~Lenore the Cuckoo Marans~[Integration]~{17 weeks}

[arlee453]

Glad to hear your baby is doing better - I'm so glad for her and you!

 

[FamilyOfChickens]

I've been following this thread off and on, just haven't posted anything.

I'm so glad you found Lenore, and that she's doing well now.

She's such a cutie.

-As long as you're watching her, a little time outside wouldn't hurt her at all.
-How old is she now?

She ought to be okay without a heat lamp, so long as she doesn't seem chilled.
-I would use poulty netting to cover the run.
-Electrolites should only be used when a chicken is showing signs of dehydration. They can seriously harm a bird if their used with no necesary cause. You may want to have them on hand, though.

 

[rosyposyosy]

thank you for your reply. today i let her outside for a while and she didnt really do anything - but poop. she had some nasty diarea. she turns 8 weeks old tommorow. tommorow my dad is helping me fix the run to make it safer after i get home from work.

 

[rosyposyosy]

Update: to my forest grove thread, i did talk to city council, and it is illegal. at the very least it will take a year to get the law changed. i tried to move to portland anyways, where chickens happen to be legal (forest grove is the suburb of portland).

we are taking no action to that cat, or any others for that matter, mainly because we havent seen any, and dont want to spend $60 on a deposit, and then $4 a day.

Lenore is now 11 weeks, and by looking at Barg's esther and winnie thread, lenore is no where where she should be. she is about the size of a 6-7 week old chick, and i do not believe she will ever catch up.

i do believe, that as she ages, she will become more confident, and aggressive to the other chickens. at least that is my hope.

Lenore is sleeping in a doghouse with a roost at night, in a run above the big chickens coop. if you dont quite follow, this is my coop, made out of an old play house. the top is seperate, but can be accessed by outside the run and house, by climbing up the "ladder" and opening the tricky lock.

the bigger chickens, HATE being locked up in the run during the day now that we've had a first cat attack (we used to occasionally let them free range, like every other day or so) and the egg yolks are very yellow, and taste just the same as any other old egg. i miss the good eggs.

my banty cochin fajita has gotten over her broody phase, and i think shes in molt, she hasnt laid in a week or so.

lenore is fully healed, and very adventurerous (sp?) i feel kind of bad, since she hasnt seen the real ground in forever, since when free range time happens, its only for the big chickens, since they lay, and... well... i love the free range eggs. selfish, i know.

her toenails have grown, but i have discovered a corner of the yard where i can put her to free range, i just have to cover it up some how, and get rid of jack in the something... its this posinous plant in our yard, that when turns orange and falls off the plant, it is actively posinous. in the main yard, we get rid of them while their green, not active.

this part of the yard has over grown plants, including the poison, but i am looking to make this a real run for her. i feel bad for her in just the pine shavings.

another thought: when i pen up the big chickens, and have lenore free range, at night, lenore will roost on the gate (that leads into the pen). i wonder if this is how she got out. i'm not too worried, since now shes in a different run, which is lenore and cat proof. the big chickens havent figured out how to get out... Lenore is a lot smarter than they are.

sorry for the long post. i just wanted to explain and also give an update. also, i will try to post pics over the weekend.

 

[barg]

I'm anxious to see your pics.
If you can, try and get something in the pic to show size.
I'm concerned that you don't think Lenore is getting bigger, in the last pic you posted she looked about the right size to me.

It became clear to me when I started doing that age progression thread that, after about 6 weeks of age, pictures can be very deceptive when trying to show size, the chickens don't really look all that much different as they get older, they just slowly get bigger.

The other thing is camera angle, which I'm constantly fighting with, in many of my photo's it looks like the younger ones are much closer in size to the older ones, but it's just the angle and position of the chicks and the limitations of the lens that cause that.

Another thing is that, both me and my wife were really unable to see the older ones growing, we didn't even realize that they had grown that much until I went back and looked carefully at their earlier photo's and made some comparisons against known objects that were in close proximity to them; they had doubled in size without our realizing it.

Anyway, you may be right that Lenore is not growing; I'm just trying to suggest an alternative.

I'll be looking forward to your update

 

[rosyposyosy]

i tried to take pictures today, on my camera phone. that little chick cant stay still for a second! when i try to keep her still with my hand, she makes this clucky terror noise, like i'm killing her. i end up letting her go, so unfortunately, i have no pictures.

although, if what you are using with esther and winnie are quart sized feeders/waterers then lenore is smaller than they were at 6 1/2 weeks. about 2 cm smaller...

 

[barg]

I just checked, the smaller ones are 1 quart; I think the larger ones are 2 gallons.

Just did some looking and found this info:

the required height of the bantam Marans is half the tall breed's.

- the average weight of the adult bantam is 2.20 pounds (i.e 2.4 pounds for the cocks and 1.98 pounds for the hens. instead of 7.27 pounds for the tall Marans breed (8.26 pound for the cocks and 6.39 pounds for the hens).

You can noticee in this way that the average weight which is required in the bantam Marans is equal to 30% of the tall Marans breed weight. It makes the bantam breed rather a half-dwarf breed.

I didn't realise how much of a difference there was between the heavy version and the banty.
I think you have a Bantum and it's exactly as large as it's supposed to be.

Again, sorry if I missed anything and you already know this.
Here is the link
It looks like you don't have a "Really Rare" chicken, you have an "Extemely, Really, Really Rare" chicken!

My first chickens, when I was a kid, were sebrites named Fred and Wilma- bantum breeds, my dog (a border terrier Mix- never own a border terrier and chickens at the same time) anyway, my dog killed wilma, so my dad got Fred a new partner, A full size heavy breed, probably a glw.

That was 30 years ago, but I am reminded now of how much bigger Wilma-two was, in comparsion to Fred

 

[rosyposyosy]

wow! she might be a banty! i would kind of prefer that, than thinking that it was my fault (it is, getting one chick, rather than two). she is going to be sleeping in the big girls coop now, since it was 40 degrees or lower, and she was SO cold. i put a heat lamp in the coop on a timer, and lenore will be in her doghouse, entrance facing the wall, so she can't get out (the big girls would kill her).

thanks for that info! i wonder if maybe she's just a mutt, part cuckoo maran, part banty something... mypetchicken.com only had cochins though. thanks again! i wonder how this could happen?

 

[barg]

I bet Mypetchicken orders some breeds from another hatchery and they messed up, either that or a ressecive trait came out, or spontaneous mutation.

Gl, still can't wait to see pics as she gets older, you have a pretty unique chicken there.

 

[rosyposyosy]

LENORE IS LIKE TWICE THE SIZE SHE WAS!! It's amazing! I held her today, and she had lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots (etc) of pin feathers. I put her in the big chickens run, while the others are free ranging, since Lenore's toenails are sharp. Comparative to the feeder she was about an inch taller than them, AND she was behind them about a foot! On sunday night I filled up her feeder (as well as the big chickens) and yesterday (two days later from sunday) Lenore's waterer and feeder were completely empty! The big chickens (2) had drank 3/4 of their water and maybe about 1/2 their food. they both have quart sized feeders. I think it's so strange how a chick, can eat/drink more than 2 fully grown hens (well, actually -- pullets) When they free range (together, supervised by me) There seems to be no problems, the second i turn my back poor Lenore gets attacked. Also - she is slowly going from peeping to clucking, she sounds like a boy just entering highschool!

To be honest, Lenore is still on the small side. If I remember correctly, my chickens were almost full grown at her age.

I'm just excited she GREW!

-Rose