My Morst Hatch Evvvvvver in 12 years!!

[millejn3]

Well 23 days ago I set 20 BC Maran eggs that i bought from Ebay. The gentleman I bought them from has been very helpful with his suggestions as I have never hatched any Marans in my past 12 years of incubating duck, turkey and chickens. Well on day 18 14 made it to lock down. On the 16th we had 3 chicks pop right out and I just knew every thing was going to turn out pecfect.

By the next morning we had 2 more, and then we had to help one little guy out but he is doing awsome so no worries their. Last night we took a close look at the remaining eggs and 2 were rockin like crazy. Today nothing! No pips - No Peeps - and no rockin. I just couldnt stand it so I opened the bator and snacked an egg out about an hour ago as quickly as I could to candle it. YES I know I did a bad thing but I just had to look. Welll he was dead. Didnt even make to the air sack. So yes I did a bad thing agian and quickly snack one off the remaining 6 eggs out and check it. DEAD AGIAN. Now I extremely frustrated and didnt check any more of them. 7 out of 20 is BY FAR my worst hatch ever. Even on shipped eggs. I still have the reaming 5 in the bator and two of those are the 2 that I saw rockin last night. Keeping my fingers crossed for those two but its not lockin good as I havent seen any movement of any kind in those 2 either today. My worst hatch up to now was 55% and this was on shipped turkey eggs. Well I guess we can win them all but at $3.00 and egg not including shipping its pretty depressing. One good thing is that the gentleman that I bought the eggs from is going to trade me some Bourbon Red eggs for more maran eggs.
Anyone have any helpful hint for incubating these darn Maran eggs!

 

[kelseygirl707]

Quote:

Sorry, I am having a bad hatch too. I set 22, 14 were alive and wiggly at lock down, 3 have hatched, 3 are pipped, and I candled the last 8 and one is still alive, I'm kinda sad, I thought this would be a great hatch.

 

[onthespot]

So sorry for your bad hatch. It is very common in dark marans eggs. They don't evaporate as fast as lighter eggs and I think a lot of them drown in the egg near hatching time. The are hatching retarded too. More than normal pip at the wrong end, injure a vessel and bleed themselves out, drown, pip and quit, don't pip and quit. It is very hard to get your own flock going, but once you do, you can figure out what incubating numbers work for you. For me I have lately been running my incubators at 35% humidity give or take, and 55% on lockdown, days 18-21. I have also been trying the egg carton method where you cut out the bottoms of egg cartons and set the eggs in them large side up for the last three days. If they pip the correct end of the egg, they stand a better chance of not drowning that way. Good luck with whatever you do. It is worth the hassle once you get your own flock up and running. Hope this helps and hope your next hatch goes a lot better.

 

[abanjaf]

You know it's funny, sometimes you just never know how a hatch is going to go. I've had 3 hatches this year. My Maran hatch was by far my best. Received 13 eggs, shipped, two candled clear and were discarded. 11 made it to lockdown and 10 hatched. Number 11 died without ever pipping, yolk was absorbed, dunno what happened to that one. My third hatch is finishing up, only expecting one more to hatch. Started out with 36 eggs (24 were shipped). At lockdown I had only 14 eggs, 8 have now hatched. 8, possibly 9 out of a starting of 36! Go figure!

 

[millejn3]

Well I just checked the last 5 and they all died before pipping.

I opened them open slightly and found that none made it into the air cell
All I saw were their backs and no head. I didnt go digging to see anything else it ws enough for me.

But on the bright side I have 7 that did make it out and I will get another change next weekend as this guy is awsome and sending me more eggs this week to try agian.

Below is a pic of the first three that made it out. One is being a little camera shy in the bottom right corner of the pic.

 

[Minniechickmama]

I just had a hatch the same day, and out of 45 I got 12 chicks. I got Salmon Favs and Golden Cuckoo Marans from pasofinofarm and they were 8 of the 12, and mostly the Favs. I did have 2 that pipped the air sac and of the other 5 that were developed eggs, one did not absorb the yolk but the rest just never pipped. That is just going to be the luck of it this time.
I am trying another batch this next week and then I will be done hatching for a while.
Sorry yours didn't do better, but it sounds like you are going at it the right way and not giving up.