INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[ellymayRans]

Thanks.  I know that now.  I just always read "French black copper marans" together.  Are they the most common variety? (Like "Buff orpington")  That's why when I bought eggs labeled "French marans"  I was surprised by a blue.

French is not a part of the name. They are just Marans. A lot of people make that mistake. Many breeders pair their blues and blacks which produces 50/50 blues and blacks. However for breeding forward blues or blacks produced from the blue/black pairing should not be used to breed true Black Copper.

Either they are not aware of what they were sold which are crosses or they aren't being truthful about only having BCM and AMs. I would bet they just do not know they have crosses. There are very few good breeders with decent birds and Noone breeding them is able to produce really good offspring all of the time. The breed is still so new in the US and there have been so many that do not breed to the standard therefore not improving the stock we have here in the US. Even 2 really good examples of the breed will produce not good offspring! It's an uphill battle for the Marans!

Just my experience and what knowledge I've gained with discussions within the USA Marans Chicken Club

 

[Faraday40]

French is not a part of the name. They are just Marans. A lot of people make that mistake. Many breeders pair their blues and blacks which produces 50/50 blues and blacks. However for breeding forward blues or blacks produced from the blue/black pairing should not be used to breed true Black Copper.

Either they are not aware of what they were sold which are crosses or they aren't being truthful about only having BCM and AMs. I would bet they just do not know they have crosses. There are very few good breeders with decent birds and Noone breeding them is able to produce really good offspring all of the time. The breed is still so new in the US and there have been so many that do not breed to the standard therefore not improving the stock we have here in the US. Even 2 really good examples of the breed will produce not good offspring! It's an uphill battle for the Marans!

Just my experience and what knowledge I've gained with discussions within the USA Marans Chicken Club

Thanks. I keep learning more daily.

 

[bradselig]

Hello All! Glad to see the thread still productive! Live has been busy and revolving around work, prepping the store for inventory, training my replacement, and preparing to transfer to new store. Chickens are all doing good, sadly havent collected eggs for over a week. Autowaterer gets checked and cleaned regularly and food literally dumped in pens. I know the chickens dont care, but Id atleast like to make it into the feeders lol. My old dog, Lexi the Bouvier, decided to help me downsize the flock and killed all the chicks I had in the house. Left the baby gate open as I took a tub-o-chicks out to garage brooder. Came back and all the chicks and quail were killed. Darn dogs! It was my mistake though and I know she has a high prey drive. just hurts when she kills over $250 worth of eggs I hatched!

Needless to say, I still have some more downsizing to do. I dont know exactly what or how many, but likely have breeding partridge brahmas, mottled orp hen, splash BLRW hen, various silkies, showgirls, and bantam cochins. I will try to work on list, prices, and pictures soon. if anyone has anything in particular they are wanting/needing, send me a pm. I may also consider selling the sportsman incubator I bought new this past spring.

Was able to skim through all the posts and get caught up. HOpe to be able to stay on top of it, but with working 60+ hrs a day and going on 2 weeks with out a day off I cant guarantee that will happen lol.

 

[ellymayRans]

Hello All! Glad to see the thread still productive! Live has been busy and revolving around work, prepping the store for inventory, training my replacement, and preparing to transfer to new store. Chickens are all doing good, sadly havent collected eggs for over a week. Autowaterer gets checked and cleaned regularly and food literally dumped in pens. I know the chickens dont care, but Id atleast like to make it into the feeders lol. My old dog, Lexi the Bouvier, decided to help me downsize the flock and killed all the chicks I had in the house. Left the baby gate open as I took a tub-o-chicks out to garage brooder. Came back and all the chicks and quail were killed. Darn dogs! It was my mistake though and I know she has a high prey drive. just hurts when she kills over $250 worth of eggs I hatched!

Needless to say, I still have some more downsizing to do. I dont know exactly what or how many, but likely have breeding partridge brahmas, mottled orp hen, splash BLRW hen, various silkies, showgirls, and bantam cochins. I will try to work on list, prices, and pictures soon. if anyone has anything in particular they are wanting/needing, send me a pm. I may also consider selling the sportsman incubator I bought new this past spring.

Was able to skim through all the posts and get caught up. HOpe to be able to stay on top of it, but with working 60+ hrs a day and going on 2 weeks with out a day off I cant guarantee that will happen lol.

Glad everyone is well. .hate to hear anyone having to "kill" themselves with work though! I hope things get easier on you sooner rather than later!

 

[daskhan]

Hello All! Glad to see the thread still productive! Live has been busy and revolving around work, prepping the store for inventory, training my replacement, and preparing to transfer to new store. Chickens are all doing good, sadly havent collected eggs for over a week. Autowaterer gets checked and cleaned regularly and food literally dumped in pens. I know the chickens dont care, but Id atleast like to make it into the feeders lol. My old dog, Lexi the Bouvier, decided to help me downsize the flock and killed all the chicks I had in the house. Left the baby gate open as I took a tub-o-chicks out to garage brooder. Came back and all the chicks and quail were killed. Darn dogs! It was my mistake though and I know she has a high prey drive. just hurts when she kills over $250 worth of eggs I hatched!

Needless to say, I still have some more downsizing to do. I dont know exactly what or how many, but likely have breeding partridge brahmas, mottled orp hen, splash BLRW hen, various silkies, showgirls, and bantam cochins. I will try to work on list, prices, and pictures soon. if anyone has anything in particular they are wanting/needing, send me a pm. I may also consider selling the sportsman incubator I bought new this past spring.

