Marans and Welsummer - Argentina Debut! gender pics

[Tamara119]

I looked at his pads this morning, they are pink. Looking again at the picture above, you can see a slight pinkish colour on the rear toe. The funny yellowy-grey colour is now just a little on the sides of the front toes and a bit between his toes.

 

[Vicky Argetina]

Yes, that would be great! When do you think they'll start laying eggs? Where in Northewestern Patagonia are you exactly? I'm from Buenos Aires and living here, but my heart is in the South!

 

[Tamara119]

I think they'll be slow to lay; they've been pretty slow to feather. Last year my slow featherers didn't lay until they were 8 months old. At the end of January they'll be 4 months old, which would be the very earliest they'd lay. I suspect it'll be closer to the end of March or so before I see any eggs. I live in Bariloche, any chance you are planning a trip here this summer? You're living in Buenos Aires now?

 

[Vicky Argetina]

I'm patient I can wait for them! I've grown some chicks from my own hens and I know that sometimes they take long to feather... On my first experience, once the eggs started hatching the hens stopped taking care of the remaining ones. So, I had to be creative. I took away the chicks from one of them and placed them under the other hen. By doing this I forced one of the hens to continue nesting the remaining eggs. (I had to place the other hen with the chicks in a different place so that the nesting hen wouldn't get distracted). I ended up with one hen and 18 chicks altogether!
Another time, the hen didn't take care of the BB so I decided to take them away from the coop and to place them indoors. It was winter and they didn't have any feathers, so I had to give them a source of heat: I put them in a small fish tank on top of another one I have inside and I kept the light on night and day!! They made it and I sold out the chicks!
I found out that sometimes it's better to separate the hens with chicks from the rest in order to provide them with better conditions which sometimes limit to tranquility.
Fortunately, in Buenos Aires there aren't much predators. My dogs had to learn not to each hens. That was something difficult. I lost a couple of hens, but finally they stopped chasing them. Now they even allow chickens to walk around them without any problem. I lost a couple of BBs this winter, but I believe there's a cat behind this.
I wish I could go to Bariloche this summer but unfortunately it is not in our budget. This has been a difficult year so I believe we will stay home for the summer. Bariloche is really beautiful! Good for you!

 

[Tamara119]

Sounds like you've had plenty of fun with your chicks! Sorry to hear that a cat may have been eating your chicks. I have a fence big enough to keep the dogs out, and the hens and rooster can take on a cat if needed. Just a few days ago one of my hens abandoned her 3 week-old Mapuche Araucana chicks, all 5 of them! They have some feathers, but not enough to be on their own yet since the nights here are still very cold. So now I have to make sure they get their share of the food and that at night they get safely into their nest box under the heat lamp. So far so good! I'll be separating these chicks and the marans from the rest of the flock soon, and the marans rooster will get to be in charge of the new flock, ensuring that the marans eggs will be pure marans. The other chicks will become green/blue layers, so I'll get olive-eggers by crossing them to the marans roo. I love colourful eggs! I'll keep you posted as to the development of the marans.

 

[Vicky Argetina]

Excellent! I'll continue reading you. Till next time.

 

[Tamara119]

So, I've been looking at the chicks lately and wondering why their feathers are so steely-grey coloured. I thought maybe it was their diet, or the sun (we live very far south, and the ozone is thin here, but this doesn't account for why my other hens and chicks that are black stay black), or maybe stress (and yet they're pampered!), but then it occurred to me that maybe they are blues! They certainly have the edged looked to their feathers that blues have. When I had gone to the breeder's to get the eggs, he wasn't home so his son attended to me. I remember now that the coop/run I saw with 4 roos and about a dozen hens that I mentioned earlier was the Wellie coop. I did see the marans coop on the other side of the property, but I didn't want to intrude and just walk about the property. I emailed the breeder yesterday to ask about this, and he said his splash, blues and blacks run together because he likes all three colours so much and they eggs yield all three colours. So, surprisingly, all my chicks are blue (although chick #3 that was killed was darker and may well have been black). What do you think? I've got blues?

These pictures show the lightness of their colour better than the last few:




one of the pullets beside a black hen for comparison:

 

[steph5253]

I know it's been quite some time, but you DEFINITELY have blues (and beautiful blue coppers they are)! I could tell from the first chick pictures you posted

I have two blue copper marans, one black copper marans, and two splash marans from last hatch. Blue is actually more common (50% blue, 25% splash, and 25% black).

Good luck with your trip back to Canada!

 

[Lady of McCamley]

x2
You've figured it out by now but you have blues and blue copper...1 roo and 2 girls and a Welsummer pullet.

and yes they will take longer to mature and lay....but how awesome you will have a mating trio for the Marans.

Hopefully on your next trip to Canada your eggs will bring a roo for your Welsummers.

Lady of McCamley

 

[Tamara119]

Yup, the three of them are blue coppers, and I can't wait to get black and splash now too! They are all mature now, though my roo is still a little lacking in the tail department. Here he is a few weeks ago, looking like a Great Horned Owl!



The two pullets have started to lay!! Their eggs are about a 5 on the scale, sometimes only 4 and sometimes nearly 6. One girl started at 23 weeks, and the other at 24. The Wellie hasn't started to lay yet, though I expect she will soon. I just arrived back in Canada, and so I'll probably miss her first egg.

However, my husband is still there so hopefully he'll show me on Skype.
I don't have any recent photos of the two girls to post, but they look beautiful. Unfortunately, one of them got the top part of her comb torn off by one of the young and overly-eager roos that were in the run (the extras roos are now gone, so that the marans roo is the only one with them). Poor girl. It healed well, at least.
I'm definitely going to bring back a few more eggs!