The Official Forum of the Ameraucana Breeders Club > Breeding
New with questions
Don:
I didn't ask you where the incubator was located but I am going to guess inside your home. The ambient humidity is very low during the winter time and gradually increases to a balmy relative humidity here in the spring and summer months. So we have to work really hard at getting enough humidity in the incubator at hatch time early in the year. Not so much as the weather begins to change. I've known some breeders who were able to keep their incubators in a closed basement that had much better control of their humidity all year round.
It could also be that the thermostat in the unit is adjusting slightly with some usage too. This might have caused some of the time difference in hatching periods. But I don't know anything about the marans and there might be some here who have had experience with them. Maybe they will chime in and say if they have had different hatching times for their flocks. But I do also wonder if the lower humidity and the longer periods to hatch might have caused some toe issues.
BTW, I have had the worst hatches when the eggs rolled loose in the trays. The new hatchlings seem to cause havoc on the eggs trying to pip. IMO, Anything that will hold the eggs stable in the trays is a good idea. And I've even seen them hatch well standing vertical in the incubation trays.
John Scruggs:
We have a split level house with a 'down stairs' room. This is where I keep my incubator. It has it's own heat/air so I am able to control the ambient temperature quite well down there...humidity, not so much. I was advised to dry hatch the marans by several breeders who told me that their eggs have a difficult time losing moisture. As I will be only raising Ameraucana's from here out, I suppose the marans issues will remain a mystery to me. My Ameraucana eggs were actually standing up vertically in the egg trays. I am thrilled with 17/19 hatching so it worked great IMO. All were strong, healthy chicks...or maybe Susan just has a genetically superior gene pool? :D
Ernie Haire:
We have been breeding and exhibiting Marans for several years. They are hard to hatch. We hatch our Marans eggs dry. We try to keep our incubators at about 30-35% humidity and we can do that in this area with little to no water in the incubator. We keep an eye on our air cells throughout the incubation process. Because the shells are so thick, they are slow to evaporate. We like for our air cells to be at 20-25% at 18 days. If they are not there, we leave them in the incubator for an extra day or two. We keep the humidity in our hatcher to about 60% when we move eggs into it. Once the eggs start to hatch, the humidity will raise to up to about 70% due to the moisture from the chicks. Once they dry, the humidity goes back down.
When we started hatching Ameraucanas, I think that we tried to hatch them too dry and shrink wrapped many chicks. We have hatched eggs laying down and standing up with no problem. I agree that they seem to hatch better if they are not being rolled around by chicks while pipping.
I teach Agricultural Science in Texas and feel that chickens make great projects for students who have limited space or residential restrictions. My students can show their projects are the Open Shows whenever they want. We are blessed that we have two Major Shows that our students can compete in. We have the State Fair of Texas in the fall and the Ft. Worth Livestock Show in the spring. I appreciate all of the people who work so hard to keep these shows running smoothly. The experiences that my students gain from being able to travel and compete in these shows is great. Not only do they get to compete, but they get to meet new people, be exposed to different breeds, learn from other exhibitors, and usually come home with new birds and/or eggs.
The people involved in the Exhibition Poultry world are great to share information and experiences with all of my students. There are many of them who have helped my students add to their breeding programs by supplying them with chicks, chickens, and eggs. I always appreciate the breeders who ask me if we have space to get the critters home before giving them to the students. We have traveled for hours with kids holding chickens in their laps. I finally wised up and started hauling empty containers to all of the shows.
Be Blessed,
Ernie Haire
Poultry 2XL
Arp, Texas
Don:
Ernie, have you had experience with the chicks taking longer to hatch or problems or any ill effects on the chicks, ie crooked toes, because of the thicker shells.
Andrew Johnson:
Our FBCMs are harder to hatch and impossible to candle after the 10th day.I agree with Ernie about the eggs being thicker and it takes longer to evaporate than other eggs. 22 days is our average for Marans. They also seem to take longer to zip on average as well. We switched to performing dry hatches with better success here in Alabama. I only add water at the beginning then again at lockdown. The humidity stays around 30% until lockdown. At that point we fill reservoirs and add a sponge. We keep a syringe with a tube long enough and small enough that will fit thru thru vent hole to add water to the sponge. We keep the humidity above 65%. We have never had any problems with toe issues. But I'm sure my number of chicks I've hatched doesn't compare to most here. Once we started hatching Ams our stress levels were almost nonexistent, almost.
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