As I said, I won 6 Maran chicks. They were 1 day shy of being 3 weeks old when I picked them up. Their breeder tried to be fair when he split the chicks up. He told me when I picked them up that we each got 2 for sure girls, 1 for sure boy, and 3 that were questionable. I was totally ok with that, surely since I did not hatch, or pick these chicks out that I could at least get 3 hens out of 6. Again, how wrong I was. 6 chicks, 2 girls and 4 boys. Within that first week those 3 questionable ones, their combs popped and wattles appeared. The world hates me at this point, I just need some hens dang it.
Their first night home.
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A few weeks later. Oh if you are counting, I now have 8 boys in various ages, and 5 girls. Mom at this point tells me that I even look at a chick I curse it and it is destined to be a boy. I love her humor, and why it was very very painful last week to tell her she was right about Ezzie. Anyway back to the Marans. I was told Marans are in your face friendly and sweet. They were, and were in spades. These being my first, and first time raising chicks myself I was thinking maybe that had something to do with it. Nope, I've come to find out that no matter how they are raised Marans and Marans mixes are sweet, friendly, lap chickens.
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Now the pandemic has hit, everyone is in lockdown, and the chickens are keeping me and Rosie sane. Due to being a type 1 diabetic, and not knowing how the virus would affect me I took it seriously and stayed home. I'm normally a home body anyway, but after 3 weeks even I began to get stir crazy. But I have a problem, what am I going to do with all these boys? I cannot keep 8 boys. I decided I would keep Toothless and 1 of the Marans. Covid presents a problem though, everyone is afraid to get out and about, that made placing chickens hard in general, and I have the task of placing roosters. Momma Hen and her daughter Nugget decide it would also be the perfect time to go broody. At the same time and Nugget is just over 6 months old. I have a cousin who has chickens, he is laughing at me over my boy problem. He also swears that you can look at the shape of a egg and tell which is a hen or roo. Ok know it all, you have a huge laying flock bring me some eggs, only girls please and I'll give them to Nugget. Again, I'm swimming in boys. It did take me a few weeks to pick out which of the Marans boys to keep. Eventually we had a winner. Even as a chick my keeper Drumstick knew how to pose.
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Once Drumstick was chosen I started trying to place his brothers. Thankfully it took less then a week. Momma Hens 3 boys that appeared to be full game roos, they took a bit longer. It would take some time, but I was eventually able to place them with people I knew who had larger flocks of big stock chickens. I could have gotten rid of them sooner but well, cock fighting though illegal is still big here and some of the people that inquired were hard and fast no's. I felt if it came to a quick ending, or cock fighting, I was prepared to cull them.
Ok a few.
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no, just Janet.
