Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[Debbi]

Quote:
X2! What's up with the light one's beak? At 16 weeks, they both have filling out to do in both body and feathering. Does the lighter one have white-based hackle feathers?

 

[flgardengirl]

village chicken: I like the dark one also. The question is, though, how dark are your hens? If you have really dark hens like I always seem to get lol, maybe you'd want to breed them to the lighter roo? Or you could try both and see what works with the girls you have.

 

[gilavina]

Ok....I'm not gonna lie. It's the BEST feeling to go and routinely check the settings on the incubator and to hear chirping coming from within, a day early at that!!

Proof that putting in a couple new parts on the old cabinet does wonders!!
I can't wait to meet them!

 

[pinkchick]

gilavina~ congrats on the chirpers. i only saw some rocking in one egg out of three that made it to lockdown. had to work today and its killing me not to be home where i can see.

 

[gilavina]

Quote:
That's still exciting to have rocking happening I'd think. I can't see anything in the sportsman...

can just hear noises. I'm trying with all my might to not open it up and take a peek until at least tomorrow afternoon sometime...I don't want to shrink wrap any babes. I'm still trying to figure out exactly how to open the incubator and keep the eggs from doing that while I get other babes out. I read on here that some people take their incubator into the bathroom where they've been running a hot shower so there's humidity in the air, but I'd think carrying a nearly 100 pound incubator up the stairs to the bathroom without damaging any eggs or myself is just not an option

Any ideas over there since you have a sportsman too?
I also had to work today and in a way it was probably best as I get impatient and just have to have a peek to see what's going on...so i suppose...at least kept from fiddling around and messing anything up I guess. Hope your babes pick up the pace and decide to come on out and say hi

 

[gilavina]

So, I wanted to put up a couple of pictures of some girls I've got running around. Its hard to catch them in a good pose, but mostly my question is related to color. I got these last year from a guy that has been working to develop lemon blue Marans, these are his 'rejects' I suppose you would call it (yes, they need lots of work). I am still up in the air about exactly what color variety they most closely resemble. I'd say silver duckwing but the main body color ranges from straight blue, to blue with the brown pattern you see on a silver duckwing's body. I am trying to decide what direction I want to head with them as they are beautiful to me (even if they aren't a proposed standard color). I don't have a silver duckwing cockerel to work with, but my options for cockerels are blue birchen, black birchen, black, blue copper, cuckoo, splash and black copper. I know there are some folks on here that have a much stronger grip on what would happen color wise if I were to cross these girls on one of these cockerels. I'd appreciate any input or advice. These are mostly a side project I want get going alongside my other color varieties. Never know what might happen unless I try I suppose.

Also, if they would work best to help develop any of the other color varieties I already am working with, I'd love to know. Thanks

 

[jlgoinggreen]

Has anyone here had trouble hatching Marans? In my last hatch of Marans, I had 18 eggs and only 1 hatched.

 

[gilavina]

Quote:
Last year I had some trouble hatching out Marans and learned a lot from mistakes I made and about settings. I don't know if I can be of much help, but I'll try and bet there are quite a few people on here that can offer advice. Just a couple questions for you to get started.
What kind of incubator do you have?
Were you hatching shipped eggs?
What settings did you have on your temp and humidity both for first 18 days and for the lockdown?

 

[jlgoinggreen]

We have a Brinsea for the first 18 days, then a Genesis for lockdown.
Yes, they were shipped eggs.
Don't remember temp, but we hatched out other eggs (also shipped) and had a GREAT hatch rate with those.

Are Marans to be done different than other eggs? BTW..... My other eggs were Ameraucanas and EEs.

 

[gilavina]

Quote:
I have never used either of those incubators, but from what I understand they are great to work with. On my incubator I kept the temp between 99.5 and 99.9. Then I followed the settings Bev Davis had posted on here for humidity. The first 18 days I did around 45 to 50% humidity, then for lockdown 65-70%. Last year I had problems with both eggs from my Marans stock and from shipped Marans eggs, but all the other breeds I had in there did just fine. I think it was due to the temp being a bit lower than it should have been and too low humidity. I've read lots of posts on dry hatching, but have never had luck with it, I don't know if I'm in an area that needs a bit more humidity or not, but so far, on this hatch (first of the year) I'm light years away from where I was last year. I've got pipping and hatching on day 20...last year either they hatched around day 22-24 or they didn't hatch at all (which was a lot of them and was so disheartening). Quite a few people say they leave their eggs up til day 27 or so, as some take a bit longer to hatch. There's been discussion too about the shell of the Marans eggs being thicker and affecting hatches, but I'd think as long as your temps and humidity are set, its a waiting game really?
I don't know if any of that helped at all or not, but I hope you are able to sort it out. What colors of Marans do you raise?