International Black Copper Marans Thread - Breeding to the SOP

[KF0002]

well happy for you .
nothing can beat the mama broody hen . she always does a great job for free .
I m heading that direction too .have many broody hens this time .all bred from one hen ,Scandinavia Birchen .

good luck with your order

chooks man

I have a broody game hen in the hen house already.. she is getting an early start! Getting ready to make the old switcheroo and let her hatch some Marans for me. I wonder if she will notice that her white ceramic eggs were switched for dark brown ones? She's a smart cookie.. rolls the golf balls out of the nest like she is apalled I think she might think its an egg. Games are smart! I have another hen who rolls the ceramic eggs away from her little corner of the cat's house on my porch. I am amazed everyday that she can feel the difference in their density in the darkness of the box. The ceramic eggs are slightly less dense than real eggs and are slightly lighter in weight.

Sorry to ramble.. lol

 

[OneMountainAcres]

I have a broody game hen in the hen house already.. she is getting an early start! Getting ready to make the old switcheroo and let her hatch some Marans for me. I wonder if she will notice that her white ceramic eggs were switched for dark brown ones? She's a smart cookie.. rolls the golf balls out of the nest like she is apalled I think she might think its an egg. Games are smart! I have another hen who rolls the ceramic eggs away from her little corner of the cat's house on my porch. I am amazed everyday that she can feel the difference in their density in the darkness of the box. The ceramic eggs are slightly less dense than real eggs and are slightly lighter in weight.

Sorry to ramble.. lol

The time for broodies is arriving! I have a broody turkey hen already

 

[Hensndoes]

Well send some of all that broody energy over here!!!

 

[KF0002]

Off topic but, I just took a sneak peak in the incubator (through the glass, no touching)... I see little bantams in there!!

 

[KF0002]

Well send some of all that broody energy over here!!!

*I am channeling broody energy in your direction* There I gave it my best shot.

Be careful what you wish for! Broodiness is contagious. When one hen goes broody it seems to cause a chain reaction and they all want to go broody.. in the same nest. It is not wise to let two or more heavy breed big butt hens share a nest. Ah yeah its all cute at first.. look at them snuggled together co-parenting a dozen eggs. Then the next day there are only 8 eggs, the next there's 4.. then none. Because the big butt hens squabble over the eggs and push comes to shove, eggs get broken.. and eaten. Then poof no eggs. True story.

 

[Chooks man]

The time for broodies is arriving! I have a broody turkey hen already

that what I m talking about . Jambo organic incubator/hatcher and mom .
how many eggs can you stick under her ?
are they good mother s ?

chooks man

 

[KF0002]

I am always so busy studying the cockerels that I did not notice one of the pullets is cow hocked, knock kneed or whatever you call it in chickens. She is a nice big pullet but her legs form a triangle. Picture today sometime just a busy morning. Definitely not a breeder.

I had a pullet like that too. But I think she must have been one that a hawk got or my son's pup killed because she isn't here anymore. Its very easy to overlook the pullets early on because we are constantly agonizing over which cockerels to cull and which to keep. Luckily the pullets all get to stick around for quite a while because Im in no hurry to cull them, and the nice ones are hard to overlook.

I do need to thin some of these cockerels out though.. its becoming quite the sausage fest out there and the hens/pullets are not amused.

 

[Red Banks]

I had a pullet like that too. But I think she must have been one that a hawk got or my son's pup killed because she isn't here anymore. Its very easy to overlook the pullets early on because we are constantly agonizing over which cockerels to cull and which to keep. Luckily the pullets all get to stick around for quite a while because Im in no hurry to cull them, and the nice ones are hard to overlook.

I do need to thin some of these cockerels out though.. its becoming quite the sausage fest out there and the hens/pullets are not amused.

You know I should have been a better chicken keeper. She is always the last to go in the coop, she makes an odd noise and she doesn't roost. If a chicken is different then something is wrong with the chicken. There are no eccentric chickens.... at least none I have run across. She is knock kneed to the point of crippling, her knees aren't just close... they are touching.

 

[KF0002]

You know I should have been a better chicken keeper. She is always the last to go in the coop, she makes an odd noise and she doesn't roost. If a chicken is different than something is wrong with the chicken. There are no eccentric chickens.... at least none I have run across. She is knock kneed to the point of crippling, her knees aren't just close... they are touching.

Wow that's pretty bad. Poor thing.. is she big enough to process? If she is in that bad of shape, I would probably cull her. Make a nice pot of soup with her.

 

[KF0002]

@RedBanks don't be so hard on yourself. You are a fine chicken keeper.. we all overlook things. It is impossible to look over every inch of every bird under a microscope especially when you have a bunch or they are free ranging. It's possible it was less noticeable when she was younger because she was lighter in weight. Now that she is chunking up it is causing more stress on her knock knees and making it more difficult for her to walk.

I actually just noticed the other morning that my best tailed cockerel free ranging has a pretty bad limp. How long has that been going on? I don't know.. I don't pay attention to them all every single day. They are everywhere.

Here is another one to make you feel better. I wing band my Marans usually right out of the incubator or within a few days after. Well all was going hunky dory.. or so I thought. I went up to the brooder building about a month or so ago and was looking over some of the chicks, and not only one BUT TWO of my Marans had somehow got the bend of their wing caught in the wing band keeping them from being able to spread their wing. Now I didn't notice right away.. I only noticed several weeks later when the chicks wings had grown into the wingband.. Believe it or not, the chicks were fine. We took some wire cutters and cut the bands off and rebanded them. There was very little superficial bleeding. They are doing fine. Chickens are tough.. like Velociraptors.