International Black Copper Marans Thread - Breeding to the SOP

[Punkybrewster]

Hello my friends,

Waiting for these chicks to grow is excruciating!

So, I have 9 pullets growing out from my line and 9 cockerels from the same hatches growing out. They were purchased from a customer who bought my eggs last spring. I know their genetics.

3 stunning roosters unrelated to my line who are very good type but dont know their egg color. I will begin test breeding hopefully this fall. They are from a champion breeder.

I was able to get eggs from my original line 3. They are hatching this week. Hoping to have 10 of them. This line lowered tails and improved type for me.

I never get notifications and am about to go back and catch up on this thread.

Hope everyone is doing well

 

[Punkybrewster]

At what outside temps does everyone fire up their incubators? Consitant overnight lows of?
Or do you just start hatching at a certain month because they are going to need additional heat anyway? I have heatlamps and a brooder plate. My coops are in the barn (pole barn, concrete floor) and I have a brooder pen attached to the Marans coop for separation when needed.

I usually start in january but keep them in brooders down cellar for around 4 weeks then move them to the outside coop with a sweeter heater.

 

[Punkybrewster]

i start up my hatchery at the beginning of January, so they girls have gotten a good rest from fall molt. I start getting calls for chicks by February so I try to have some ready to go by then, and so my daughter can have birds for the show by fair time. I will usually hatch up to 80 in one go, but usually I will hatch between 30 and 50 at a time, until my brooders are full. They pay the bills, although I realize that I probably end up selling some pretty fantastic birds right at the beginning without knowing because I use these chicks to buy the food to feed everyone else. Sometimes I can get enough to feed the rest for half a year from chick sales. I shut down the hatchery shed by June, as it starts getting hotter, and it is an old brick homesteader shack with no air conditioner, and I want all the birds to be ready for winter in time since our weather in Montana can start turning cold as early as September, and I want to have all my butchering done before it gets really cold. It is not fun to butcher in freezing weather, we do all the plucking outside, before they head to the kitchen for the gutting. I get to do most of the plucking and I don't like frozen fingers.

I guess I should add, it doesn't matter what the outside temp is when I fire up the incubators, I have a milk house heater I keep in the old brick shack, and it has pretty good insulation. I have hatched when it is -40 outside. The biggest hinderance to hatching in extreme cold is humidity can get real low at extreme cold. I have a room humidity monitor and one in the incubators, so if I need to I add another tray, but Marans tend to do better at a bit lower humidity.

Your routine is same as mine.
I stop in June as the heat is disgusting and fertility drops.

Being in the south, I can delay butchering day all the way into December if I choose but Im from New England. I remember frozen, wet hands.

The painful part of having to start over is, I get daily calls for eggs and chicks and need to explain each time why I cant sell them any.

Financially devastating for sure this coming year and maybe a couple more years to get back up to the quality I had. We will have to see.

I have found using a large humidifier in the hatching room helps a lot.

 

[Punkybrewster]

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So it's a little dirty right now because I don't spend a lot of time in there June through November, I'm about to do the big mouse cleaning again. It's probably the original house on the property. The brick was not reinforced, it was bowing out badly and needed repoinring among other things. It was a one room house, no electricity or water. It still has no water but we wired it. To save the structure, we built a wooden reinforced frame around the outside, then spray foamed it with a rigid structural foam that also insulated it. Then we put the steel siding over the top of that. It used to have windows, but those are all covered because the weak points were all at the windows on the original brick structure. The door on the outside is original. Dad framed a little ante-room to help mitigate drastic temp swings in the hatchery room itself, snd to serve as tack storage and other stuff storage. He framed the hatchery room for wiring, as the original walls are straight up plaster over brick, no lathe or anything, so needed a space for wires. The incubators are old gqf cabinets from I think the 80s, I got them from my great uncle. My dad and I modified them to be digital and put readouts to the outside so I can monitor at a glance. Modern incubators already have all this, so if you can afford a modern one, you ate already ahead there. While I do have a propane heater, I had a hard time keeping the nozzles clear during hatching time because chicks and poults release A LOT of feather dust when hatching and fluffing. Don't underestimate how much feather dander those little guys produce! I tend to use coil heater more due to this, because the Littles gunk up propane heaters and the flame didn't always stay lit. There is a vent in the ceiling. I don't shut it off during hatching time. Fresh air is important to babies, even if you have to be constantly heating it. If you use propane heat, you will definitely require good ventilation. The baby brooder is an old sears catalog Farmall broiler tower, I pretty much just use the top. It's from 1944 so it's had some adjustments but it functions quite well for what it is. Found it in the back of a neighboring ranchers old storage barn and he knew I'd use it. Heck yes, I use it.
There is a small old dest in there. I can keep essential record keeping supplies close to the hatcher and baby brooder. There's enough room in there for all the little medical things, bands, all the old calenders, and numbers. It's from my great grandpa's farm. Keeping a desk nook right there can help encourage good record keeping and you can have a work space when working with wiggly new chicks, too, if they need medical care or a place to take their pictures. The room itself is pretty small, say, 8 by 8? 8 by 10? I'm not sure. Every vertical space not otherwise used has storage, either way.
When it does get really cold, I lay an old ratty towel down to cut down on drafting, but the fan will still draw fresh air in.
I guess that's a tour, right?

