She said/He said Who's right? Who's wrong? No one!

[Alaskan]

Yeah... My Marans sell for double my other chicks If they didn't I would off all of these stupid Marans

Their hatch rate is horrid.. Fertility is bad, I have deformed toes that crop up, they lay almost nothing but eat pounds of feed, and have giant "please frostbite me" combs.

But no one wants the practical breeds!!!

 

[Alaskan]

Ok, not true.... A few people ask for practical... But not that many.

 

[caesargirl]

Humidity may also depend on what type of incubator you are using. Low humidity seems to work wonders in styrofoam, but most Brinsea users seem to be at 40-45%. Welcome to the thread. What are you incubating, and what type of incubator?

I'm actually just trying to find out what my lockdown humidity will be. I've been keeping it around 40 in the am with a gradual decrease over 24 hrs to about 27. I'm in a styro. Using my own gauges. Duck eggs. Staggered hatch. 10 days between the first and second batch, 7 days between second and third. Excellent development. 1 quitter. 1 dud. 3 doubles. No fluctuations. Candled every other day. I'm a meddler.

 

[scflock]

I'm actually just trying to find out what my lockdown humidity will be. I've been keeping it around 40 in the am with a gradual decrease over 24 hrs to about 27. I'm in a styro. Using my own gauges. Duck eggs. Staggered hatch. 10 days between the first and second batch, 7 days between second and third. Excellent development. 1 quitter. 1 dud. 3 doubles. No fluctuations. Candled every other day. I'm a meddler.

Then stick around and wait for Amy and WV duckchick. Amy is great with styrofoam, and duckchick is, well, a duck chick

 

[Alaskan]

Humidity may also depend on what type of incubator you are using. Low humidity seems to work wonders in styrofoam, but most Brinsea users seem to be at 40-45%. Welcome to the thread. What are you incubating, and what type of incubator?

I'm actually just trying to find out what my lockdown humidity will be. I've been keeping it around 40 in the am with a gradual decrease over 24 hrs to about 27. I'm in a styro. Using my own gauges. Duck eggs. Staggered hatch. 10 days between the first and second batch, 7 days between second and third. Excellent development. 1 quitter. 1 dud. 3 doubles. No fluctuations. Candles every other day. I'm a meddler.

I have found that hatch rate starts to drop after the second staggered hatch because of the humidity spikes.... So my last staggered hatch.. Since only three ducks were hatching, I only barely and briefly upped the humidity... Then I just kept candling... I made the first pip.. And kept opening and unsticking membrane edges over three days until they hatched on their own, with the humidity still low....

All three are great, no problems at all

HOWEVER, it still messed up my next hatch (much more important and valuable eggs), because the blasted duck down had settled on my temp sensor and so the temps were just a bit off! Or maybe

Lately I just can't win for loosing

 

[Alaskan]

Oh... Mine were Muscovy duck eggs... Only duck I have ever hatched.. Probably don't need as much humidity as the rest of the ducks

 

[scflock]

Ok, not true.... A few people ask for practical... But not that many.

Practical is what sells here. Heavy layers, and the more colorful the basket the better. My cuckoo marans pullet sell out as fast as they come out of the brooder, EEs are in high demand, and people are begging me for BCM. That's what's heartbreaking about these. If the eggs are light, I have lost an entire year

 

[cppeace]

I'm actually just trying to find out what my lockdown humidity will be. I've been keeping it around 40 in the am with a gradual decrease over 24 hrs to about 27. I'm in a styro. Using my own gauges. Duck eggs. Staggered hatch. 10 days between the first and second batch, 7 days between second and third. Excellent development. 1 quitter. 1 dud. 3 doubles. No fluctuations. Candled every other day. I'm a meddler.

You sound very much like me. I just upped my humidity to the upper 50s cause my one out of 4 originals is 2 days from hatch but shall let it fall back into the 40s tomorrow. I candle every other day after 10 days old and set the first 4 on the 22nd then 2 more the 25, 1 the 27, two the 30th and one from the first. Out of the first 4 two were infertile and one died about 5 days ago, prolly from a spike during a high 90s day that caused the incubator to go up to 104 But for my first independent hatch in my first homemade incubator I think I'm doing great. Grew up with my dads incubators. He started with a decent sized round metal one and then eventually got a big 200 egg chest one. AS this is my trial run I figure any hatches are a bonus. My next try I shall be hopefully doing turkeys and then geese

 

[sideWing]

Yeah... My Marans sell for double my other chicks

If they didn't I would off all of these stupid Marans

Their hatch rate is horrid.. Fertility is bad, I have deformed toes that crop up, they lay almost nothing but eat pounds of feed, and have giant "please frostbite me" combs.

But no one wants the practical breeds!!!

Marans seem to go quickly around here, but I have not produced any myself. Just watching the local ads and watching them get marked sold within two days. And from knowing a few folks that sell them. SLW also seem to go quickly around here so I have a group of them coming up. I got into this whole chicken thing again so that my boys could tend them and sell eggs. Hopefully the gold sexlinks start laying within the next four weeks. They have done a great job with the responsibility. I have some project Lavender Wyandottes that I want to try to get to lavender laced wyandottes, but that's a long way off and I don't know that a lavender lace would sell locally any better than a silver lace. But I love the challenge of the project and learning about genetics.

 

[scflock]

Marans seem to go quickly around here, but I have not produced any myself. Just watching the local ads and watching them get marked sold within two days. And from knowing a few folks that sell them. SLW also seem to go quickly around here so I have a group of them coming up. I got into this whole chicken thing again so that my boys could tend them and sell eggs. Hopefully the gold sexlinks start laying within the next four weeks. They have done a great job with the responsibility. I have some project Lavender Wyandottes that I want to try to get to lavender laced wyandottes, but that's a long way off and I don't know that a lavender lace would sell locally any better than a silver lace. But I love the challenge of the project and learning about genetics.

My biggest sellers are the cuckoo marans and silkies, both sell out within days. I like the cuckoos, because I can sell them sexed as soon as they come out of the brooder, and silkies sell pretty well as straight run young. I can get a really good price for silkie pullets if I keep them that long. I have 7 pens, but I could see me downsizing to 3 or 4 breeds in the next couple of years