So, we have the fancy yellow incubator and the new hatcher just sitting idle in the gym/feed storage/sometime-duckling-brooder room downstairs. After the first hatcher fiasco with the still-air wafer thermostat incubator, we upgraded to a digital forced air model that seems to hold temperature much better than the other one did. Shockingly, the new hatcher hasn’t even been used yet. Seems like we should be getting our money’s worth out of this equipment. Guess it’s time to hatch some eggs!
Since Cozette, our Cuckoo Marans hen, was killed by a hawk at the end of last year, we haven’t had any eggs darker than the slightly speckled terra cotta-colored ones the New Hampshire Red hen lays. We like a variety of colors, and have layers of white, cream, blush, pink (and terra cotta) eggs, but we missed those speckled chocolate eggs.
After looking for hatching eggs locally for several months, we finally bought some Black Copper Marans (BCM) eggs online from a local breeder. The eggs are very dark and good sized. The breeder lives less than an hour from us, so these chickens should be very well-suited to the climate here, including these stiflingly hot, sticky days.
Ok, BCM eggs do seem to be trendy right now – like olive, blue, or green eggs – but our goal is to add some additional depth to the egg colors in our flock as well as potentially produce eggs and stock for sale. We also know we’ll likely end up with more roosters than the flock can support, so it’s a bonus that Marans are reputed to be very tasty, too.
These lovely eggs have just been set in the incubator this morning and, if all goes well, we’ll have healthy, active chicks in 21 days. Stay tuned!