Raising Humidity HELP!!!

[EggSighted4Life]

I select only the darkest eggs so I might only put one in every two days.

This is a complete misunderstanding of genetics IMHO. Let me tell you why...

So egg pigment color can be really dark when a lady starts laying and fade throughout the season. And get darker again. Regardless of this fading and darkening the genetic potential does NOT change. Even the chicks hatched from a lighter colored egg will still get the SAME genetics as one laid from a darker egg from the SAME hen/cock. It is in fact the cock that passes on his egg color to his progeny! Of course the hen has some impact.

That being said, when I talk about ONLY setting the darkest eggs... I mean that ANY hen who can't lay a good colored egg on a regular basis is eliminated from my flock.

I hope this makes sense to you, in that it's the overall genetics that matter and NOT the color of a single egg. Darker eggs simply went through the reproductive tract a little slower.

 

[happyfrenchman]

This is a complete misunderstanding of genetics IMHO. Let me tell you why...

So egg pigment color can be really dark when a lady starts laying and fade throughout the season. And get darker again. Regardless of this fading and darkening the genetic potential does NOT change. Even the chicks hatched from a lighter colored egg will still get the SAME genetics as one laid from a darker egg from the SAME hen/cock. It is in fact the cock that passes on his egg color to his progeny! Of course the hen has some impact.

That being said, when I talk about ONLY setting the darkest eggs... I mean that ANY hen who can't lay a good colored egg on a regular basis is eliminated from my flock.

I hope this makes sense to you, in that it's the overall genetics that matter and NOT the color of a single egg. Darker eggs simply went through the reproductive tract a little slower.

Well thank you. I do appreciate what you are saying, but in fact, I am quite aware of the fact that Marans hens lay a progressively lighter egg. I have been fooling with these birds for quite some time and I know what they do and don't. That said, some hens do lay darker than others at the start and throughout the season. There is also the shape of the egg to consider. The incubating the darkest eggs has, for me, been a pretty effective technique. The real variable that is hard to tell (without hatching dozens of chicks and culling ruthlessly which I have no desire to do) is the rooster. I have a pretty good looking rooster and I am interested to see what his contribution is (He was given to me by a friend so he is new blood.) I managed to hatch 8 chicks of which right now I might have 5 pullets. We shall see. It is an ongoing experiment that I do as a hobby. But I have been doing it for many years now. That is a picture of my flock from earlier this year. (my avatar) The rooster is in the picture too.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Well thank you. I do appreciate what you are saying, but in fact, I am quite aware of the fact that Marans hens lay a progressively lighter egg. I have been fooling with these birds for quite some time and I know what they do and don't. That said, some hens do lay darker than others at the start and throughout the season. There is also the shape of the egg to consider. The incubating the darkest eggs has, for me, been a pretty effective technique. The real variable that is hard to tell (without hatching dozens of chicks and culling ruthlessly which I have no desire to do) is the rooster. I have a pretty good looking rooster and I am interested to see what his contribution is (He was given to me by a friend so he is new blood.) I managed to hatch 8 chicks of which right now I might have 5 pullets. We shall see. It is an ongoing experiment that I do as a hobby. But I have been doing it for many years now. That is a picture of my flock from earlier this year. (my avatar) The rooster is in the picture too.

OK, please understand that I don't mean to argue in any way and I have sincere questions because I am here to learn...

Why consider the shape of the egg?

Although picking the darkest eggs has worked out well for you, do you think I am incorrect in that the same genetic potential is in every single egg laid by the same hen fertilized by the same cock? I used to only hatch from older birds thinking hatching pullet eggs will give me an overall smaller line of birds. But have been told that the same genetic potential is still there even though you have a lower birth weight they will reach the same size in the end as their genetics say they will. ??

Wow, that's a great male/female hatch rate for you! I usually do the opposite and have loads of boys. About 85%!

Anyways, I have started in Marans last year and culled and culled trying to achieve perfection before even starting I guess. But alas I have decided that I worked hard to get where I am and I wish to move forward with what I have instead of never hatching my own birds. I have worked hard learning the French standard, but sure I still have lots to learn. And training my eye what to look for. I can talk and read all the books I want. But I learned with SFH that experience is the mother of all teacher!

Any pointers or key things I should know or learn about Marans to help in my breeding goals? This is a hobby for me as well. Where I want to have nice dual purpose bird with a nice egg color that meet or exceed the standard of perfection, yes striving for the best but without seriously sacrificing type for egg color or vice versa. I do cull for faults. For that matter any pointers on how to become very familiar with type? I feel like that might be one of the area I have the most to learn. And I am also trying to get hackles on my males a little darker but my hens have too few copper hackles.