Was able to skim through all the posts and get caught up. HOpe to be able to stay on top of it, but with working 60+ hrs a day and going on 2 weeks with out a day off I cant guarantee that will happen lol.

A day? Holy mother of hell you better be getting paid big time I didn't even know there were 60 hours a day.... All jokes aside though how many eggs does your incubator hold? What type of silkies do you have and well just send me the whole list I'm interested in all lol

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

@bradselig So sorry about the chicks! Remember to take time for yourself too. Glad to hear you are doing well!

 

[pbirdhaven]

Well, we are butchering our first bird. The whole reason I got Cornish crosses was so that we could have some practice for when we had to butcher a turkey, but that wasn't God's plan on this one. Our poor jake suffered a leg injury which has been compounded by straining himself too quickly and finally by horrible swelling. We have tried everything else we could think of to help him, but he was passing out in his water dish and aspirating it, his appetite has suffered due to pain and trouble breathing, and we just couldn't bear to have him in so much pain indefinitely. Initially, the plan was that I could help set up, and my husband would 'do the deed', but he wound up needing me to hold our jake's head down so he could get a cleaner shot. And I bawled like a baby. We've both invested so much in this bird, trying to get him back on his feet, giving him treats and pets, keeping him cool and supplied with aspirin, wiping his bottom.

His hens are going crazy. They bombarded my house and refused to leave while we were gearing up for the deed. Walked out the front door and around the house, ate some ornamental strawberries and ransacked some cherry tomato plants, still refused to go back to our backyard, so I had to pick them and take them (oo, how Vermithrax HATES being picked up, too). They seemed really worried, like they were looking for him. We had him in the garage.

I really ought to be hungry, but I just can't work up an appetite.

French is not a part of the name. They are just Marans. A lot of people make that mistake. Many breeders pair their blues and blacks which produces 50/50 blues and blacks. However for breeding forward blues or blacks produced from the blue/black pairing should not be used to breed true Black Copper.

Either they are not aware of what they were sold which are crosses or they aren't being truthful about only having BCM and AMs. I would bet they just do not know they have crosses. There are very few good breeders with decent birds and Noone breeding them is able to produce really good offspring all of the time. The breed is still so new in the US and there have been so many that do not breed to the standard therefore not improving the stock we have here in the US. Even 2 really good examples of the breed will produce not good offspring! It's an uphill battle for the Marans!

Just my experience and what knowledge I've gained with discussions within the USA Marans Chicken Club

@Faraday40 : marans come in black, blue, black copper, cookoo, birchen, splash, & some other exotic variations

To supplement what ellymay and iam have posted: when Marans were imported and people started breeding them here (a lot of inbreeding, thus the uphill battle ellymay mention), some had clean legs and were called the American variety, while the feathered legs were the French variety. The SOP recognizes only feathered legs, but many people still use the FM designation. The black coppers were the first variety to be accepted into the standard; wheatens qualified in 2011; I believe that the Crossroads show was their last qualifying meet. A couple of years ago the club was attempting to get whites recognized; I don't know what came of that or if any other varieties are up for qualification. I'm partial to the black coppers and wheatens, so have not followed up on any of the others.
Even as recently as a couple of years ago, judges were having trouble judging Marans--the standard was too new. If representatives of the club are present, they usually object and call for a re-judging based on the standard. At Crossroads my BCM cockerel and pullet were first rated low--something like 4th and 5th. When I checked on them the next day, I had best cockerel and reserve best of breed. A similar situation occurred with mine at the Ohio National a couple of years ago.
Anyhow, I've been making a short story long; the upshot is that everything that is listed as pure Marans is not necessarily a good example, as ellymay pointed out.

 

[pbirdhaven]

According to the latest issue of Poultry Press, Indiana's fall shows are back on the schedule. The ban is to be lifted September 17; the White River club has their show scheduled the following weekend (it's usually Labor Day weekend), Central Indiana is the 3rd Saturday in October, and Indiana Poultry Breeders Assn is the first weekend in December.
I assume that could all change again if the fall migrations bring in more AI, but that's it for now. I'm hoping that all goes well, partly because I've hatched LOTS of chicks this year, and need an outlet for my extras!

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

According to the latest issue of Poultry Press, Indiana's fall shows are back on the schedule. The ban is to be lifted September 17; the White River club has their show scheduled the following weekend (it's usually Labor Day weekend), Central Indiana is the 3rd Saturday in October, and Indiana Poultry Breeders Assn is the first weekend in December.
I assume that could all change again if the fall migrations bring in more AI, but that's it for now. I'm hoping that all goes well, partly because I've hatched LOTS of chicks this year, and need an outlet for my extras!

Woooohoooo!!!!!!

maybe there will be a chickenfest this year too!

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Well its that time of year.. Looking at my flocks and livestock to decide what direction its going, who stays and who isn't working.
Have also decided to downsize on goats. Will be keeping my doe Sugar, and buck Bocephus.
Sophie, my 2 year old Oberhasli doe and my 10 week old doeling (from Sugar) are available for sale. Please PM if interested. Will consider trades of livestock, or possibly poultry of same value. I don't register them, they are annually vaccinated for CDT.
Most of my other poultry and waterfowl are staying. I do have some misc 4 week old chicks that are barnyard mix I would rehome free! These have turned up under brooding duck hens, lol. Some of my chickens felt they needed to share the nest.
I have had my Dark Cornish pair a few weeks now, and adore them! Sweetest rooster I just love him. Quiet, social hen and so unusual! The little rooster has taken a liking to my Dad and has a very chatty conversation with him every day. too funny. May also have something to do with dad giving him banana and strawberry as a treat...