Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome! - Page 3224

Would love to see them. This breed of chickens is best addiction ever! I hope my family and friends never try to do a inter-friend-tion....this is one habbit I will never never give up. Love me some Marans!

Glad to hear they have settled down for you Vicki. When I brought home those Birchens from Zanna they were a little freaked out at first because of their new surroundings but after a couple weeks they were sweet as pie. I HATED that that very large male had that sprig on the blade of the comb. He was a sweet as they come and I almost cried giving him up.
 

You know....I just have to say I love having found other poultry crazy people like me.

It is doing great.  I had a 100 watt light when I put them in but they stayed on the other half... changed it to 60 watts for the new babies and the one on top stay more to the middle because of the heat from the light below.... Might should put the bigger ones on top and not use a light.  That way they can still have the heat from the light below.  It is a work in progress.  I need to put something on the metal.  They dig down to the metal and slide too much.  I am thinking some shelf liner stuff.  Cheap and could be tossed.  Hubby thinks hardware cloth scraps.  We will see any suggestions?   I put in a lot more litter and they don't do it as much.

Well...made it safe and sound back from the sale in Kansas and bought a few birds.....7 of which are black birchen marans pullets with streetsweepers, nice silver color is coming in on the neck collar, eye color is already changing, combs are great....but.....they are wild as march hares... I'm gonna have to double my efforts of attention for this lot. Every time I touch them, they screech like they are getting killed. I asked around and they were from an older couple that was thinning down their stock because its becoming too much for them....so, I'm super excited to see how they do. I will have pics coming, that is if I can get close enough to.  might be a few days. 

I also got a Silver Penciled Wyandotte pair...so now I will have a man for my lone girl. I'm pleased with what I got indeed. I missed out on a couple of boxes because the prices were insanely high at some points... for example...a pair of old english game bantams from bill wolf stock went for $175 per bird!!! Crap hatchery RIR young pullets were going for between 25 and 33 bucks. I just couldn't believe it. I lucked out because my boxes came later on once the crowd had blown their wad of money and was able to snatch really, really good deals. It also didn't hurt that the guy reading the box tags to the auctioneer totally butchered everything about the marans box... 

I have a FBCM hen that has just started laying for the year. Why are the bumps appearing? They are under the paint layer, and are like calcium beads. Other hens lay without the adornment of beading. It breaks off with a bit of effort and is hard, like calcium.