Marans are hatching! Anyone know how to sex day olds?

Just got back from my parents and I have 2 marans! Lil beauties! It looks like there is many more coming thru from both them and the mixed bantams. Any hints on sexing day olds?
I know you are suppose to stop turning them at day 18, when the chicks hatch and flop and walk around, they send the other eggs rolling around, does it matter? I always wondered if I should make some sort of fencing so they can still move around but not roll the other eggs around... Any thoughts?
BYH--fingers crossed for pure silkies!!!!!!!

This message was edited Mar 23, 2008 9:01 PM

From what I understand with Marans the males are lighter grey than the females--which won't help if you have all males or all females. My little marans is extremely dark which I think is a good sign. I think that the difference may be apparent even in very young chicks--but then I only have a female......

Lora, do you have a marans rooster? Or are they going to have some silkie mixed in there LOL......Congratulations!!!!!

I have Marshall, my marans rooster, his gals do not even look at the silkies or sebrights, they don't mess with his gals they know what happens. So far as I know, they are marans, big white feet, black with a white spot on their heads and the usual white chin wing under tips and belly. My bantams would need platform to get with a marans hen!. My marans hens are very robust hens!!

Congratulations LoraK! I am so impressed with everyone that is hatching out their own chicks. I am finally ready now to try to hatch. My five week old babies spent their first night out in their coop last night and survived. I put a heat lamp in--but they are down to a 60 watt bulb tonight.

Marans are intriguing--my one girl has settled down but she looks, behaves and even sounds different from the others. I am really looking forward to eggs in July (maybe June?). How many Marans are you expecting altogether? At what age did they start to lay?

Figure on six months for the marans. After that age mine lay 5 eggs per day (6 hens) till molting season, you also need to factor in what you feed them. I feed the best I can find, they are free ranged daily and they are great layers

Mine will be free ranged daily also--what do you think is the best feed? Our local feedstore only sells something called "start to finish" which I think is really for broilers. Then you switch to "layers"--but only mash. I tried to get pellets--they weren't so obliging. I realize the protein level is important, but the bags the mash comes in aren't marked. I am considering trying mail-order--but that seems very expensive. Or making my own mix--I've looked up formulas on the internet, but don't know whose to trust. I never got to the layer level last time--roosters don't really require it:-)

LoraK, Are you going to keep any cuckoo babies? How many are you hatching?
Wendy

BTW.....i looked it up for you......yes they say the rooster are much lighter than the pullets. Someone said as the new feathering starts to grow in you can
tell even better. I hope you have lots of dark ones.

This message was edited Mar 24, 2008 6:47 AM

I have orders for all the cuckoos I can hatch ($3 each next year I am raising my prices and starting earlier!) My chickens have three feeders, one has game bird starter crumbles (lots of protein) one has layer pellet (I agree don't like the mash too much waste) and one has oyster shell. Plus I buy them any organic salad mixes that go on clearance at the grocery store since we are still in the Arctic weather! and they get whatever veggie/fruit scraps I have from the kitchen.

So I got 8 silkie/golden & silver sebright mixes, one looks like a pure silver sebright and 7 marans! They are currently still drying.
It amazed me the first time I saw my poultry grazing on the lawn, they literally kept it trimmed in some areas. In the fall they would wander a bit looking for good greens. So I have tried to give them something fresh.

My chickens kept the lawn mowed too. I have a big "chicken cage", not really a tractor, that is 3X10 feet and I am going to see if I can actually keep the backyard in trim using only chickens. DH would like that.

One more addition this morning! It was stuck and I helped it out, I know if it isn't strong enought to make it out, it isn't strong enough to live, I had to I could hear its peeps. I almost took the last two unhatched eggs out last night, now I am glad I waited till this morning. Its drying right now so we will see!
I am going to take a pic a little later. Their are some really cuties!

This message was edited Mar 25, 2008 9:49 AM

Here they are! Seven cuties!!

absolutelty adorable!

LoraK,

Years ago I had a cockatiel chick that got stuck. It had made a porthole instead of breaking the shell all the way around. As air got in the egg white turned to glue and the poor thing couldn't move to get itself out of the egg. The parents pushed the egg out of the nest. There was no way they could help it to get out so they dealt with it the way nature taught them to. I took a tiny brush with warm water and worked it between the shell and the chick till I could free him. Yes it grew to be a beautiful cock. Had absolutely no problems healthwise. Had I left it to die on the theory that if it couldn't get out it wasn't fit to live I would have missed out. It's fine to follow nature but we have to remember that often what animals do in nature is limited to what they are physically capable of.
I think you did the right thing helping that baby hatch out!

MollyD

Well, the one stuck in the shell is doing great but I found another one just dead?! I wonder if he got trampled or got his foot stuck in the incubator or something. Sad.
Everyone is sold! (hopefully I don't get many marans roos! I need hens!!!)
I was always told not to help, it just breaks your heart when they die. I do and will continue too atleast it gives them a fighting chance!!

I agree 100% !

MollyD

Okay, this isn't scientific or experience-based at all: But we know we aren't giving chicks the best possible enviornment when we hatch them in an incubator--so maybe we can give them the benefit of the doubt when otherwise healthy, full-term chicks get stuck in their eggs. If the egg is dryer than it would be under a hen, the chick may be absolutely fine genetically--just lucked out due to our lack of experience in duplicating the desired humidity. Probably not the best path for creating absolutely perfect breeding stock, but if they are just for laying or eating and you are willing to cull if the chick is deformed or in pain, it seems like a reasonable compromise to me:-)

I forgot LoraK--can you see any difference in the color between the Marans chicks? Any potential boys?

I am sure I have atleast 3 boys.

Catscan, are you looking for some cute roos?

LoraK, you are killing me! I would love cute roos, but I can't risk neighbors' complaints. If I don't get out of suburbia soon I will go mad. I am planning the great escape sometime next year when the houseing market picks up.

Catscan, I know this is way off the subject, but when it comes to the housing market, given your location obviously, you will benefit more in the purchase of a new one then you will lose in selling your current. This is a buyers chance if you have stable financial grounding. It is really someting to think about, ecspecially if you have very little or no mortgage.

I hear you talley_wacker. But I have to fix up the place to sell it--it is a great Victorian, one of the oldest in the town. I just put on a new roof and had the original redwood clapboards scaped and re-painted. Waiting for the bay windows to go in. etc, etc. And land here is still hard to come by--Fortunately I bought just before the CA housing market went bonkers. So I won't lose--but I need enough to get the land and build something a little bigger than a chicken coop:-)

I understand your situation and see that you are on the right track. Sounds like a beautiful home, and I'm sure it will look spectacular upon completion of your remodeling. Good luck.

talley_wacker, where is talihina? we are in the panhandle, just curious.

and what poultry do you have?

tf
yep, hijacking this thread LOL

Talihina is located in the Southeast corner of Oklahoma, it is in LeFlore County. All I have currently is a few button quail. I am really liking the gamebird idea. I have has a little bit of everything at one time or another.

cool!