Marans Thread for Posting Pics of Your Eggs, Chicks and Chickens

[Krys109uk]

I sometimes read about people taking some drastic measures when incubating Marans eggs (lower humidity, sanding the big end, etc.),

Cripes....I've never heard of that one.

I hope it's not case of famous last words here.....

I've never had any trouble with our Marans hatching.....they seem more vigorous hatchers than our orps.

We set & hatch mixed batches.
As much can be seen by watching the size of the airsac as the chick develops as by using a hygrometer. While I cannot think of a logical reason why it would happen, but the ambient humidity of the area seems to make a difference.

Candling marans eggs can be difficult. There is a reasonably accurate way that one can tell if an egg is developing from about day 3 or 4....even with Marans. It is a bit difficult to describe but here goes....on day 3 or 4 when candling an egg which is not developing, the egg just carries on looking like it did when one set it, but with a fertile developing egg the yolk changes. It gets darker about half way down from the top. It is so much easier to show than to describe....

 

[Dread Pirate Roberts]

Quote:
Yes, so true. This is the purpose of weighing the eggs and targeting a ~12% weight loss from Day 1 to Day 18.

My thought is that the humidity is merely the tool by which we achieve this weight loss.

 

[Dread Pirate Roberts]

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My experience with my first four hatches (various breeds of dark or blue/green eggs) was similar...very poor hatch rates and many peeps dead in the shell. Upon eggtopsy and further reasearch, I'm convinced that my issue was low humidity - I shrinkwrapped them!

As you know, high humidity will also cause peeps to die in the shell, but for a different reason.

Here's somethin' interesting...on my second hatch attempt, I had 21 dark brown eggs; Penedesencas, Welsummers, Barnevelders and Cuckoo Marans. Eight of the 21 were Cuckoo Marans and the 3/21 that hatched, it was 3 Cuckoo Marans! huh. Lucky strike, or stronger birds?

So anyways, with this new system of using the sort of "modified dry" method and weighing the eggs, I feel like I've finally learned how to do it right, but this is my first attempt with Marans since using these techniques, so I'm kinda on pins and needles. On top of that, it's a joint effort with a local organic farm/vineyard gal who supplied the eggs so I really don't want to screw this up.

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This is very interesting and if by chance your issues have been due to high humidity, then this observation would seem to support the idea that the darker eggs are less porous (more specifically, that the pores are more clogged) and have a harder time losing water weight.

I'll have to reference my notes on the eggs' individual weights and see how they compare to the darkness of the shells. This is a good clutch for that because it's 3 dozen and darkness varies widely between "not really a Marans" and "ooh, neat-o!"

 

[Krys109uk]

This is the purpose of weighing the eggs and targeting a ~12% weight loss from Day 1 to Day 18.

Yes, I realise; chicken eggs tend to be relatively forgiving.

Marans eggs dont need any more care than any others.

At times I've forgotten about them; let them run dry for days; forgotten to put them into the hatcher & had them hatch in the incubator. Vigorous little things Marans chicks

 

[Krys109uk]

Napa Valley....
Sorry I didn't realise you'd had problems. What type of incubator are you using? Are you in desert area? Hav you cracked the eggs open to see why they died? If so what did you find?

When I lived in UK, being an island, the ambient humidity was pretty high the problem was most often humidity too high & one could usually incubate & hatch dry. A friend I had in Arizona had completely the opposite thing & had to incubate her eggs with wet sponges.

 

[Dread Pirate Roberts]

Hi Krys...I'm fairly confident now that my incubation problems have been resolved, it's just that this is my first Marans hatch after my first truly "successful" hatch of some barnyard eggs.

I agree with you that the Marans probably do not need any special treatment, with the possible exception that the darkest of them just might have a wee bit harder time losing weight. I've really read some crazy things over in the incubation forum though.

My previous incubation issues were foiled by low humidity, I'm certain of that. We're pretty dry here and I was initially running sans hygrometer, following the very rudimentary instructions from my Hova-Bator styrobator.

 

[Krys109uk]

following the very rudimentary instructions from my Hova-Bator styrobator

Oh goodness. Those polystyrene incubators are difficult.

I tried some of those for hatching, some years ago, back in Britain.....with the ambient humidity over there they were about unusable....even without water & the plugs out the humidity rocketed & the poor little chicks looked like drowned rats.

I haven't had any trouble with the very dark eggs but I do remember, on occasions, some of the very large eggs might not have hatched as well.

Good luck

 

[onthespot]

I saw a grey feather tip on my otherwise "white" marans, so whew! looks like it is a splash... not white! I did NOT want a white bird, especially a recessive one.

 

[klotzoo]

Hello again everyone! The black copper marans that I purchased here are in the process of hatching as I type. 2 out of 6 so far and the others are trying! My problem is that I also have some of my cuckoos in there. How do I tell who is who?

 

[klf73]

cuckoos have a white spot on their head...