I'm going to use cut and paste because it's easy and I'm lazy:
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Hiya! I use the same method for all of my own eggs, which is posted in my signature. When hatching shipped Marans, I'll sand them like this French Cuckoo Marans egg:
I only sand until I'm just through the color, and then I mist the eggs with betadine-water, mixed to the color of iced tea. This covers the contamination that could occur now that I've removed the bloom.
The idea is to promote evaporation to allow the chick to grow smaller than it would if it contained all of the moisture it started with. I have had too many chicks large enough that they couldn't pip or hatch properly- fully formed chicks that didn't make it at hatch. Once I started using this method (got it from an Emu farmer!) I have had significantly better success with shipped eggs. It doesn't seem to really be necessary with local eggs (my own) and I'm not certain why. When hatching in a really nice incubator, like a Sportsman or an rcom, it also doesn't appear to be necessary, but with most affordable models, it's a helpful method.
I do increase humidity at the end of my hatch, as per my Incubation Cheater, the same for Marans as for other eggs. My feeling is that if you have evaporated the proper amount during the first 18 days, you can't drown them with humidity at the end. Humidity merely prevents evaporation, it doesn't make eggs 'take-on' water.
This works well for me, but like most on BYC, I don't consider myself and egg-spert... I just like to share my egg-speriences to help anyone else who might be able to learn from them!
Good luck!!
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Egg-cellent idea!!
ChestnutRidge, thanks so much for the info- I'll go over all of my links and try to get it all fixed up. I know I've had several broken links already to fix...but I've got a boatload of stuff, so I'm sure that there's more! I appreciate the notice, though, or folks might never get to the info to help!
Cheers!!
