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

[gvntofly05]

Okay I have a couple of questions on my BCM eggs in the incubator. I figured I'd ask you guys since most of you have probably hatched at some point.

I candled before I put them in the incubator, mainly to make sure there were no small cracks. The eggs all had a clear glow and no visible cracks. I didn't think to look for detached air cells, being a first time hatcher. Well I candled 4 of the lightest eggs at the end of day 3 just to see if maybe something would show that growth was happening. Well all 4 had a dark blob/mass visible that moved if I tilted the egg. Is this good or bad? Should I just continue to watch temps and humidity and turn on schedule and not even think about candling?

 

[onthespot]

I don't bother candling them until ten days or so, and then just to leave them in the turner and touch the candler to the top of the egg to see if the air sac is a lot lighter than the rest of the egg. The shells are so dark you can't see much anyhow. You may already have damaged them by moving the contents enough to see the yolk moving about. Sorry to be the bearer of possible bad news. Candling in the early days doesn't do anythng that will help those chicks develop, and can kill them from getting dropped a few inches (we all have done it, picking them up or putting them back) or the stress of bright light that makes them kick and swim away from the beam. It is just unneccesary stress on the chicks. Just leave them be unless something starts to smell bad, then smell the eggs, and remove any that stink. NO stinky egg ever hatches. Don't worry about detached air cells. I have hatched a lot of shipped eggs and plenty of them had air cells shaped like a four leaf clover or some swamp thing. Plenty with perfect air cells have not hatched. Just go with what you got and ride it till it crashes and burns is what I say, LOL. Assume everything is fine until you have definitive proof that it is not. Otherwise you cause things to be "not fine" by just fiddling too much with mother nature.

 

[gvntofly05]

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Thanks, that's why I didn't candle all of them. I'll just keep to making sure their environment is good and maybe I won't even think about trying to candle again. Since I probably won't be able to see anything anyway!

 

[millebantam]

Very eloquently put Patty, and so true. I think that a lot of peoples incubation problems occur from the failure to supress the uncontrolable desire to candle eggs every 15 minutes, lol.
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[evonne]

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hey... don't go pickin on us people who still get excited about it.. lol...
i had a hatch where i had 6 eggs developing at day 4 and it was my first hatch so i candled a LOT for the first 2 weeks when you could see the differences... all 6 hatched.... but these were leghorn cross eggs so it was easy to see like a movie screen.. and no turning hte egg required.. just set it on the candler box...

i have greens that i can't see through, so i think once i get these pretty darks you guys get, yeah... i wouldn't even try to candle.. knowing i wouldn't see through...

 

[berkeleysprings]

i wonder what it takes to make a egg explode , i hatched 3 different times marans and never had one explode . i got around a 40 percent hatch rate on shiped eggs .
i use a styro incubator with fan and turner... but still i wonder why people just gotta know if the egg is good ,,, i have only had chickens around 3 years and marans a year.
after my first hatch i never candeled again . all i ever mannaged to do is mess up the temp and let the heat out and more likely did more dammage to the eggs messing around for my own courosity ... for me its like the old saying " a watched pot will never boil " i just wonder whats cooking in the bator ..... i am so sorry about the spelling ....
i am so bad .... 50 years old and cant spell ....
Ps if anyone interested drop me a email ,,, i might have a few eggs to sell from my wheatens (6 or so ) next monday for like 12 bucks plus shipping cost just to test hatch

 

[kathyinmo]

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Email sent ! I would love to test hatch for you!

 

[drom]

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AH you know, I just realized when I read your post that I have never made any french toast since I started keeping chickens. And as soon as they start laying again that is the first thing I am going to do!

My girls have taken a really long break and I have really been missing eating eggs for breakfast.

 

[kathyinmo]

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AH you know, I just realized when I read your post that I have never made any french toast since I started keeping chickens. And as soon as they start laying again that is the first thing I am going to do!

My girls have taken a really long break and I have really been missing eating eggs for breakfast.

Ya know ... that is really not necessary of you, Drom, to rub it in ...
I have no eggs ...

 

[drom]

My young cockerel just ran at me for the first time today when he was turned out. Came up behind me and ran in to my legs. It was just a light bump I felt on the backs of my calf but how disappointing. I thought he would be well behaved. So, now it looks like I will have 2 roosters that do this. My other 2 are perfect gentlemen. And I mean perfect. My alpha roo actually protects me. If the bad roo even looks at me the wrong way, my alpha roo goes after him and lets him have it.
You know, I really haven't found a successful way to respond to this. I almost think maybe the best thing to do is to totally ignore it, the way you do with some horses when they want to spook or misbehave.

But it's very hard to ignore.