🐣🐥Black Copper Marans and Whiting True Blues. Lots of videos🎥

[TexasBlues]

We have 4 - 10 week old black copper marans and 9 young Whiting True Blue chicks.
I hatched the eggs in a small foam hovabator incubator with the waffle thermostat. The Marans eggs were locally sourced and the true blues were shipped.
The chicks were hatched and raised in the office indoors for the first 2 weeks and become quickly socialized with the dogs and family. They are brooded in a large fish aquarium with a heater plate for the first 2 weeks then I move them to the outdoor brooder which is larger.
I don’t know if everybody does it, but from day 1, I call them right before I hand feed them and they will enthusiastically come to me when called after a day or two. I don’t call them unless I have some feed or treat to back it up, so they typically trust me when I want them to return to the coop or move them around the yard.
They are fed a local Texas food called elite chick in the yellow bag. I want to say it’s 22% protein and I also add probiotics to the young chick’s water.
My goal with the backyard flock is to have a sustainable mixture of different colored layers from the dark brown marans to blue whitings and then potentially cross the 2 to create green/olives.
Next on the chicken list… I will need to address permanent housing and also rooster to hen ratios soon.
Also** click on the quality setting in the YouTube videos to 1080HD to get the best views. Thanks!

 

[TexasBlues]

 

[wrathsfarm]

Following along...

 

[Kung_pao]

Looks like you’re off to a great start. I have whiting true blues and I’m picking up black/blue/splash copper Maran eggs next Saturday. Looks like we have similar taste in chickens lol. Those chicks look great, very healthy birds.

 

[TexasBlues]

Looks like you’re off to a great start. I have whiting true blues and I’m picking up black/blue/splash copper Maran eggs next Saturday. Looks like we have similar taste in chickens lol. Those chicks look great, very healthy birds.

I agree! When I saw your photos of your chicks I thought they looked like mine.
I did lose 1 marans to a coppers hawk about 3-4 weeks ago. The hawk killed the young cockerel, but dropped him when trying to get away from me yelling at him from the window. I quickly cleaned and cooked the little bird so he didn’t go to waste. I then locked up the 4 remaining Marans for a week or so.
If you hear in the videos there’s grackles and blue jays and also white wing doves in the area. The coopers are attracted to the grackles and white wings. I was thinking of setting up a blue jay feeder full of peanuts to keep them around. Any thoughts?

 

[TexasBlues]

Following along...

Thanks! I just started playing with videos and YouTube and chickens. I’ll try to keep it interesting.
Here’s a video of the marans doing their favorite thing. You can see the smallest cockerel close up, he’s very friendly compared to the larger cockerel that doesn’t like to be touched. Any idea how long I can keep 2 roosters and 2 hens together?

 

[wrathsfarm]

Thanks! I just started playing with videos and YouTube and chickens. I’ll try to keep it interesting.
Here’s a video of the marans doing their favorite thing. You can see the smallest cockerel close up, he’s very friendly compared to the larger cockerel that doesn’t like to be touched. Any idea how long I can keep 2 roosters and 2 hens together?

You can keep them together until they start harassing the pullets trying to mate. Watch their behavior. Cockerels mature much faster than pullets. The boys try to mate and the girls are not ready/clueless what's happening.
And then you need to make the decision to keep them together or separate them. It could go good or bad.

 

[wrathsfarm]

You can keep them together until they start harassing the pullets trying to mate. Watch their behavior. Cockerels mature much faster than pullets. The boys try to mate and the girls are not ready/clueless what's happening.
And then you need to make the decision to keep them together or separate them. It could go good or bad.

Just to add on to this. You'll get varying opinions on how people manage their cockerels and pullets.
Me personally, I separate the cockerels from the pullets at first sign of harassment. And I don't let them back to together til at least the time ALL pullets are laying for at least a month.
Roughly that's at 7-8 months. And even then that's really too early.
An experts opinion I highly value told me that pullets should be kept from breeding until at least a year old. And along that same thought eggs should not be hatched from hens younger than a year.

I've just recently started free ranging my 3 BCM (8 months old) with the other 6 hens and Roo, but only free range. Their separated at roost time. This keeps them from being stressed at the Roos peak mate times.
Others do things differently, this is my way, and I have the available pens. Next year I'll be separating all my cockerels and only allowing hen contact during breeding.

 

[WhoDatChick]

Thanks! I just started playing with videos and YouTube and chickens. I’ll try to keep it interesting.
Here’s a video of the marans doing their favorite thing. You can see the smallest cockerel close up, he’s very friendly compared to the larger cockerel that doesn’t like to be touched. Any idea how long I can keep 2 roosters and 2 hens together?

Great videos! And I love how you have them trained! Those little peeps were hitting me hard I just love them

 

[wrathsfarm]

Great videos! And I love how you have them trained! Those little peeps were hitting me hard I just love them

I agree.