Thanks tons for taking your time to share your experience!

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Well thank you. I do appreciate what you are saying, but in fact, I am quite aware of the fact that Marans hens lay a progressively lighter egg. I have been fooling with these birds for quite some time and I know what they do and don't. That said, some hens do lay darker than others at the start and throughout the season. There is also the shape of the egg to consider. The incubating the darkest eggs has, for me, been a pretty effective technique. The real variable that is hard to tell (without hatching dozens of chicks and culling ruthlessly which I have no desire to do) is the rooster. I have a pretty good looking rooster and I am interested to see what his contribution is (He was given to me by a friend so he is new blood.) I managed to hatch 8 chicks of which right now I might have 5 pullets. We shall see. It is an ongoing experiment that I do as a hobby. But I have been doing it for many years now. That is a picture of my flock from earlier this year. (my avatar) The rooster is in the picture too.

OK, please understand that I don't mean to argue in any way and I have sincere questions because I am here to learn...

Why consider the shape of the egg?

Although picking the darkest eggs has worked out well for you, do you think I am incorrect in that the same genetic potential is in every single egg laid by the same hen fertilized by the same cock? I used to only hatch from older birds thinking hatching pullet eggs will give me an overall smaller line of birds. But have been told that the same genetic potential is still there even though you have a lower birth weight they will reach the same size in the end as their genetics say they will. ??

Wow, that's a great male/female hatch rate for you! I usually do the opposite and have loads of boys. About 85%!

Anyways, I have started in Marans last year and culled and culled trying to achieve perfection before even starting I guess. But alas I have decided that I worked hard to get where I am and I wish to move forward with what I have instead of never hatching my own birds. I have worked hard learning the French standard, but sure I still have lots to learn. And training my eye what to look for. I can talk and read all the books I want. But I learned with SFH that experience is the mother of all teacher!

Any pointers or key things I should know or learn about Marans to help in my breeding goals? This is a hobby for me as well. Where I want to have nice dual purpose bird with a nice egg color that meet or exceed the standard of perfection, yes striving for the best but without seriously sacrificing type for egg color or vice versa. I do cull for faults. For that matter any pointers on how to become very familiar with type? I feel like that might be one of the area I have the most to learn. And I am also trying to get hackles on my males a little darker but my hens have too few copper hackles.

Thanks tons for taking your time to share your experience!

Sorry, I realized that is off topic for this thread if you wish to pm, or me to ask somewhere else.

 

[WVduckchick]

Sorry, I realized that is off topic for this thread if you wish to pm, or me to ask somewhere else.

Still good stuff, hopefully the OP doesn't mind.

 

[happyfrenchman]

OK, please understand that I don't mean to argue in any way and I have sincere questions because I am here to learn...

Why consider the shape of the egg?

Although picking the darkest eggs has worked out well for you, do you think I am incorrect in that the same genetic potential is in every single egg laid by the same hen fertilized by the same cock? I used to only hatch from older birds thinking hatching pullet eggs will give me an overall smaller line of birds. But have been told that the same genetic potential is still there even though you have a lower birth weight they will reach the same size in the end as their genetics say they will. ??

Wow, that's a great male/female hatch rate for you! I usually do the opposite and have loads of boys. About 85%!

Anyways, I have started in Marans last year and culled and culled trying to achieve perfection before even starting I guess. But alas I have decided that I worked hard to get where I am and I wish to move forward with what I have instead of never hatching my own birds. I have worked hard learning the French standard, but sure I still have lots to learn. And training my eye what to look for. I can talk and read all the books I want. But I learned with SFH that experience is the mother of all teacher!

Any pointers or key things I should know or learn about Marans to help in my breeding goals? This is a hobby for me as well. Where I want to have nice dual purpose bird with a nice egg color that meet or exceed the standard of perfection, yes striving for the best but without seriously sacrificing type for egg color or vice versa. I do cull for faults. For that matter any pointers on how to become very familiar with type? I feel like that might be one of the area I have the most to learn. And I am also trying to get hackles on my males a little darker but my hens have too few copper hackles.

Thanks tons for taking your time to share your experience!

OK, please understand that I don't mean to argue in any way and I have sincere questions because I am here to learn...

Why consider the shape of the egg?

