OHio ~ Come on Buckeyes, let me know your out there!

[cabinchicky]

Amen for living in the country, town creeping up on me. I stand at mail box n can spit into the limit. grrrrr.

 

[OHhappychicks]

cabinchick, sorry to hear that. Stories like yours make me sad I don't have better relationships with my hens.


Question for all: I am having bad incubation problems. I can't seem to get the humidity correct for central ohio's natural humidity.

I have been incubating dry (chicken eggs dry, duck eggs w/cooling and misting) with unacceptable results.

What do people in central ohio, or for all of ohio for that matter use as their incubation parameters?

Thanks,

Cam

I'm no expert at incubating, but here are 2 articles that I have used for my little giant incubator. Hope this helps. I printed them out.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/108802/dry-incubation
https://www.backyardchickens.com/LC-DryIncubation.html<br><br>Try
I think the second one should be dry incubation by bill worrell. If not, just go to search in incubating thread and put in dry icubation by bill worrell. about half way down the page is the thread. I don't incubate much, but i have had good results this way.

 

[OHhappychicks]

I have 8 maran eggs in the bator right now. I just candled and only two had chicks. The rest weren't fertile or didn't develop. But I'm excited!! Probably both roos!!!

 

[KeeperOfTheZoo]

Exciting! I am hoping to maybe get a couple of marans next year. My husband made me promise to only get 6 this year, but I'd like to add a few each year, especially since we have such a large coop. I'll be getting light brown and blue eggs most likely with what I currently have (if they EVER start laying... can you tell I'm getting impatient

), and I am enthralled with the dark brown maran eggs. Do you find that they do well in our cold Ohio winters?

 

[OHhappychicks]

Exciting! I am hoping to maybe get a couple of marans next year. My husband made me promise to only get 6 this year, but I'd like to add a few each year, especially since we have such a large coop. I'll be getting light brown and blue eggs most likely with what I currently have (if they EVER start laying... can you tell I'm getting impatient

), and I am enthralled with the dark brown maran eggs. Do you find that they do well in our cold Ohio winters?

I have always had cuckoo marans that I get from murray mcmurray. They do great here! I love them. I bought the copper maran roo and hen from someone on here, last fall. My plan was to breed them. I had a copper maran hen I bought from someone else, so with the cuckoo and the 2 cm hens, I thought I could build my flock of marans. But, apparently that isn't going to happen.

I had them in a breeding pen for 5 weeks and finally got 7 eggs. Apparently it takes that long to get pure eggs if there are other roos present, which I have 3 other roos. Now only 2 of them are good and I think one of them is the extra I just thru in. I have a red sexlink that lays the darkest eggs. They are as dark as the marans, so I stuck one of them in. So I think only 1 maran, and it will be a roo I betcha!!! The maran eggs are very dark until they molt, then they get a little lighter and the older they get they lighten up a bit. But I love that dark rich color they have at the beginning.

 

[cabinchicky]

Saturday and my guys went 4wheeling while I get to pull 12 hours at work. yuck, but thankful I have a job.Hope to talk chicken perhaps later and see how everyone is.

 

[OHhappychicks]

Saturday and my guys went 4wheeling while I get to pull 12 hours at work. yuck, but thankful I have a job.Hope to talk chicken perhaps later and see how everyone is.

Oh Rats!! I know I complain when I have to work 2 days a week! I feel so ungrateful when I do that. I'm a homebody, so I really like to be at home, but my job is a blessing, so in the same breath that I complain, I try to be thankful for my job! Have a great day!!

 

[DelcoChix]

Exciting! I am hoping to maybe get a couple of marans next year. My husband made me promise to only get 6 this year, but I'd like to add a few each year, especially since we have such a large coop. I'll be getting light brown and blue eggs most likely with what I currently have (if they EVER start laying... can you tell I'm getting impatient

), and I am enthralled with the dark brown maran eggs. Do you find that they do well in our cold Ohio winters?

