Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

O Poularde!!!!!!!
You got any babies yet????????
It's killin' me here......

smile.png
 
Quote:
Sea~ They are Blue Birchen and don't you dare get rid of them!!!!
old.gif
big_smile.png
I don't know about the girl photo'd that is the Black and White Spangled looking bird as that is not any color variety in Marans, so maybe she has a little something else in her background or she is a recessive popping up from a long ago oops. The splash boy photo #5 looks to be carrying gold, I think that Illia may have touched on that for you.
If they were my birds I wouldn't get rid of them or feed them to the dogs anytime too soon. I would watch them mature a little longer and see if one or two of them is good enough to use for breeding and then I would find myself some girls to go with them. You could always send bachelor #2 and #4 straight up here to Washington to Pink's house. I will keep them nice and safe.
big_smile.png


haha...I totally told them the same thing last night, that I could find a home for them, No problem!
wink.png
That first one was my favorite so far....
 
Quote:
I just use the water dish that came with it and I just open the door and pour in more water when it is empty. I was using a tube to fill the water but you know it's much easier to just open the door.
smile.png


BTW: Sounds like you have quite the gang going on in your 'bator girl! WoW!
I thought about just ordering all sorts of hatching eggs of different varieties and then just selling the chicks because there are alot of breeds of chickens that are still very unknown out here and hard to come by, but I am very afraid of getting stuck with all these chicklets that don't sell.
smile.png


You could always do the gravity feed bucket with the hose and basically set and forget. The reason I asked was cause you said you were having a hard time getting the humidity up. Maybe it was for a different incubator too...not sure. I really love the fill up the bucket, put the lid on and forget about it. Then when lockdown comes, I just put in one of the white wafer sponges that fit in the grooves of the water dish and I'm set. The humidity holds nice at steady at about 65-68
Oh...and you remember that question I had for you a while back about whether hatching in your sportsman affected other batches that were staggered and still 'cookin'? So far I've no problems at all! Yay, since I don't have a separate hatcher.
I don't think I would be taking the steps to do different types of chickens that aren't popular here if I hadn't already been networking and gathering orders for chicks. I totally understand that fear of getting stuck with them tho
smile.png
 
Quote:
I just use the water dish that came with it and I just open the door and pour in more water when it is empty. I was using a tube to fill the water but you know it's much easier to just open the door.
smile.png


BTW: Sounds like you have quite the gang going on in your 'bator girl! WoW!
I thought about just ordering all sorts of hatching eggs of different varieties and then just selling the chicks because there are alot of breeds of chickens that are still very unknown out here and hard to come by, but I am very afraid of getting stuck with all these chicklets that don't sell.
smile.png


You could always do the gravity feed bucket with the hose and basically set and forget. The reason I asked was cause you said you were having a hard time getting the humidity up. Maybe it was for a different incubator too...not sure. I really love the fill up the bucket, put the lid on and forget about it. Then when lockdown comes, I just put in one of the white wafer sponges that fit in the grooves of the water dish and I'm set. The humidity holds nice at steady at about 65-68
Oh...and you remember that question I had for you a while back about whether hatching in your sportsman affected other batches that were staggered and still 'cookin'? So far I've no problems at all! Yay, since I don't have a separate hatcher.
I don't think I would be taking the steps to do different types of chickens that aren't popular here if I hadn't already been networking and gathering orders for chicks. I totally understand that fear of getting stuck with them tho
smile.png


I have not doubt the Sportsman would have no problems getting the humidity that high and holding it there at all. I just haven't tried it in the Sportsman.
I don't mind doing the dry method and it's usually how I do it, but am willing to give several different methods a try to see if I can improve hatch rate. If it doesn't work for me then I go back to the dry method. I usually use my little styro 'bators for hatching and those are the ones that I can't get hum. up in. Just haven't used them since I got the big 'bator monster. I do like hatching in it and not having to have several 'bators going all at once, but will use them to seperate breeds and hatches, like the hatch coming up with CP's eggs in it, I will use one for the Wyandottes and hatch her Marans eggs and Wellie egg in another one, and hatch my Marans and Barnie eggs in the monster 'bator.
The only thing I don't like about the Sportsman and hatching in it is that every time I have one little chick that likes to jump over the back of the tray and I end up having to take the tray (with eggs still pipping and hatching in it
barnie.gif
) out while I get the little rascal that jumped out of the hatching tray. Ohhhh and do you think that my arms are long enough to reach allllllllll the way in to the back of that thing. Huh-uh....hyperextend the shoulder everytime I have to get a chick out of there. I'm going to try a barricade of some sort this time that won't get in the way of the tray above the hatching tray as it will still be turning with eggs in it.