I brood in the cellar and its VERY dusty. We cover a lot with sheets and dust off when hatching time is done for the season. It stays a constant 58-70 degrees year round down there. No heat needed.

Your right. Very handy to have a desk with your notebooks and treatment area.
I wing band here, write notes, etc. Its only a couple feet away from the brooders.

These are the 2 main brooders but I have others that break down and store away if I need more.
I drive husband crazy always saying "Stop! I need that box!"

The best investment I have made is the hanging Sweeter Heaters. Not shown.

 

[Punkybrewster]

Thank you for the help, it's very much appreciated. I'll do a search to see if I can rig up a divider on that specific incubator.
@Punkybrewster has/had one, maybe she has some insight also to add. Anyone else have the Nurture right 360 22 egg incubator or similar?
I know your super busy this time of year, and hope your hatches go well for you. I'm in no rush just trying to plan out and get it right.
I'll always stress it's what I do. My wife says "if you don't have 8 projects going down to the last minute... Your not happy"

I use zip up lingerie bags from the dollar store to separate. I mark eggs with a sharpie. As they come out of the incubator by bag, I band them with chick color coded bands for identification.

The size medium ones in the photo fit Marans day old chicks. You will want to go up a size a couple of weeks later if you do not wing band.

I wing band at around week 2. Band comes off and I make my notes in the notebook with wing #. Sire and Dame, hatch down, etc.

Leg bands later for quick visual ID on some when they are older. The older they are, the less I have to change out as they grow.

This past spring, I bought a NR divider on etsy. It was expensive but I needed it for a pattern then made my own. Lol
Its ugly but works very well.

 

[Punkybrewster]

you should listen to your wife and cut down on the project number from 8 to 2 maybe hahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa/
make a thing semple my friend .I run soo many thing at ta same time but I don t stress at all .always calm and chill. if in some how I get it wrong than I do it again .I m doing the thing I love most in life so why should I stress .no reason .it is very hard work and some time I don t take day off for months ,but like they day if you are doing the cthing you love than it is not work .
that why I mange to breed very good chooks . i m calm all the time .
here a photo of one of my best looking marans pair new color I m working on yellow buff ( blue ,black and White tail )
what do you thing
View attachment 3682842
chooks man

I need your vib @Chooks man

 

[Punkybrewster]

Can somebody recommend a good egg candler for marans eggs?
View attachment 3686853

This works best for me.
Ive tried a lot over the years.

 

[Punkybrewster]

I use a 20 volt led flashlight and a few inches of pvc pipe to keep the light from spilling out. It’s nothing fancy just what I had laying around. The light is Hart tools and it came as a part of a combo when I bought a cordless drill, impact driver, saw,etc.

For the first week or so I can see through the eggs even in a non dark room. Week 2 you really need a dark room to see anything by week 3 the eggs are full enough with the growing chick it’s just shadow and air cell little to no details to

I saw you posted about taking notes a few days ago. That’s partly what inspired me to start taking better notes. I’m using an app that I downloaded a while back to keep track of egg production over time. Since the option is in the app and my phone is always in my pocket I figured it would be an easy way to do it.

I do have a couple pictures of the hatching eggs but never took the time to mark anything so now I don’t know who goes with any of the eggs. I plan to record that information in future hatches. I have been trying to take a couple pictures every time I go out to check on my birds so I can compare how things change over time. They sure grow fast.

Each season of note taking, you will figure out what is important to note. It takes time to learn what is important to write down but you get the hang of it quickly

 

[Punkybrewster]

it is better to use paper. phone can get lost or damaged. just happened to a friend of mine. she lost all the photos and videos of her marriage.

I agree but Im old fashioned that way. Haha

A lot use the cloud? Its secure from what ive heard.
MY kids could figure this out. I will just stick with pen and paper I can touch. Lol

 

[Punkybrewster]

it is joy to see all this varieties start to hatch again ,I missed that last few years .hope I can catch up .I have more eggs in the bator and more to put next couples of days ,
in a couples of day when I fill the incubator I will change the pairing .
chooks man

Cant wait to see how they grow. So exciting!