Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[GA_in_GA]

12 week old BCM hatched from shipped eggs. Not sure why there is lacing as the breeding stock did not show issues in the photos. Input appreciated. I do not plan to breed.

 

[Christie Rhae]

12 week old BCM hatched from shipped eggs. Not sure why there is lacing as the breeding stock did not show issues in the photos. Input appreciated. I do not plan to breed.

I don't think that is really lacing, I think I read that it is "mossy". Lacing is a whole other beast that I have been researching lately.
I have a 7 week old chick who has tons of brown in her like that. I also read that they often lay the darkest eggs. Could be a rumor but I am sending my girl to the layer pen when she grows up for dark eggs hopefully. Actually yours looks a lot like mine from shipped eggs. Where did you get your eggs?

 

[gilavina]

Well...off to work in a few minutes, but just have to say that chicks are hard at work and think when I get home I will be greeted by a few more fuzzers. The other thing I just HAVE to say is that the blue chick that hatched out last night is all dry and fluffy....and has the most amazing leg feathering!!!!!! And the bonus is that they are out of my birchen pen! I'm dyin over here!!!

 

[GA_in_GA]

I don't think that is really lacing, I think I read that it is "mossy". Lacing is a whole other beast that I have been researching lately.
I have a 7 week old chick who has tons of brown in her like that. I also read that they often lay the darkest eggs. Could be a rumor but I am sending my girl to the layer pen when she grows up for dark eggs hopefully. Actually yours looks a lot like mine from shipped eggs. Where did you get your eggs?

Thanks you for your reply, Christie.
The eggs were from the Garry Farm, Bargain on BYC. The eggs were very dark. I had not considered mossy. Will research that a bit. I am hoping her egg will be dark!

 

[Debbi]

Yeah!! My eggs made it here today with no damage! Thanks for packing so well, Wynette!! All are resting comfortably, and I will set them in the morning. Nice colors, but since I don't have my new memory card yet

, I can't do any pics. Let's hope these come through for me, I need to get re-started again! These are the last Marans eggs I will be hatching...until Vicki gets going anyway!

 

[gilavina]

Yeah!! My eggs made it here today with no damage! Thanks for packing so well, Wynette!! All are resting comfortably, and I will set them in the morning. Nice colors, but since I don't have my new memory card yet

, I can't do any pics. Let's hope these come through for me, I need to get re-started again! These are the last Marans eggs I will be hatching...until Vicki gets going anyway!

haha you can bet I'll get you some good eggs once I get a bit more work done on the ones I have here! And I just got home about 2 minutes ago and have 8 babies! Looks to be one splash, a couple black and the rest are blues! A couple of them are just beautiful shades! I can't wait to get them out of there, but I won't be opening it tonight...probably tomorrow evening at the earliest since there are so many pipped right now. I'm already in love with a couple of them! haha

 

[Arielle]

Ha, don't feel alone! I have yet to have a high hatch rate with my Marans eggs, whether they are shipped or collected here! The shells of these eggs are harder/thicker than others I have had. I have not tried the sanding thing yet, but I will be doing that with the eggs coming today! I've read just to sand a spot of the color off by the large end with the air cell. I also get better results with a lower humidity in the first 18 days, like 35-40%, some folks even go lower. At lockdown, I bump it up to 50-55%. Before, I had too many of them drowning in the shell when going into lockdown, when my humidity was 60-70%. Still a peck and hunt kind of thing to find the exact recipe for sucess, and it does change with the time of the year and ambient temps and humidity. I'm still working on it though...

Interesting. I read another thread that sands shipped eggs to look like a watermelon, you know, the striped variety. Sand a stripe top to bottom.

Also makes me wonder if the marans could benefit from a breeders feed with a slightly lower Ca level for a thinner shell. Especially if the girls lay more like 3-4 eggs a week. IMO, the girls can put on a thicker shell than a hen that puts out 6 eggs a week. I'm still new to chickens, so I can only theorize.

 

[Debbi]

Interesting. I read another thread that sands shipped eggs to look like a watermelon, you know, the striped variety. Sand a stripe top to bottom.

Also makes me wonder if the marans could benefit from a breeders feed with a slightly lower Ca level for a thinner shell. Especially if the girls lay more like 3-4 eggs a week. IMO, the girls can put on a thicker shell than a hen that puts out 6 eggs a week. I'm still new to chickens, so I can only theorize.

I used to feed oyster shell free will, but don't any more. Especially since I found out it's not even actual oyster shells, but more of a gypsum, ie drywall!! ??? Every once an awhile, I will bake up some egg shells for the girls, but the layer feed I use seems to have plenty of calcium in it to maintain a healthy shell. Before, when I was feeding the drywall, the shells were so hard, that you really had to whack them to fry up some eggs for breakfast! Can't imagine how any of the chicks got out of those shells, they were sooooo thick!

 

[Debbi]

haha you can bet I'll get you some good eggs once I get a bit more work done on the ones I have here! And I just got home about 2 minutes ago and have 8 babies! Looks to be one splash, a couple black and the rest are blues! A couple of them are just beautiful shades! I can't wait to get them out of there, but I won't be opening it tonight...probably tomorrow evening at the earliest since there are so many pipped right now. I'm already in love with a couple of them! haha

I'm holding out hope on hope for some of your eggs! You know what I like!!...and what I sure don't like!

 

[Debbi]

haha you can bet I'll get you some good eggs once I get a bit more work done on the ones I have here! And I just got home about 2 minutes ago and have 8 babies! Looks to be one splash, a couple black and the rest are blues! A couple of them are just beautiful shades! I can't wait to get them out of there, but I won't be opening it tonight...probably tomorrow evening at the earliest since there are so many pipped right now. I'm already in love with a couple of them! haha

Gooooooooo chicks!!! Glad things are starting to pop for you!!