sjp Posted August 26, 2015 Share Posted August 26, 2015 (edited) I've got a first time broody who I thought was sitting on 3 dead or rotten eggs due to hatch 26-27/08 well it's a good job I didn't bin them yesterday as one's hatched this morning at about 9am this broody I thought was going to be the 2nd useless broody of the year as she's been rotating eggs from under her so one egg has always been out in the cold at all times at first I put it down to her having 5 eggs under (she's one of my CLB crosses and a bit smaller than the other ones than have been broodies in the last 12 months) but after I took 2 clear eggs out on day 7 she still moved one egg out the main reason I thought they were dead through is the fact that from the day 7 candling they were totally dark in side with just the air sack at one end that coupled with the fact I had a pig of a hatching season this year 2 completely failed hatches from ebay eggs the one to be fair was down to a humidity problem I think as I'd had to resort to the incubator as the broodies went off the boil the days the eggs were delivered and I've not used a incubator in the summer before the other clutch were all clear the first clutch of the year was down to a useless broody who ate 4 of the eggs and sat on two duds 2nd hatch resulted in 3 chicks all boys and 3 clear eggs the 3rd hatch resulted in one chick out of 2 eggs I think another boy these 2 eggs were to make up the numbers in the incubator 5th hatch this one so far 1 chick out of 5 eggs 2 clears all these eggs were from my own mob and it looks like at least 2 of my girls aren't laying fertile eggs one I know who it is and she probably isn't letting Fred mount her I've only been setting eggs from Fred's girls this year he's a 2 year old cuckoo maran that I was hoping is going to produce good sized boys for the table Edited August 27, 2015 by Guest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beantree Posted August 26, 2015 Share Posted August 26, 2015 Don't know how good Marans are to eat Sjp. I think they may have an appreciable amount of Leghorn in them which means stews only perhaps. We've had a broody eat the hatchlings and one die a few days in, so we've stopped using them. We had a problem with our Wyandotte cock this year. Turns out he had become infertile between March and May and he was apparently ill with no real symptoms other than increasingly smaller and greener poos. We tried putting an active cock in the pen next to his, tried subduing the hens, trimmed all the feathers around their vents, gave him cod liver oil, wormed them all and changed their feed all to no avail. One egg hatched from 128 incubated; a cockerel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sjp Posted August 26, 2015 Author Share Posted August 26, 2015 I've had a couple of reasonable boys of the copper black TNN cross but this cuckoo marran seems to be producing big girls and small boys the TNN cream legbar boys were a better size but sadly both the old TNN cock and cream legbar girl are no longer I was hoping to get a good sized replacement lad from the 2 lots of eggs that I brought in but those 2 plans failed and times running out as the 4 good sized girls that I've got ain't getting any younger Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sjp Posted August 27, 2015 Author Share Posted August 27, 2015 the good news is that all 3 eggs had full term chicks in them bad news is only 1 hatched and I had to help the 2nd due to the egg been crushed. sadly I didn't find the 3rd egg early enough it got crushed over night and was DIS this morning I think part of the problem was the first one hatched a bit to early and the chick moving about under the first time broody spooked her a bit but at least she's got 2 chicks but I'll bet they're both boys the 3rd one not making it is the let down as it was a green egg mom is a tnn cream legbar cross and dad is a maran and with my luck was a pullet that was going to lay a darker green egg than the one she came from Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beantree Posted August 27, 2015 Share Posted August 27, 2015 We have TNN's and the cockerels make good eating. They are the basis for the French created broiler breed called Cou-Nu, which are nearly twice the size of a TNN and are very nasty creatures indeed apparently. Wish you luck with your project. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sjp Posted August 27, 2015 Author Share Posted August 27, 2015 I only ever had a TNN cockerel but most of his spare sons made an ok weight but it's his daughters that have all the size and they feel like they have a good amount of meat but I've never taken a pullet but the plan for this year was to get a few eggs from a more duel purpose breed but the first 2 attempts fail but the 3rd attempt arrived this morning so they'll go under a broody tomorrow night they're and Ixworth over naked neck cross and I think going by the photos they're the commercial naked necks probable sassos Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