You know a very good friend of mine, Ms. Kathyinmo told me that she read somewhere to move the eggs down a tray per each week of hatching. She says this is how she is doing it and she likes the results, but she does not hatch in the bottom hatching tray, she uses styro 'bators for this I believe. But Kathy is the queen of hatching and she can hatch anything....heck I bet she could incubate an Ostrich egg under a 60 watt light bulb and the dang thing would hatch.
lol.png
 
Pink-When I had my sportsman the hatching tray had a wire cover over it so the little guys couldn't jump out. We never had a problem unless we had some hatch early and we were late locking down. We did have some hatch in the turning trays one time. (OOOPPPSSS!)

The wire lid on the hatching tray kept everyone in their place.
 
Quote:
Thanks Susie! It didn't come with one but I could make a wire lid for it, that would be easy. When you had your sportsman did the bottom tray tilt farther to one side during rotation than it did to the other? Case in point, the bottom tray in my unit when tilted to the right goes alot farther in the tilt than it does when it goes to the left. When it is tilted to the right the bottom front corner of the tray and it's runners hits and actually rests on the top of the hatching tray, I'm afraid that one day it will chop off a little chickies head, so when I am in lockdown or have chickies hatching I turn it manually. When tilted to the left the corner of the 3rd tray doesn't even come close to the hatching tray. I wonder if the bottom tray is just slightly out of adjustment. When its turned off (don't know when that will be
lol.png
) I will see if I can monkey with it, until then, I will try to make a lid or something to keep them in the hatching tray.
smile.png
 
Last edited:
Quote:
You could always do the gravity feed bucket with the hose and basically set and forget. The reason I asked was cause you said you were having a hard time getting the humidity up. Maybe it was for a different incubator too...not sure. I really love the fill up the bucket, put the lid on and forget about it. Then when lockdown comes, I just put in one of the white wafer sponges that fit in the grooves of the water dish and I'm set. The humidity holds nice at steady at about 65-68
Oh...and you remember that question I had for you a while back about whether hatching in your sportsman affected other batches that were staggered and still 'cookin'? So far I've no problems at all! Yay, since I don't have a separate hatcher.
I don't think I would be taking the steps to do different types of chickens that aren't popular here if I hadn't already been networking and gathering orders for chicks. I totally understand that fear of getting stuck with them tho
smile.png


I have not doubt the Sportsman would have no problems getting the humidity that high and holding it there at all. I just haven't tried it in the Sportsman.
I don't mind doing the dry method and it's usually how I do it, but am willing to give several different methods a try to see if I can improve hatch rate. If it doesn't work for me then I go back to the dry method. I usually use my little styro 'bators for hatching and those are the ones that I can't get hum. up in. Just haven't used them since I got the big 'bator monster. I do like hatching in it and not having to have several 'bators going all at once, but will use them to seperate breeds and hatches, like the hatch coming up with CP's eggs in it, I will use one for the Wyandottes and hatch her Marans eggs and Wellie egg in another one, and hatch my Marans and Barnie eggs in the monster 'bator.
The only thing I don't like about the Sportsman and hatching in it is that every time I have one little chick that likes to jump over the back of the tray and I end up having to take the tray (with eggs still pipping and hatching in it
barnie.gif
) out while I get the little rascal that jumped out of the hatching tray. Ohhhh and do you think that my arms are long enough to reach allllllllll the way in to the back of that thing. Huh-uh....hyperextend the shoulder everytime I have to get a chick out of there. I'm going to try a barricade of some sort this time that won't get in the way of the tray above the hatching tray as it will still be turning with eggs in it.


You know a very good friend of mine, Ms. Kathyinmo told me that she read somewhere to move the eggs down a tray per each week of hatching. She says this is how she is doing it and she likes the results, but she does not hatch in the bottom hatching tray, she uses styro 'bators for this I believe. But Kathy is the queen of hatching and she can hatch anything....heck I bet she could incubate an Ostrich egg under a 60 watt light bulb and the dang thing would hatch.
lol.png


That makes total sense for keeping them separated...I do have one of those tray covers that Ivywoods described and I have made small dividers as well to keep the eggs from different batches separate in the hatching tray. I'll have to see if I can get some pics for you of the lid and the diy dividers. I also do the system where each week I candle eggs and the batches will all shift down one tray a week until its their time in the hatcher...I like it because I don't get confused about whose turn it is in the hatcher and etc.

Except this time I'm trying starting the shipped eggs in the hatching tray first to keep them stationary...then Im going to put them up in the turner trays once I need the hatching tray for actual hatching....which is soon..
roll.png
 
Pink-No. All my trays turned equally. I remember the bottom tray was very close to the hatching tray, and that if there was a chick out of the hatching tray (as in the one time I mentioned) that it would have been possible to squash it in there but that never happened.

We did have trouble with the trays not turning at all one time, but hubby is a mechanical engineer and fixes everything......when he gets around to it.
caf.gif
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom