Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[geebs]

No.... coho.

and that's my kid.. what are ya fishin for... beside marans. I am picture fishin... I just keep throwin the line and hook in and well... nuthin... DRAT!!! I guess I will have to wait!!! LOL

 

[gilavina]

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I have only the black and blue copper marans. I prefer the black copper. So, I was trying to hatch a heavy concentration of her eggs.

So far the only accurate way I have of sexing mine is waiting until they are 2 - 4 weeks old and watch for the pink combs and wattles.

The feather sexing worked for the person that I got my hens from as week old chicks. . . . FROM ALL THESE ROOS that I am hatching - - - I will be selecting a slow feathering roo and seeing in six months if I can produce some feather sexed chicks.

Let's see 6 months from now . . . one hatch per month . . . 7 - 10 roos per hatch Ummmm
That will be 35 - 60 roos! Each roo has to be fed for 2 to 4 weeks before being identified.

WOW - - - sure wish I could feather sex these babies!
Yes, this is the decision that I have made today!

There are others out there - - - Pink with the Davis line and Geebs ( I forgot which line she has - - but it is not Davis) - - - who can feather sex their babies with pretty good accuracy.

You might have seen my posts on sexing chicks by their noise...it takes just a few times to get the noise down that the cockerels make, but I have really good luck with it. I pick up each chick individually and listen for the tradmark trilling noise the cockerels make. The ones that don't make that noise are pullets. I will band mine accordingly and watch to see if I was right or not. everyonce and a while I'll get one wrong, but most of the time it works well.
I start doing this around a week or so old...so it does save alot of feed. When I've given people chicks as straightruns this is how I figured out how to balance things so they don't get all cockerels and have had really good feed back that there was a pretty even mix.

 

[math ace]

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Considering the first hatch was in November . . . . those GUYS are crowing 4 / 4

This hatch . . . a couple are starting to show the speckling in their chest.

I am with PINK in that my hens have really large combs, but they don't get color until much later than 3 weeks old.

 

[flgardengirl]

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NICE!! Cute kid too. Yours?

 

[math ace]

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Sweeeeet, By that time I might be able to hook you up with some speckled sussex or delawares - - - if you are interest

This is my year to hatch. Hope Dh still loves me when it is all done!

 

[enggass]

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Oh and I just gotta ask..why on the carton on the right that one egg is all on his own? Is it a different variety? or is it in time out?? heheh

Good question

That one was another one of Roo Gnarles like the 12 on the left. 3 of the other five were Roo Bills, and 2 of them were unknown to me at the time. I found out later from Kim they were Gnarles also. I was grouping by Wellies, Gnarles' and Bill's.

 

[gilavina]

Quote:
Oh and I just gotta ask..why on the carton on the right that one egg is all on his own? Is it a different variety? or is it in time out?? heheh

Good question

That one was another one of Roo Gnarles like the 12 on the left. 3 of the other five were Roo Bills, and 2 of them were unknown to me at the time. I found out later from Kim they were Gnarles also. I was grouping by Wellies, Gnarles' and Bill's.

Ahhh...I sees. That's great you got eggs from both! I hope you have a great hatch cause those eggs look lovely.
What varieties of Marans do you raise?

 

[math ace]

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We have a homemade incubator. It is all digitally controlled - - - thanks to my Dh's electrical background.

We did not callibrate all the equipment on the first hatch - - -

I hatched 1 / 4 roos for the delawares
I hatched 4 /4 roos for my own stock
and hatched 6/ 9 roos for another breeders bcm stock.

On the second hatch, we calibrated three sets of temperature gauges. . . .
I hatched a total of 10 / 16 roos . . . . 7 / 9 were the marans that I am tracking / studying.

The second hatch went PERFECTLY. The normal size eggs hatched on Day 21. The Jumbo eggs hatched on Day 22 / 23.

I did not have any early hatchers on either hatch - - - temps were not running high by that indicator.

 

[flgardengirl]

Well here I will show you a pic of my dd

Until I get those other chickie pics...

 

[flgardengirl]

Quote:
Sweeeeet, By that time I might be able to hook you up with some speckled sussex or delawares - - - if you are interest

This is my year to hatch. Hope Dh still loves me when it is all done!

Cool I love my 2 sussex even if they are hatchery babies. I've never had Delawares and don't know anything at all about them lol.