Although picking the darkest eggs has worked out well for you, do you think I am incorrect in that the same genetic potential is in every single egg laid by the same hen fertilized by the same cock? I used to only hatch from older birds thinking hatching pullet eggs will give me an overall smaller line of birds. But have been told that the same genetic potential is still there even though you have a lower birth weight they will reach the same size in the end as their genetics say they will. ??

Wow, that's a great male/female hatch rate for you! I usually do the opposite and have loads of boys. About 85%!

Anyways, I have started in Marans last year and culled and culled trying to achieve perfection before even starting I guess. But alas I have decided that I worked hard to get where I am and I wish to move forward with what I have instead of never hatching my own birds. I have worked hard learning the French standard, but sure I still have lots to learn. And training my eye what to look for. I can talk and read all the books I want. But I learned with SFH that experience is the mother of all teacher!

Any pointers or key things I should know or learn about Marans to help in my breeding goals? This is a hobby for me as well. Where I want to have nice dual purpose bird with a nice egg color that meet or exceed the standard of perfection, yes striving for the best but without seriously sacrificing type for egg color or vice versa. I do cull for faults. For that matter any pointers on how to become very familiar with type? I feel like that might be one of the area I have the most to learn. And I am also trying to get hackles on my males a little darker but my hens have too few copper hackles.

Thanks tons for taking your time to share your experience!

Well. you are welcome. This is post number 300 for me so I better make it count. LOL
The shape of the egg is important (IMO) because I have found that the eggs from the younger hens, (which are generally a little smaller and more "perfectly" shaped, (1.) Are your latest generation so you are not repeating whatever you might have, especially rooster wise, and (2.) are much more likely to hatch. I do not segregate my birds. They are all in there together (which is another point worth covering) To truly do the whole genetic thing, with the records and the pairings and generations etc... you really have to keep your birds segregated. I culled the inferior (insurance) rooster prior to starting to incubate. That ensured his genetics would not pass on. To really do the whole records and segregation, you need multiple roosters. It can be alot more work than I care to put into it. So for a practical matter, I pretty much take the darkest eggs, from the youngest hens, and those are the ones that go in the incubator. It is undeniably true that the same genetic potential is in each egg from the same hen, no matter what point in the laying cycle. Some of my birds lay lighter eggs than others from the start. So in this past instance, I knew if I was getting 4 eggs a day (it was late in the season) I could reliably pick out the young and dark egg. I could not tell you which hen it came from (again I don't do the whole record thing, and I put it in the incubator, mark it number 1 with a sharpie, and start the incubator up. Every day or every other day, when I got an egg that looked good (likely from that same hen) I put it in the incubator. (If I had them separated I would be doing the same thing really) I know what day it went in so I know when it should go to the hatcher etc . I cull roosters but I don't cull hens. If they don't lay dark enough, they are still delicious, which is really why I have chickens to begin with. You have to work with what you have. With Marans there are two parallel things... the looks of the bird and the color of the egg. So unless you want to just buy yourself a flock of birds, (which there is no guarantee with that either and some of these people charge alot of money for their birds which are no better or worse than the birds you may have) you have to try to make the most of what you have. You can only keep one or two roosters so they are the obvious area for culling. My hens all look pretty good. There is a variance in the hackle but by selecting the rooster, you can control the color of your flock (in theory) You can give away hens that are wrong. I am at the point with my flock that they are all pretty good looking. Much more variance with the roosters. And I have a couple friends who we swap birds back and forth. He gave me my current rooster who looks really good and came from a dark egg. that is really all you can do. I hope I answered your questions. I would say concentrate on your flock health. Get them healthy and keep the healthy. Pay attention to their eyes, their combs, their feather... you will pick it up and when you do, you will probably realize there is only so much you can do anyway. And also remember, you cannot really tell what a bird will look like from a pullet. Sometimes they are "mossy" (brownish when young) and I have heard people complain of that. With mine, sometimes they are mossy but when they reach adulthood, they are jet black. You have to let them develop before you can make a choice. So if you keep your flock healthy, they will look good and you can be proud of them. I apologize to any others on here who were looking for advice on humidity...LOL. Good luck with your birds. I am sure they will be great if you just stick with it and follow a simple plan.

 

[Bryam]

Lol, my chicks will hatch with a humidity of 55 is no problem. They don't need a humidty of 75 to hatch, that' high, bUT 65 is ideal. Too high of humidty can drown the chicks too, so relax everything will be fine! ☺

 

[WVduckchick]

Humidity is relative for everyone. What works for some, doesn't work for others. There is no set "ideal" number, other than what works for your own incubator! Local conditions have a drastic effect on incubator humidity.