Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[pinkchick]

Hello fellow Maran friends!

I was trying to search for an answer for my questions but haven't been able to yet, so I will turn to you. I have 2 breeding pairs of Black Copper Marans and I startet incubating their eggs. They were fertile and developed well but didn't hatch. 2nd hatch went the exact same way. Are the chicks having a hard time getting through the thick dark shell and hence hatching rate isn't great, or do they need different treatment than other chicken eggs? I did eggtopsy on all eggs and the chicks looked wonderful- just never hatched

Am I doing something wrong? I had other eggs in the incubator with them and they did fine.

Hi!
When you looked into the unhatched eggs did you see one or both of the membranes sort of shrink wrapped around the chick or were the membranes nice and moist? If they were shrink wrapped and dry around the chick or perhaps even stuck to the chick, then yes, they could be having a hard time getting out of the shell and probably require a higher humidity during lockdown to hatch.
Did these eggs pip? Or did they just develop and die?
How did you temps run during incubation?
Sometimes the developing chicks can have a vitamin deficiency which can cause low hatch rates. Their are a number of reasons that they may not have hatched.

I say try setting some again and watch your temps and humidity closely, don't fret over them but watch them. I get the best results when I run the temp at 99.5 and a constant humidity from start to finish of 50-55%.

 

[Avalon1984]

Hey pink chick! Thanks for your reply. I had the incubator at ideal temp and humidity. I hatched waaayyyy too many chicks last year (around 150ish) and the BCM eggs are the only ones giving me trouble. None of them ever pipped. I opened them and 2 seemed dry inside but there was no crack in the shell or anything. 4 more had developed fully and when I opened them there was fresh red blood coming out of the little veins. The membrane was nice and moist. The chick looked fully developed and normally positioned in the egg, just never hatched. I did give them till Day 23 to hatch but nothing happened

Will keep trying I guess. That shell is pretty thick compared to the other eggs. Is there something I can do to make theri shells a bit thinner? Like less oyster shell?

 

[MuffsnFluff]

Mornin' all

Loving the discussion on how to hatch pullets vs. cockrels, lol What I would LOVE to do would be to do a big experiment with something like 3 sportsman incubators one on normal temps, one on cooler temps, and one on the hotter temps, run each one with a batch of eggs from three different auto sexing breeds (that you could sex at hatch), and do it once a month for a whole year (to prove or disprove the time-of-year theory) and I'd LOVE to see the data off of an experiment like that Maybe even from three different breeders doing this experiment in three different areas of the country (or more) However, I can't IMAGINE what you would DO with ALL THOSE CHICKS, lol!!!!! (ESPECIALLY if you ended up with some all cockerel hatches

I HAVE had limited success with the ACV in the water with my easter eggers a couple of years ago, or at least appeared too. I had been hatching at about 2/3 to 3/4 cockerels for a couple of batches, then found out about the vinegar and tried it (also was experimenting with wing feather sexing) and it APPEARED to lower it to 1/2 to 1/3 males, however the last batch ran into cocci and a majority didn't survive (very frustrating) The ones that did I ended up with 1/3 males. So I bought a gallon of the braggs ACV and ran off a BIG BATCH of eggs and towards the end of the incubation the incubator blew and ran 105 temps one hot summer day before anyone caught it and it cooked everything

And the incubator is still not fixed, (although told hubby that's what I wanted for Xmas, lol ) So my theory stands for more testing very soon

I also read an article on chick sexing methods in maybe backyard chicken magazine website? (a few months ago) and it was talking about the egg shape sexing method, how it works some of the time. Since hens determine the sex of the egg, and each hen typically lays a similar sized egg, some hens throw a majority of one sex or the other. So if you have a hen that lays either a long or a round egg and she consistently throws more of one sex or another it would work for her only since every egg she laid that was "long" would be a cockerel (or a pullet depending on what that hen always threw)Now for me that makes a lot of sense since I have a beautiful buff and white easter egger than I've wanted more hens like her ever since I got her. Well, every chick that I've hatched that survived that had her coloring ended up being cockerels, so I think that theory might be correct.

Also, two years ago when the incubator blew, that year we had a beautiful pair of millie fleur cochin bantam project birds. Was planning on getting into them in a big way. We hatched EVERY egg they laid, and had probably a 50% hatch rate. But for some reason EVERY CHICK THEY HATCHED WAS A PULLET. I've been with my hubby for 12 years and we've raised cochin banties for almost all those years and I have NEVER seen anything like it, nor had he, and he's raised them since he was 11! However, every one of them grew normally for 6 weeks or so to CUTE little fluff balls of feathers, and then quit growing all together and then eventually died at three or four months of age at the same size they were at 6-8 weeks. Then the hen died this year so can't test that any more.... So maybe you jsut have to find that magic hen/rooster combo who will lay the same sex all the time.

