionals. I hope a break is on the horizon.

So, its day 21 over here..... If you recall, I had a really hard time finding marans eggs to hatch out- well... I found some. Less than an hour drive (2 hr round trip) and they are beautiful.. 7/8 colour I think. She also gave me two very dark olive eggs, which was super nice.

So- in my incubator (little Giant) is 2 olive eggs, 15 Red Laced Blue Wyandotte eggs and 15 marans eggs.

Incubation went well, no issues or power outages.etc...
Today is day 21. (set on a Sunday, hatch on a Sunday)
13 of my 15 wyandotte eggs have pipped and hatched. In fact they started on Friday night, and the last one came out this morning (I dont think the last 2 will hatch).
One of my olive eggs hatched this afternoon. It was from the same lady as the marans eggs.
None of the marans have even pipped. I pulled 5 out and tapped on them, no chirping.
They are large (75-80 g) and maybe they just need one extra day???!!!! She said she has 100% fertility since there are 3 roosters in with about 20 hens. She really did seem like she knew her chickens. They were all fresh, laid that day or the day before. I treated them well, tried to candle a few, but it was hopeless, so never touched them for 3 weeks...

Should I sand them down a bit? I heard the grit and sand and dirt from being under a broody helps with Marans.

I'm just worried, becauseand I dont want them to all die in the shell.
The lady who sold them to me said " they are real buggers to hatch"." "I always go in and crack them all the way around on day 21".

Should I do this? Tell me what to do. Going to bed now. When I wake up it will be day 22...still no one has pipped.

you can put some vinegar on cotton wool/cloth and rub the wide end where the air sack is. it will soften egg shell.

 

[Minky]

Thank you for your responses.
One chick pipped and hatched last night between 1 am-7 am this morning.
So, I am going to assume this is the "early bird", and that the rest should hatch within 24 hrs, or at least pip. I will try the vinegar on a few and sand paper on a few if I don't see more pips by later this afternoon.
It is so hard to be patient because I worry they are suffocating. Good thing it is so busy around here. No time to obsess.
Any other tips/tricks are welcome.

 

[hugene]

hi guys, here is an update on the BCM pullet 10 days after. It's crazy how big chicks get each day. replying based on the original post to show the comparison!

again, any feedback on the pullet would be appreciated.

any feedback on my BCM? Not sure if it's a pullet or a cockrel. Also any general feedback on the breed quality? The chick is around 4 weeks old.View attachment 2631278View attachment 2631279

 

[Chooks man]

Thank you for your responses.
One chick pipped and hatched last night between 1 am-7 am this morning.
So, I am going to assume this is the "early bird", and that the rest should hatch within 24 hrs, or at least pip. I will try the vinegar on a few and sand paper on a few if I don't see more pips by later this afternoon.
It is so hard to be patient because I worry they are suffocating. Good thing it is so busy around here. No time to obsess.
Any other tips/tricks are welcome.

how is your hatch going ?
hope more marans chicks hatched .
chooks man

 

[Minky]

how is your hatch going ?
hope more marans chicks hatched .
chooks man

Thanks for asking.. but I have bad news.

Nope. I only got one Marans and one olive egger. I sanded gently around hatch line, then wiped with vinegar, then decided to check one egg. infertile. then another- dead fully formed chick, then I checked all of them... 5 dead chicks (fully formed, yoke sac absorbed etc, and 7 infertile. SO, that is that.

I contacted her, but she said he flock is now free ranging and no more pure eggs. She is checking for me today if she has any pure chicks left that she hasn't sold, but I am not hopeful. She has 250 grow outs that she won't sell until she makes her decisions in Oct/Nov.....

The hatch went perfectly- no temp fluctuations, I never opened the lid, I did dry hatch until lockdown. Since this horrible experience...I read that with the dark eggs you should sand around the hatch line on day 1 so there can be better moisture loss. That Marans were originally bred in marshy areas so their very thick eggs are practically water proof and dont allow for proper evaportaion. The chicks looked very snug in their shells, thats for sure. The one thing I do not do is weigh my eggs and check for that 13% weight loss. I will do that next time. And maybe sand lightly around the hatch line...

I am now hoping my one BCM chick that hatched on time is a rooster.
I'm sure that means it will be a hen.

To top it all off, about 2 weeks ago- I let my hens who were in my breeding pens rejoin the flock. (I have a CCLB roo with my flock). I put my only BCM roo "Firestorm" into a pen on his own, so that the two roosters could see each other. Then after about 4 days I let him out (hoping they would share the duties together, fight it out and then get along. ) My CCLB chased BCM around the barn twice, and up into the forest- and I never saw the BCM rooster again. I thought for sure he'd come back that evening...maybe roost on the fence etc... or the next morning when he heard all the roosters crowing... nope. GONE. Then we had 7 inches of snow unexpectedly again after 6 weeks of t-shirt weather.. so if the foxes and coy-wolves didnt finish him off, the snow surely would have. So .... now I only have this one chick, and several little cockerels from my own #4 eggs that I was just planning on eating..

On a more positive note, 9 of 11 BLRW eggs hatched. And my flock of 30 is currently 30 + about 70 chicks. So I have a lot of mouths to feed around here. Plus its finally time to start planting out to the garden so I will bury my disappointment in physical labour.

The eggs were just so beautiful. A deep mahogany colour. Not the terracotta colour most maran eggs are around here.

 

[Minky]

I have called my one little survivor "Solo". Here he is. Hope he is a rooster.

 

[Chooks man]

hi guys, here is an update on the BCM pullet 10 days after. It's crazy how big chicks get each day. replying based on the original post to show the comparison!

again, any feedback on the pullet would be appreciated.
View attachment 2647859View attachment 2647860View attachment 2647861View attachment 2647862View attachment 2647863View attachment 2647864

she look good .great body type .

hi guys, here is an update on the BCM pullet 10 days after. It's crazy how big chicks get each day. replying based on the original post to show the comparison!

again, any feedback on the pullet would be appreciated.
View attachment 2647859View attachment 2647860View attachment 2647861View attachment 2647862View attachment 2647863View attachment 2647864

She look s great

Man

 

[Chooks man]

You really had a bad luck with these marans eggs. Hope the one that hatched be a cockerel and good one too
Chooks man

 

[Chooks man]

hi guys, here is an update on the BCM pullet 10 days after. It's crazy how big chicks get each day. replying based on the original post to show the comparison!

again, any feedback on the pullet would be appreciated.
View attachment 2647859

I have called my one little survivor "Solo". Here he is. Hope he is a rooster.

this chick is very chunky . gorgeous eyes ,they will turn into super orange when fully grown . like his feet too .
look cockerel to me based on the shape of the head ,the color of the eyes and the beak .
chooks man