Wheaten and Blue wheaten Marans Discussion Thread

[Runawaylobster]

I'm getting ready to post pics of my Wheaten Boys in the hope of getting help deciding who to keep, I have quite a few of them.

Many of them have white fuzz showing at the base of the tail, is this usual? Also these guys were the very slowest feathering
of all the marans that I have, some even now have stumpy tails at 5 months. Should I expect these tails to eventually grow in
or will they always have stumpy tails. If this is the case it makes my decision much easier.

 

[Bigfamily4me]

White fluff is more common but not good.

The tail... it will grow out some. I have one with a stumpy tail and it has never grown out with the nice shape of the other roo. Look for a better tail I would think...

 

[Bigfamily4me]

White fluff is more common but not good.

The tail... it will grow out some. I have one with a stumpy tail and it has never grown out with the nice shape of the other roo. Look for a better tail I would think...

 

[Bigfamily4me]

White fluff is more common but not good.

The tail... it will grow out some. I have one with a stumpy tail and it has never grown out with the nice shape of the other roo. Look for a better tail I would think...

 

[Bangarang64]

A successful hatch on one new wheaten today! (morning of day 21)
Another (bottom left) zipped last night, but has't moved or done anything in about 8 hours. Should I assist after 12 hours have passed?

 

[ic46750]

Sounds like you might try. Marans are known to be hard to hatch. Drown with high humidity but membrane is thick to brake. Sometimes it will dry and stick to chick and they can't get out. Good luck!

 

[Runawaylobster]

A successful hatch on one new wheaten today! (morning of day 21)
Another (bottom left) zipped last night, but has't moved or done anything in about 8 hours. Should I assist after 12 hours have passed?

I just had one pip left at the end of day 21 yesterday, after everyone else had hatched between day 20 and 21.. but i left it in there anyway, thinking it wouldn't make it. This morning there was a little peeper in the hatching tray. Sometimes my marans take a LONG time to zip after they pip. Also unless there is a good reason (like perhaps unexpected low humidity) in the hatcher, i have found that my help outs are generally weaker and then unless you mark them specifically I find it hard to identify later as one that perhaps i shouldn't put in the breeding plan.

 

[Bangarang64]

Sounds like you might try. Marans are known to be hard to hatch. Drown with high humidity but membrane is thick to brake. Sometimes it will dry and stick to chick and they can't get out. Good luck!

I just had one pip left at the end of day 21 yesterday, after everyone else had hatched between day 20 and 21.. but i left it in there anyway, thinking it wouldn't make it. This morning there was a little peeper in the hatching tray. Sometimes my marans take a LONG time to zip after they pip. Also unless there is a good reason (like perhaps unexpected low humidity) in the hatcher, i have found that my help outs are generally weaker and then unless you mark them specifically I find it hard to identify later as one that perhaps i shouldn't put in the breeding plan.

There was some movement in the zipped egg (10:30am) So we're gonna leave it alone for now.

 

[ic46750]

Sounds like a good plan. I try and let them go unless it is one I really need. I too find they are weaker and not the best for breeding with. I just had a batch of burchen eggs I bought that only hatched out 4 of 12 eggs. Most had chicks in them after day 23 but did not hatch. Bill

 

[VillageChicken]

I think with bought eggs, there are too many variables to blame the genetics on weak hatchability. The post that said that later they cannot tell which ones were late or weak hatchers shows that weak hatchers can thrive too.

With shipped or purchased eggs, maybe the weak hatchers are the older eggs, or ones that got a little more rough treatment and have less stable internal structure. The genes of the chick may be just as good or better than the strong hatchers.

So IMO if they are not your own eggs, I would help any chick that has already zipped all the way round and sits for more than a few hours. It's probably stuck.

Roger