Hi,
My SO and I have been into chickens for a while now, but now that we've got Maran Fever, it's going to a whole new level.
It started with hatching a trio of Cuckoos, Francois and the girls...
They are approx. 11 weeks old now. Francois has just a wee bit of feathering down his shanks and the outside toes. Perhaps the feathers will fill in with time, but for now he looks like a 17-year-old boy trying to grow his first goatee. The girls don't have any feathering whatsoever on their shanks or feet. I'm thinking about probably not using them for any breeding because I'd prefer to roll old school with the French standard.
So I guess I need to find some feather-legged girls, or hatching eggs from some. I don't want to breed Francois with his sisters.
And the newest members of the Marans Menagerie are five Black Copper peeps that we recently hatched from some eggs from Greenfire Farms.
I really appreciate the way they marked their eggs from the different lines...
Here's the final tally...
Note: I blame myself and low humidity for the 5/12 hatch rate. As you can see, fertility what quite awesome, especially considering the eggs traveled across the country.
The first two peeps...one from Group 8 and one from Group 28...
The two groups have since been separated until they're big enough that I feel comfortable banding them.
We would also like to get some Wheaten peeps/eggs soon. We just started with a flock of 50 hatchery peeps of a good mixture of breeds; RIRs, Wyandottes, Australorps, Orpingtons, etc. You know, a nice li'l barnyard mixture. We'll probably gradually turn over the whole flock, replacing them with Marans of various types.
Does anybody have any recommendations for a source of superb Wheatens and feather-legged Cuckoos?
I would like to breed to the French old school standard and the rest can go to somebody's farm flock. Luckily, I need to maintain a "regular" flock of 25-35 hens on hand for edible egg production, so that flock can serve as a cull zone. What do you all do with your culls? I figure I'll sell them on the cheap on craigslist, but prolly never let a roo and pullet go to the same person....just let them go as barnyard specials.
We also have a few Ameraucanas (with no "I"). Has anybody bred a Maranaucana? Stupid or neat? hahaha
My SO and I have been into chickens for a while now, but now that we've got Maran Fever, it's going to a whole new level.
It started with hatching a trio of Cuckoos, Francois and the girls...
They are approx. 11 weeks old now. Francois has just a wee bit of feathering down his shanks and the outside toes. Perhaps the feathers will fill in with time, but for now he looks like a 17-year-old boy trying to grow his first goatee. The girls don't have any feathering whatsoever on their shanks or feet. I'm thinking about probably not using them for any breeding because I'd prefer to roll old school with the French standard.
So I guess I need to find some feather-legged girls, or hatching eggs from some. I don't want to breed Francois with his sisters.
And the newest members of the Marans Menagerie are five Black Copper peeps that we recently hatched from some eggs from Greenfire Farms.
I really appreciate the way they marked their eggs from the different lines...
Here's the final tally...
Note: I blame myself and low humidity for the 5/12 hatch rate. As you can see, fertility what quite awesome, especially considering the eggs traveled across the country.
The first two peeps...one from Group 8 and one from Group 28...
The two groups have since been separated until they're big enough that I feel comfortable banding them.
We would also like to get some Wheaten peeps/eggs soon. We just started with a flock of 50 hatchery peeps of a good mixture of breeds; RIRs, Wyandottes, Australorps, Orpingtons, etc. You know, a nice li'l barnyard mixture. We'll probably gradually turn over the whole flock, replacing them with Marans of various types.
Does anybody have any recommendations for a source of superb Wheatens and feather-legged Cuckoos?
I would like to breed to the French old school standard and the rest can go to somebody's farm flock. Luckily, I need to maintain a "regular" flock of 25-35 hens on hand for edible egg production, so that flock can serve as a cull zone. What do you all do with your culls? I figure I'll sell them on the cheap on craigslist, but prolly never let a roo and pullet go to the same person....just let them go as barnyard specials.
We also have a few Ameraucanas (with no "I"). Has anybody bred a Maranaucana? Stupid or neat? hahaha
