Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[welasharon]

My cats eradicated all the moles here....course I had about 30 then! LOL
sharon

 

[geebs]

Steve: .... Nice little Rooster... I would keep that for breeding as the egg color is awesome!!! Nice job and Congratulations!!!!

 

[Ivywoods]

Quote:

It's going to be 7 tonight. More snow rolling in today. I'm really tired of knocking ice out of water pans with a hammer!

Yesterday our well froze up. The little heater we had in there quit working. Hubby's out in the barnyard right now moving snow with the skidsteer. It was 5ft high in front of the barn door. It drifts really bad here.

Several years ago when we had a BAD ice storm we were without power for 2 weeks in Dec. We had no water or anything. We had to stay here because of all the animals. Luckily we have a spring that runs year round. We would go down there for water for the animals and bring a few buckets up to the house for flushing etc. It wasn't fun. We managed to buy a generator, and then we were able to run a few things at a time. I'd run the freezer, then the water heater and well, etc. It was an experience for sure.

Makes you appreciate the amenities we enjoy every day.

I hope you are appreciating that beautiful weather out there! I know the scenery is beautiful, too.

 

[sewandgrow]

Quote:
Congratulations Steve..........What a beautiful egg & chick.

 

[sewandgrow]

Quote:

The type of moles we have here eat worms. We have earthworms that are known as "Nightcrawlers" and this is their favorite food. Moles occasionally come out of the ground but only in a "mole emergency" or as a very rare occurance. Our moles can be divided into 2 groups...day diggers & night diggers. Don't ask me how they know the difference since they are underground, that is one of lifes' greatest mysteries!
There are a lot of "old wives tales" out there about how to get rid of moles. I use steel traps or a 12 guage shotgun at 16 inches - both barrels. I did learn something the other year quite by accident, tho....I used to smoke cigarettes, and where I sat in the shade to drink beer under the big Magnolia tree there was a mole hole. I started putting all my cigarette butts down the hole, just to get them out of sight/out of mind type of thing....one day I noticed that there was absolutely NO mole activity within 100 yds of that hole. The rest of the property was plagued with moles, which I have since eradicated. Now, I don't know if it was just quincidence (doubt it) or if it was the stink from those butts (most likely) but I didn't have any mole activity within 100 yds of that hole all summer.

 

[sewandgrow]

Quote:

The type of moles we have here eat worms. We have earthworms that are known as "Nightcrawlers" and this is their favorite food. Moles occasionally come out of the ground but only in a "mole emergency" or as a very rare occurance. Our moles can be divided into 2 groups...day diggers & night diggers. Don't ask me how they know the difference since they are underground, that is one of lifes' greatest mysteries!
There are a lot of "old wives tales" out there about how to get rid of moles. I use steel traps or a 12 guage shotgun at 16 inches - both barrels. I did learn something the other year quite by accident, tho....I used to smoke cigarettes, and where I sat in the shade to drink beer under the big Magnolia tree there was a mole hole. I started putting all my cigarette butts down the hole, just to get them out of sight/out of mind type of thing....one day I noticed that there was absolutely NO mole activity within 100 yds of that hole. The rest of the property was plagued with moles, which I have since eradicated. Now, I don't know if it was just quincidence (doubt it) or if it was the stink from those butts (most likely) but I didn't have any mole activity within 100 yds of that hole all summer.

My vote is that it was the stinky cigarette butts that did it Mel.................LOL

 

[flgardengirl]

Steve congrats on your new baby

Looks like he came from a nice dark egg too.

Ivywoods: Goodness you guys are really getting it. I hope you are able to stay nice and warm and get your well heater working again! We had no power for 2 wks once. It was after H. Rita when we lived in Louisiana. It was summer then but it still sucked cuz it was super hot and muggy and lots of standing floodwater and mosquitos everywhere. We got a generator too and had to keep switching all the cooler, fridge, etc around. OOHH don't wanna do that again lol. At least FEMA reimbursed us for our generator though. It was all during my oldest son's birthday too, bet he never forgets that.

I don't know if we have moles in our yard or not. I see lots of holes but they might be from snakes or other critters. We have tons of snakes, opposums, and armadillos.

ETA: does anyone grow castor beans for repelling moles. I heard they work but never actually tried it.

 

[Ivywoods]

Sounds to me like cigarrette butts work, but I'm not going to take up smoking to try it. I think our barn cats did "night duty" on ours.

I've never grown castor beans. I've always heard they were toxic for a lot of things.

I'm sure that was miserable being out of power during the summer down there. Kind of like being without power in the winter up here.

Sure wish FEMA would have reimbursed us for our generator! It was expensive.

 

[Keara]

Quote:
Look up Chronic Respitory Disease, Mycoplasmosis, Air Sac Disease and Infectious Bronchitis and see if any of these illnesses describe what your birds are experiencing. The Gallimycin is probably your best bet at this point. A couple of these illnesses can be brought on by stress and since your birds where shipped it may have triggered something. I hope they are feeling better soon.

The 3 boys that I grew out that all had white in the hackles and fluff at the tail break, I kept one and put him in the laying flock, he has wry tail and if it weren't for that I would be test mating him for breeding even with the white in the hackle that seems to be un-noticeable now at 6 mos old, but if I lift his hackle feathers, the white is still there. He will only be staying until my youngest Splash Copper roo is old enough to take his place. I noticed the white in mine about the same age you did with yours, it disappeared on the waaaaayyyy overly red boy by 6 mos, but the other 2 it didn't. They were well built, large sized birds and the 2 we put in the freezer dressed out very nice.
Give them some more time to see how they mature before tossing them out.

I would say yes they have CRD, from a mycoplasmosis. I have been giving tylan in water for the last week. They had been on the gallimycin for 2 wks previous without a getting completely better. Now they are worse! I guess I will go back to the gallimycin, but how long should I keep that up before I give up? Have you ever "cured" CRD? I really do not want to give this to the rest of my flock... but I can't keep these 4 in quarantine for ever.

The feathering is exactly how you describe the 2 roosters you had. I do not think they are worth keeping for breeding.

p.s. Math I would put them outside in a separate pen but it is too cold for the next week or so.

 

[Debbi]

Sue ~ I feel your pain lady! Last year my well froze all the way back from the house, to into the ground. I was without water for 13 days. Luckily, we had snow on the roof and in the pasture, so I'd keep a bucket under the drain spout to collect water to flush and wash with. Took the cleaner snow out of the pasture and brought into the house to thaw....that took forever! Got one of those huge water coolers from a friend and would take up gallon jugs to the neighbor's house to fill it. Fun stuff for sure! The well already froze once this year, but thankfully only for one day. More of your weather coming here tonight, for another possible 3-5". A lot has melted today, so bring it, I'm good!

And no, didn't shoot the dillo. I had heard that shooting them with a shotgun causes lots of the BBs to ricochet!

I had that happen with a turkey once, so I can bet it would do it with a dillo! I've seen those baskets...not something I want to carry my eggs in!