Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[gilavina]

mornin

 

[math ace]

yipee! What do you have in your breeding pens for this year? I know you have BCMs and Delawares,I think anyways...anything else?

BCM, Delawares, and Speckled Sussex...
These are the 3 breeds that I am trying to improve and breed for the SOP.

I am hoping to acquire and hatch some BUFF or EXCHEQUER leghorn.
I like to have some white eggs in my egg basket too.
I saw some really nice buff leghorns earlier this month at the Lake City chicken show.
I have been trying to contact the breeder... emails, phone, relatives, chicken comittees, etc....
ALL TO NO AVAIL!

 

[pinkchick]

Morning Vicki!

Math~ Those Ex. Leghorns sure are pretty. Are they as flightly as the white leghorn?

 

[gilavina]

BCM, Delawares, and Speckled Sussex...
These are the 3 breeds that I am trying to improve and breed for the SOP.

I am hoping to acquire and hatch some BUFF or EXCHEQUER leghorn.
I like to have some white eggs in my egg basket too.
I saw some really nice buff leghorns earlier this month at the Lake City chicken show.
I have been trying to contact the breeder... emails, phone, relatives, chicken comittees, etc....
ALL TO NO AVAIL!

I like the speckled sussex, just don't have room at the moment. I have lights, coronations, and lavender birchen sussex, but never know, I might find myself with some down the line

I remember you posting you were looking for that lady...what was her name again?

 

[gilavina]

Morning Vicki!

Math~ Those Ex. Leghorns sure are pretty. Are they as flightly as the white leghorn?

mornin Kim! I feel like I haven't been around much the last few days. You said you have eggs in the incubator again yeah? When do those hatch? I'll be putting eggs in the incubator today...well probably tonight. I was going to do it earlier in the week, but looked at the calendar and realized it would be when I was on call for jury duty that they'd hatch, so three weeks from today will be the end of my jury duty stuff....so I'm hopeful I'll end up with some good chickies. I know some of them will probably not be good with the cold temps we had, but I'm still gonna try

 

[pinkchick]

Vicki~

They are due to hatch tomorrow, but they suffered the same outage as the last hatch. I suspect that they will possibly start hatching very late tomorrow night or the next morning.

I had some almost shrink wrapped chicks this last hatch that I worried about greatly but they made it out ok.....I can't seem to get the humidity up in the Sportsman past 50-55%, which is what I normally run it at the entire incubation but wondering if I shouldn't try to up it just a tad and see if it makes a difference in these chicks. How far up can you get the hum. in your 'bator?

 

[gilavina]

Vicki~

They are due to hatch tomorrow, but they suffered the same outage as the last hatch. I suspect that they will possibly start hatching very late tomorrow night or the next morning.

I had some almost shrink wrapped chicks this last hatch that I worried about greatly but they made it out ok.....I can't seem to get the humidity up in the Sportsman past 50-55%, which is what I normally run it at the entire incubation but wondering if I shouldn't try to up it just a tad and see if it makes a difference in these chicks. How far up can you get the hum. in your 'bator?

I've gotten it as high as 80%...but, on your bator do you have any of the sponges that go into the tray? That's how I get the humidity up. Plus when the chicks get to hatching...they can bump it from 60% all the way to 70% or higher when they all get going! But I probably run hatches a bit bigger. If you need help figuring out how to raise it up, let me know and we can come up with something for you

 

[pinkchick]

Thanks! I have sponges but they did not come with the 'bator and you talking about just putting them in the water trays on the top shelf and then adding more water to the trays? Sorry...I'm a little thick this morning.

 

[gilavina]

Thanks! I have sponges but they did not come with the 'bator and you talking about just putting them in the water trays on the top shelf and then adding more water to the trays? Sorry...I'm a little thick this morning.

do you have the tray that came with the bator? If you do, then you will just stand them up on end and slide them into the grooves on the tray. If you don't have the tray...you will want to still stand them up on end...stand them up on the widest end, so its not super tall.. you might have to find a way to get them to stay standing....but try one first and see where it gets your humidity and if its still not where you want it, then add the second sponge, but I'm thinking 1 will probably be plenty. The sponges are kind of ingenious...when they stick up out of the water like that they soak up water and it releases the moisture quickly so it raises the humidity faster than just having a tray of water

 

[pinkchick]

do you have the tray that came with the bator?

Yes.