I love my Marans and their dark eggs! I now have Blue, Splash and Blue Copper Marans, and one Wheaten, only four hens and a rooster, but enjoy having them. My rooster ("Big Sexy...aka..Big George...aka King George") is wonderful, great temperament and good to all his ladies (I have 16 hens with him)...and bonus, experimented with my broody Silkie in March by throwing one EE blue egg and four Marans eggs under her...successful experiment. She hatched and raised four chicks, so I have one Olive Egger and three BBS chicks, one cockerel (who needs a new home...hint, hint!).
You are right to be concerned about them and the cold winter though. George lost all of his pointy comb tips due to the polar vortex, despite repeated applications of vaseline. Since I don't show it's purely cosmetic and he recovered without incident, but I did have to euthanize my older Black Copper Marans hen this spring, due to frostbitten feet. I'm afraid it was indirectly my fault, I think the waterer leaked (it's on bricks that are in a plastic lid to prevent flooding coop floor if it leaked...) and she must have stepped int the water at some point, with the feathered feet it held the moisture and the sub zero temps arrived. That's what I surmise--didn't see any puddles but think it's the most likely possibility. Was hoping she'd recover but she was not improving, moving as little as possible and losing weight...sooo, that is a possibility although I plan to make sure it doesn't happen again if within my power. I would not hesitate to have more Marans, just take care with wet and feathered feet...and all other feet too, in the worst winter weather!

 

[DelcoChix]

I have 8 maran eggs in the bator right now. I just candled and only two had chicks. The rest weren't fertile or didn't develop. But I'm excited!! Probably both roos!!!

Bummer about the low chick rate...but congrats on having two on the way!
And they will probably both be pullets...the boys just weren't tough enough

 

[OHhappychicks]

I love my Marans and their dark eggs! I now have Blue, Splash and Blue Copper Marans, and one Wheaten, only four hens and a rooster, but enjoy having them. My rooster ("Big Sexy...aka..Big George...aka King George") is wonderful, great temperament and good to all his ladies (I have 16 hens with him)...and bonus, experimented with my broody Silkie in March by throwing one EE blue egg and four Marans eggs under her...successful experiment. She hatched and raised four chicks, so I have one Olive Egger and three BBS chicks, one cockerel (who needs a new home...hint, hint!).
You are right to be concerned about them and the cold winter though. George lost all of his pointy comb tips due to the polar vortex, despite repeated applications of vaseline. Since I don't show it's purely cosmetic and he recovered without incident, but I did have to euthanize my older Black Copper Marans hen this spring, due to frostbitten feet. I'm afraid it was indirectly my fault, I think the waterer leaked (it's on bricks that are in a plastic lid to prevent flooding coop floor if it leaked...) and she must have stepped int the water at some point, with the feathered feet it held the moisture and the sub zero temps arrived. That's what I surmise--didn't see any puddles but think it's the most likely possibility. Was hoping she'd recover but she was not improving, moving as little as possible and losing weight...sooo, that is a possibility although I plan to make sure it doesn't happen again if within my power. I would not hesitate to have more Marans, just take care with wet and feathered feet...and all other feet too, in the worst winter weather!

Where are you Located??

I might have to come see some of those!! I would love to have each one. Mine is a Black copper maran, and like yours he is the sweetest roo. He lets us pet him and he will come running to us if he thinks he can get a treat. I have a buckeye roo also. While the black copper maran was in the breeding pen, The buckeye got to be top roo. Now that cm is out of pen, they have done nothing but fight. I've broken up about 4 already today!! If I have to the buckeye will go before the cm!! Ha! I would love to have an olive egger. I have the light blue to med lite blue layers but no olive eggers. I do have a red sexlink that lays a very dark egg. I also have an ee roo. I wonder if they crossed if I would get an olive egger? HHmmm! My CM roo had a little frostbite on his comb, but not alot. Other than that they came thru the winter just fine. Sorry about your hen's frozen feet! That must have been traumatic! Good advice about the water! Never thought about that. We have a homemade waterer warmer, (say that 3x fast!

). Also we have a rubber mat floor, so a little insulation.