Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[loprettaerin]

Starting to get depressed. I have 5 chicks out so far and not a single one has feathered shanks sigh. I also have a wierd chick that hatched from a bcm egg or atleast what was label one. It seems to be white or maybe it was just labeled wrong and it is a wheaton but really looks white to me. This is day 21 for these 50 eggs I have several more that have pipped but have yet to unzip but there are allot that have yet to do anything from what I can see but hard to tell with these dark eggs.

Im trying not to get too down since I know most of the parent stock had feathered shanks just so far I have no chicks with them. I think I need to stay away from that room for a little while and try to focus on something else. Im unsure if any of the colors I wanted to keep are going to work for me at this point. I only have a few eggs left that I had seperated for me that have yet to hatch. I had seprated the bcm and the wheatons eggs from the rest so I would be able to tell them apart from the others.

 

[Debbi]

loprettaerin

I wouldn't get depressed yet! It's only day 21, quite a few of mine didn't hatch till day 23 or 24. Heck, Pink had some hatch on day 27! They must've thought they were ducks!

What is your humidity set at?

As for the feathered shanks; two feathered parents don't guarantee feathered chicks. Although if both parents are feathered, you have a better chance for the chicks to be too, but no guarantees. I have five pullets total so far. All 5 came from feathered or heavily feathered parents, yet only 2 of mine have feathered shanks, and it is sparse. Breed the pullets to a "street sweeper" roo!

Gees, I forgot about the babies! I have 9 pullets now! Of the 4 babies, one girl has decent feathering, two have sparse, and one has none.

 

[sewandgrow]

Quote:
Lisa I love my Brinsea & it does an excellent job if I keep my hands off it..............LOL
I am afraid I just ruined some very special eggs by messing with a good thing. I tend to learn the hard way unfortunately.......................
Karen in California

 

[loprettaerin]

Quote:
I raised it becuase first two got there shell stuck too them and some of there down was wripping off on the shell. Right know it is 68 humidity, it was 60. That seemed to help the other 3 allot when I raised it. they came out nice and easy with no issues. Not so worried about time because they still have allot of it. temp been steady and set them in the afternoon so really hatch time is not till this evening. More depressed none with feathered shanks yet. When I get one with them that will go away or atleast I keep telling my self that.

could be the earlier chicks just dont have them. I have lots more chances to get them. keeping fingures crossed

 

[Debbi]

Quote:
Lisa I love my Brinsea & it does an excellent job if I keep my hands off it..............LOL
I am afraid I just ruined some very special eggs by messing with a good thing. I tend to learn the hard way unfortunately.......................
Karen in California

Karen,

What did you do? Love the plug 'n play bators; set it, and forget it!

 

[Debbi]

Quote:
I raised it becuase first two got there shell stuck too them and some of there down was wripping off on the shell. Right know it is 68 humidity, it was 60. That seemed to help the other 3 allot when I raised it. they came out nice and easy with no issues. Not so worried about time because they still have allot of it. temp been steady and set them in the afternoon so really hatch time is not till this evening. More depressed none with feathered shanks yet. When I get one with them that will go away or atleast I keep telling my self that.

could be the earlier chicks just dont have them. I have lots more chances to get them. keeping fingures crossed

Yes, I find that mine have an easier time zipping if the humidity is between 65-70%. These shells and membranes are tough! Got my fingers and toes crossed for you! Good luck!!

 

[loprettaerin]

Quote:
I raised it becuase first two got there shell stuck too them and some of there down was wripping off on the shell. Right know it is 68 humidity, it was 60. That seemed to help the other 3 allot when I raised it. they came out nice and easy with no issues. Not so worried about time because they still have allot of it. temp been steady and set them in the afternoon so really hatch time is not till this evening. More depressed none with feathered shanks yet. When I get one with them that will go away or atleast I keep telling my self that.

could be the earlier chicks just dont have them. I have lots more chances to get them. keeping fingures crossed

Yes, I find that mine have an easier time zipping if the humidity is between 65-70%. These shells and membranes are tough! Got my fingers and toes crossed for you! Good luck!!

Here is a picture of the poor little one with all its down wripped off its back and the one that looks white is next to it also.

 

[sewandgrow]

Quote:
THANK YOU for responding and explaining my friend! I understand where you are coming from.....it's like your little Wade Jeane special that popped up in your last hatch, right? Man I should have had a V8!

I can see clearly now even though the rain is not gone.

Now...just because I see your point....doesn't mean that I won't continue to breed my Blues into my Black Coppers

.....I am bent on producing a very nice Black Copper male from either one of my Blue Copper males......I am sure it will take some time but I am determined to make it happen. Wish me luck even though I know you disagree with how I am going to go about it.

I love how we can all agree to disagree in this thread and talk things over without flaming tempers or uncalled for comments. This thread ROCKS!!!!!!!!!!! I hope it never changes!

I have much more experience in breeding cattle than chickens, but some things seem to strike me as the same. If you have too much in-breeding and crossing of "family members" such as bulls breeding their daughters, sons breeding mothers, brothers breeding sisters, etc...you end up with some real funky looking cows in the pasture. I feel like I see some of the same thing in pictures I have seen on BYC. It seems to me that there are quite a few folks out there who are crossing different birds - looking to come up with god-knows-what and when these strange looking birds come out (they are all cute when they are babies) people are too attached to them to cull what should be culled and then they end up with a mixed up flock of god-knows what and the whole thought of purity in lines or any attempts at SOP go out the window. Then if they sell or otherwise distribute these birds or their eggs into the public sector they are only doing irreperable damage to chickendom.

Agreed.................I don't personally cross on purpose & separate pen everything except my laying pen that is just EATING EGGS only...................The ones I sell or give away are culls only,.... unless I puposely bred the purbred/same variety and sell those chicks as straight run purebred. I don't even want to start projects.........Maybe I am just too old.....LOL

 

[Debbi]

Oh, the poor kid! It'll grow back. The white one looks to me like it could be a wheaten? What color was the roo(s) in question? Were these bought eggs or yours?

 

[loprettaerin]

Quote:
They were bought eggs, I figured the egg could have just been misslabled, But I also know he has gotten a couple all white ones from his before just not very often so there was a chance of that. I will compare them when the other wheaton eggs hatch there are two of them that are getting close to hatching. Do BCM chicks normally have some dark copper down on them? I dont remember seeing any chicks that do on here. Was just curoise because one or 2 of them do that have hatched so far for me. I had only planned on keeping some of the weatons, bcm, and some blues just because I saw the parents and out of the eggs I got I new I would probably not be as happy with the others.