Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[Wynette]

Hey guys! I'm really excited - one of my juvie pullets just began to lay. I only have a few for this year...I've waited too long to replace my current gals (all 3-4 yrs. old) as they have always laid so well for me, and egg color has lightened a hair, but not very much for gals of that age...I just hate to replace them! Anyway - I'm really pleased with egg color - here are the first 2 eggs laid by the first pullet of 2011. Both taken indoors with a flash. I'm disappointed that they don't have a good sheen on them, but they are half W. Jeane (original line), and those gals always lay matte eggs - but, nonetheless, color is really nice:

Just wanted to share! COME ON, SPRING!!!!

 

[Ivywoods]

Wynette- You have such a colorful egg basket. I can't wait to add my ameraucanas and eventually my olive eggers to my marans in the basket.

BTW- Do any of you guys use the antique wire rubber coated egg baskets? I love those things. Most of them are too big for the 2-3 dozen eggs I get, but I found this little one that is just right for that many eggs.

Edited to add: I like those baskets so much I have a collection of them.

 

[Wynette]

I just use small baskets, Ivy - I collect several times a day, so unfortunately a small basket is never quite full on my farm!

 

[Ivywoods]

Quote:
I make it a point to collect twice a day, but if I am out there more often and eggs are there I gather them before I go in. The little basket I got is perfect. My sister told me about the one she found and she loved it, so naturally I went on a "hunt" to find one. Gotta keep up with my siblings, ya know.

 

[Wynette]

Quote:
I make it a point to collect twice a day, but if I am out there more often and eggs are there I gather them before I go in. The little basket I got is perfect. My sister told me about the one she found and she loved it, so naturally I went on a "hunt" to find one. Gotta keep up with my siblings, ya know.

For sure! I think those wire baskets are neat, also, because you can see through them & immediately know there are eggs in them. I've had more than one occasion where I grabbed a basket off my cabinet thinking it was empty and it wasn't, and eggs flew out.

 

[Mountain Mel]

Quote:
I'm gonna buy one! Meyer Hatchery has them for sale in 2 different sizes....one for 7 dozen ($17.76) and one for 15 dozen ($24.58)
For those of us whose pens are close to the house (I'm in that group!) these would be too big, I think. But for folks like Pinkchick, who has pens that start at the back yard and go over the hill and into the dale, you wouldn't want to make two trips. Especially in the slick, snowy conditions that us folks in the Pacific Northwest are faced with at the present time. But that won't last long. We are going to get the "Pineapple Express" high temps straight from Hawaii and the we will be flooding! Not Pinkchick tho, as she lives high & dry in the foothills of Mt. St Helens...me, I'm on the river bottoms. I keep my boat fueled up & sitting on a trailer in front of the shop so all I have to do is cut loose of the tie-downs, fire it up, and away I go...the chickens have trees to climb into..

 

[gilavina]

Quote:
I use those smaller eggs baskets too and love them! I have a couple of the bigger ones too and don't really need to use them until it gets to the middle of summer when absolutely everything starts laying..including the bantams. That's when I start seriously thinking about culling for moving into fall season.

 

[sewandgrow]

Quote:
Sounds like a great collection to me Susie. My egg basket is actually a wire chicken with a handle that I got years ago to do a moss basket for plants & never used so now I have repurposed it.....LOL

 

[shesaredroan]

Baskets, baskets, BASKETS!!!!
Chickens and baskets just go together like.......soup & sandwich, horse & carriage, & .........
I've been collecting baskets for about 30 years............maybe that's why chickens came into my life 11 years ago?!?!

I'm an artist, my MFA Thesis was titled 'Baskets, Nests & Wombs'.
Maybe I need to start painting pictures of chickens and baskets!?!?!

Wynette, my eggs from you (rec'd 9/27/10) are now 3 roos and 6 hennlets. Beautiful!!! Drumming my fingers while I wait for eggs!!!

One can never have enough baskets.......or chickens.

 

[Mountain Mel]

Quote:
Hens under 1 year old are referred to as "pullets"....I'm not trying to be critical, it's just that I'm a writer and majored in english...( and yes, I still make mistakes!)