It's not just silkies, but bantams in general, I think. I can't get silkies to survive past a week. Adults are fine, but I have problems with chicks for some reason. Even if I let a broody raise them. I actually let the silkies I had hatch some chicks and none of them survived. Polish either get killed by something else or keel over. I lost a bantam Welsummer a few weeks to a month ago when the temp dropped to 65 one night and they all decided to pile together. I have no idea what's going on with that.
I'm not 100% sure they are Marans, but they look a bit like Black Australorp or Jersey Giant (fluff wise, their legs are the wrong color for either) chicks. I could be totally wrong and they're Black Orps. The barred chicks have yellow feet that are slightly pink in color, which is what makes me think they're Cuckoo Marans and not Barred Rocks. I know they aren't Doms because their comb is all wrong.I hope you can kick it right out the door! Sorry about your Polish.
What do your Marans look like? I have a cuckoo male (at least partially) The light legs show being crossed with EEs.
Didn't you mention playing WoW somewhere? That'd drive me nuts. I couldn't play console games (shooters mostly) because of motion sickness, so I stuck with the original Guild Wars. Pregnancy was not kind to me.
Calgary? I was actually supposed to move there earlier this year. Kinda glad I didn't since I hate snow and cold. I was only supposed to be there for a year, but the job fell through.