But anyways, just some thoughts running through my head this morning

SOOOOO going to start pulling my Marans hens out one at a time and hauling them down to the chicken house's cages (set up for a trio or quad of banties, but will work for maybe one or two marans later when I start hatching) and leaving them there until they give me ONE egg so I know who is laying what eggs and banding them that way so I can nail down which hens I'm gonna breed to which roosters, and which ones eggs are so light I won't breed at all. Now who wants to hazard a guess they'll go on strike and won't lay until they're back free ranging again

I've got one larger sized cage open right now so I figure I'll haul them down one at a time instead of taking them all down there at once.

OK, I'm off here this morning, got to go and get stuff done

 

[pinkchick]

Hey pink chick! Thanks for your reply. I had the incubator at ideal temp and humidity. I hatched waaayyyy too many chicks last year (around 150ish) and the BCM eggs are the only ones giving me trouble. None of them ever pipped. I opened them and 2 seemed dry inside but there was no crack in the shell or anything. 4 more had developed fully and when I opened them there was fresh red blood coming out of the little veins. The membrane was nice and moist. The chick looked fully developed and normally positioned in the egg, just never hatched. I did give them till Day 23 to hatch but nothing happened

Will keep trying I guess. That shell is pretty thick compared to the other eggs. Is there something I can do to make theri shells a bit thinner? Like less oyster shell?

If they did not even pip or break the membrane then I suspect something other than the shell being to thick.

I don't feed oyster shell at all and their shells are still thick as bricks and very tough. The fresh blood sounds like perhaps maybe they may have broke a vein or something, I am not sure.

Try increasing the protein in the parents diets and maybe give them a dose of vitamins, give it a few days of the new diet to react in their systems and then collect eggs and set. Perhaps it will help. Marans are known to need a little higher protein diet. I find this very true with my birds.

I am sorry to hear of the luck you have had with them, but look forward to hearing about your next try. Stick around here and let us all know how it goes.

I also hope more come by with their thoughts and opinions for you.

Good luck!

 

[Avalon1984]

That you so much, this was very helpful advise! I did not know they need a higher diet, I will change that right away! That is why I come to BYC, always learn something new. Thank you!

I will give it a month or so and then try again. Husband has set me on incubator arrest. He took my power cord and said I won't get it back until I sell some chickens

But, but...it is chicken math!

 

[pinkchick]

That you so much, this was very helpful advise! I did not know they need a higher diet, I will change that right away! That is why I come to BYC, always learn something new. Thank you!

I will give it a month or so and then try again. Husband has set me on incubator arrest. He took my power cord and said I won't get it back until I sell some chickens

But, but...it is chicken math!

He took the cord away?!?!?!?!?

I wonder if he truly understands the phsycological effects of his behavior and the ripple effect it has caused hearing this news?

Hurry Lady and sell those chicks so you can get that cord back! Important Marans chick hatching and testing must proceed ASAP.

 

[Avalon1984]

I know, I know. I tell him that all the time. He asked me in Dec if that was going to be the last hatching I'd do for a while and I said "Yes, sure. It will definetely be the last one of the year". And then it occured to him...

But I did tell him I'll go out and find me another horsie to overcompensate for the pain of incubation withdrawl. He just sighs...

 

[flgardengirl]

Heck just rewire it up again and get hatching If you're not sure how, check you tube there are videos on how to do ANYTHING on there LOL!!!

 

[Avalon1984]

You guys are dangerous

Nah, I will be good. That man of mine had to build more chicken coops than any man should ever have to build. He is a good one. I don't mind listening every once in a blue moon

He feeds horses for me when I am gone, cleans them, births them, cleans chickens, butchers chickens, I couldn't ask for more. I will retry in a few weeks again though, he has a big trip to California so he'll be gone for the whole week

 

[Debbi]

Good morning all!

Well, winter has made it's return with a vengeance! 22*, howling 30-40mph winds, and snow! None of the chickens are impressed to say the least, nor am I. Should be back to above normal temps by the weekend...crazy weather!

Interesting articles about breeding for specific sexes. I know in the dog world there was a theory too. Seems in the wild, if the female is bred on the early end of her heat, it indicates an over abundance of males in the wild, so the majority of the pups will be females. If she is bred later in the heat, nature thinks there is a lack of males available to breed, so the majority of the pups will be male. I did try this approach, and it was a pretty good way to go for a majority of the time. Then there were the times where I needed more of one sex or the other, and it totally blew up in my face!