Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[StevenW.]

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I was going to use a broody but when I keep seperateing them they magically end up not being broody. Black Copper. When I get a incubator I can trust I'll get into the other colors. I really would like to work on the Blue Birchen and Black Tailed Buff but it might be a while till I find an incubator I can trust.

I hope you can get one of your girls to sit on those eggs! Tractor supply usually has cheap incubators but a little hard for beginners (little giant brand). There's always ebay...or maybe make a homemade one from a icechest.

I have a black tailed buff male but no girls for him lol. I might try and mate him to my wheaten female and see what happens.

I did. I finally got my broody brahma hen to stay in the pen and in the nest box. I just put the eggs under her and she wasn't happy that I took the dummy eggs away from her.
I would put them in the incubator but they are full of ducks eggs

I'm also very tempted to turn the extra coolers that we havent used in forever and turn them into incubators.
I E-mailed someone early last fall about some eggs but my hotmail account deleted all my messages and even the saved ones.

 

[StevenW.]

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When are your eggs due? I just planned out when my eggs are spose to hatch and it is July 7.
Good Luck!

Whoops July not june!

 

[Ivywoods]

My husband just discovered a nest with about 8 eggs in it tonight.

They are in a hole dug under the nestboxes. I couldn't see them down there. I had noticed one of the BCM hens sitting down there for a few days. I should have known!

I was just getting ready to move them all out of that pen later tonight, so now I've got to figure out what to do with her. Since she has been sitting for a few days I want to leave them with her. I think I will just move her tonight after dark into a dog kennel in the barn and keep her confined there for a while and see what happens. I've had several hens acting broody, but I just take the eggs out every day. I missed these because they weren't in the nest. She outsmarted me! Now that's either a bright hen or I'm just a little "dull" lately!

 

[AyeUpChuck]

Quote:
When are your eggs due? I just planned out when my eggs are spose to hatch and it is July 7.
Good Luck!

Whoops July not june!

Yep anywhere from the 7-10th ish i know sometimes they take a bit longer. I'm excited though! We can be hatchin buddies!

I'm kind of worried though because I'm making a wedding cake and serving in said wedding on the 9th

So hopefully they decide that the 7th or 10th is the way to go!

 

[Ivywoods]

I managed to get all the girls moved after dark, with the exception of one slippery hen. She will have to be "shooed" out in the morning. I set up a dog kennel with food water, shavings and some hay and move the 8 BCM eggs and then put the broody in there. She didn't fuss at all and sat right down on the eggs. I hope she is able to raise some chicks.

If she does, I will have to confine her and the chicks well or my barn cats will have a chickie dinner.

Both of my BCM roosters are in solitary confinement right now. Gosh I hope I can get some feathers to grow back on these two plus all the hens they have terrorized for the past few months!

I think later this year I am going to thin my marans down to just a trio, and then keep some of the hens from the young ones I've just hatched IF those hens look better than what I have right now.

 

[pinkchick]

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My best friend has a home made incubator that her father in law made for her, it is untreated and it does mold and mildew from the humidity. it's made out of plywood. It is a beautfiul 'bator, but it is extremely hard to clean. I would think that linseed would have been an excellent way to go with the plywood, but it did need to be sealed with something because at this point now there is no fixing it. I suspect that the plywood sides and bottom will need to be replaced eventually and keeping the mold and mildew at bay is almost near impossible for her.

Redwood would be just fine with no sealer.

The GQF Sportsmans are made out of MDF.

 

[StevenW.]

Quote:
When are your eggs due? I just planned out when my eggs are spose to hatch and it is July 7.
Good Luck!

Whoops July not june!

Yep anywhere from the 7-10th ish i know sometimes they take a bit longer. I'm excited though! We can be hatchin buddies!

I'm kind of worried though because I'm making a wedding cake and serving in said wedding on the 9th

So hopefully they decide that the 7th or 10th is the way to go!

Hmm I didn't know they took longer to hatch. Thank you for letting me now! I'm just glad I have a broody to incubate them for me instead of useing the incubator. Don't they always seem to hatch when you aren't home??

 

[pinkchick]

AyeUp~ Lotsa good luck and hatching vibes coming your way with your new eggies. Are those from Monique? They are beautiful!

Oh and I call no fair living so close to geebsie and getting to see her on such a regular basis. You 2 are going to get so tired of me when I come down to visit my daughter at George Fox you just don't even know.

 

[pinkchick]

Quote:
Yep anywhere from the 7-10th ish i know sometimes they take a bit longer. I'm excited though! We can be hatchin buddies!

I'm kind of worried though because I'm making a wedding cake and serving in said wedding on the 9th

So hopefully they decide that the 7th or 10th is the way to go!

Hmm I didn't know they took longer to hatch. Thank you for letting me now! I'm just glad I have a broody to incubate them for me instead of useing the incubator. Don't they always seem to hatch when you aren't home??

Hi Steven! Yep..Marans eggs can take a couple days longer than other breeds. Nobody is really sure why this happens. I had a hatch take until day 27 once, but normally they start pipping on day 21 and hatching on day 22 for me. It is different with everyone though as we all have our own hatching techniques. I will also say that even when I hatch Marans eggs under a broody they tend to take an extra day.

 

[Debbi]

Good mornin' all!

Good luck to all of those hatching with bators and broodies!

It's day 6 in the bator for my Silkie eggs. Should be able to candle them in a few days. I'll finally get to see something inside of an egg!

Let's hope I do see something, from what I'm reading on the Silkie thread, these eggs are hard to hatch from shipped eggs...very fragile.

Go figure I'd pick another hard breed to hatch. We'll see what pops out from 20 eggs.

As for the wooden bators, could you line them with plexi-glass? Seal all the joints where the glass meets on the inside with silicone, and screws where it would be screwed onto the wood? Should be easy to clean then, but talk about one heavy unit!

Susie, is your redwood bator a Leahy?? I'm so jealous!!! Wish I could find something around here that was workable and cheap. There was a pair of Sportsmans out this way, an incubator and a hatcher, plus all the egg trays and the humidity set up, but he wanted $1100.00 for it. Oh well, I'll keep looking...I've got till fall at least to find something. No more hatching for the summer after these Silkies are here!