Hatching darker eggs

One of our Black Copper Marans eggs - 2023

Ever since acquiring our Black Copper Marans stock, we receive lots of ‘ooh’s and ah’s’ over their beautiful dark chocolate egg coloring and get many requests for chicks and hatching eggs. As we began to hatch this year, we wasted many Marans eggs, finding little or no development upon investigation.

At first, we were concerned about fertility, but just taking a look outside to see the hens…erm…interact…we quickly dispelled that theory. 😅 We had heard that darker shelled eggs can be difficult to hatch, but besides the inability to candle, what gives? After just a little research, we learned a LOT!

Did you know that darker eggs usually can’t be hatched under the same conditions as other colored eggs? The darker the pigment means that the shell is actually thicker and requires completely different conditions.

We had never heard of this challenge before. And especially with many people selling mixed hue hatching eggs, why isn’t is common knowledge in the chicken world?

Now before we get tons of messages about how you’ve ‘been hatching your dark eggs for years the same way and never had issues,’ this is a widely accepted experience that may or may not effect you. There are literally HUNDREDS if not thousands of factors when it comes to successfully hatching eggs, so if you’re already doing something that’s working for you, please keep going! As for us, we’ve got more work to do…

There are many theories on how to hatch dark eggs (sanding off pigment, adding an emergency hole to the air cell, different temperatures…etc) but the main difference seems to be that darker pigments cannot tolerate “normal” hatching humidity. That is our main focus for this current hatch.

While most chicken eggs are set to 50% for most of the incubation, darker eggs do best with what’s called a “dry hatch,” under 30% humidity.

Proper humidity helps to promote evaporation to allow the chick to grow SMALLER than it would if it contained too much moisture. Chicks that develop too large due to high humidity can't turn correctly and often end up with neck or leg problems that require culling. They are also prone to drowning if evaporation doesn't occur quickly enough.

All of these challenges contribute to dark and earthy eggs, layers or chicks being significantly more expensive. This is our first time attempting darker hues and depending on the hatch rate, we *might* sell a few of these birds later this year. Wish us luck!

A view of our current full Nurture Right 360 incubator

Most of these eggs shown here (all of the ones sitting upright in cartons) were shipped. No matter how well eggs are packaged, air cells are usually dislodged or damaged during transit. If the air cell is not in the correct position as the chick develops or is ready to hatch, it will either not develop correctly or suffocate.

We’ simply remove the auto turner and rotate quarter turns at diagonal angles by hand. We always recommend shipping and hatching shipped eggs in the upright position (with fat end up) to keep any detached air cells where they should be.