My other Marans roo (Mr. Sprig) has a couple of Leghorn babies all grown up now and they are both feather legged, very Leghorn in body style but beefier, wider. Those babies hatched out like a breeze, one of my few successes!
We've got three Marans hens sitting right now and one baby hatched already, found out in the driveway near the big copper splash roo (like he was protecting the little guy) and this little guy is a TANK even at 1-2 days old, he must have bounced pretty good from the box about 3.5 feet up in the air. Poor little guy but none the worse for wear!
Another hen started pecking at the eggs as they were pipping. Boyfriend went to lift her up and check and said large mice or rats ran out from behind the hen!!!!
What's up with that? Most my other chickens annihilate small rodents especially my Leghorns and even the smaller turkeys! Anyway she pecked one baby to death and was pecking at the one that had just hatched, he rescued it and another.
I stopped by the coop on my way back home this morning and checked the oldest broody gal and she had our first HOME BRED BLUE!! I was so excited!! Baby's daddy is the handsome lighter blue birchen boy we got a couple of months ago. Am hoping the rest of the clutch hatches and that blue and others survive the rodents?
Any suggestions other than sinking hardware cloth beneath the coop (almost impossible to do, its a converted horse shelter/car shelter)? Can I use One Bite BISCUIT/BLOCK? ( would NOT use the granules around the chickens at all but can I put a block into the holes underneath the coop?
