Poor Hatch Rate on One Breed only? - Splash Marans

[Kenncarr]

Hello, needing advice.

We have been hatching several breeds of chickens; as well as Coturnix Quail throughout the spring in our GQF Sportsman cabinet incubator. We throw in multiple breeds at once. Humidity starts at 30-35%. Temp a steady 99.5 F.
We have chicks set to hatch weekly and haven’t been able to get our hands on a separate Hatcher so we are just using the hatching tray inside the incubator. Once a week the eggs get higher humidity for a few days - around 55%.

We have had excellent hatch rates with the Quail as well as all other breeds (Orpingtons, Silverudds, Cream Legbar, EE, Welsummer).

We have 10 Splash Marans make it to lockdown and only get 1 to hatch most of the time. We’ve only have one good hatch of them. What would be causing ONLY this breed to hatch poorly. The eggs arnt that dark, they are more of a terra cotta color. They are a nice large size egg. These are hatchery stock and not from a breeder like our other breeds. Could that be why??

 

[SpicyDill]

I've always heard that Marans eggs tend to be thicker and that makes them notoriously hard to hatch. I never had luck with them when I still had Marans.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Do you mean the parents are hatchery stock or the eggs are shipped from a hatchery?

 

[Kenncarr]

@JacinLarkwell Sorry, the parents are hatchery stock. They are our eggs.

However, we also tried hatching Silver Marans shipped from a breeder and only ended up with 1 out of 8 that made it to lockdown.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

@JacinLarkwell Sorry, the parents are hatchery stock. They are our eggs.

However, we also tried hatching Silver Marans shipped from a breeder and only ended up with 1 out of 8 that made it to lockdown.

Then I'm thinking it's egg shell related. I know I can't hatch from my own hens the first couple weeks of spring because the shells are so thick from eating layer feed all winter long

 

[BirdsBeesTrees]

Marans are one of the hardest eggs to hatch.

 

[Coops Dad]

The only time I got Marans eggs to hatch with better than 20% success was doing a dry hatch. Ambient humidity until lockdown, then bump it up to 60-65%. We hatched 4 out of 9 eggs that time.

 

[FoodFreedomNow]

I raise Black Copper Marans that lay very dark eggs and I've found that they need different incubation conditions to optimize the hatch - most importantly, low humidity. They have extra hard shells that just don't seem to lose moisture as readily as lighter-colored eggs. Some people even gently sand some of the bloom off to facilitate moisture loss.

 

[salemacresohio]

I have Mystic Marans and they are basically same as BCM (BCM mixed with Barred Rock) so the eggs are super thick and super dark. I sand in a circular area around where I believe the zipping would take place. At the very least it’s making it easier for them to pip their first external.
I just read this and have applied it to my batch that’s due in 3 days. Today is lockdown for 6 of them. Fingers crossed but I’ll let you know the details of everything if what I’m working on has a good hatch rate.

It sure sounds like it’s the hardness of the shell, but who knows. Are you comfortable with your ability to keep humidity high enough during incubation to pull them out individually around day 21-22 and candle for internal pip? If they are pipping internally it’s probably the shell. But it sounds like, imho, (you’ll know better if you’re able to confirm whether they pip internally before they die.) that they may be losing enough moisture over the inc period to keep them from drowning, but you probably need to hatch them separately unless you’re able to raise humidity to more like 65%. Have they looked shrunken or dried out at all? They may not have enough moisture to fight through the membrane and the thick shell by the time they need to, get fatigued and die.
Anyhow, oh! What day do you take them out of incubator and call it a loss? I have one that pipped internally on morning of day 24, and made an air hole in sac later that night to give it time to work it’s way out with enough oxygen.
I’m definitely not an expert and still in the process of honing hatching of Marans, but maybe some of these details will help you troubleshoot. Best of luck!