Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[gilavina]

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Yeah...my birds looooove it! I haven't given it to them cooked yet...I usually shred mine up with my food processor and mix it in with cooked rice, a bit of grain, some warm water, and some spices like cayenne and etc. They go crazy for it! If you are looking for bang for your buck there is another winter squash I'm growing. Its in the butternut family and is called Argonaut. It looks just like a butternut, but it grows much larger squash. I have limited space, so I'm always looking for something that will produce more efficiently! Especially since I dedicate a small section of my garden for the birds to have foods I can put in cold storage for use during the winter months.

Here's the little blip from the gurney's catalog on them
"You’ll love Argonaut’s honey-sweet flavor and meaty texture; tastes much better than older butternut types like Waltham! Enormous butternut type, bright gold fruits are 15 to 27 in. and weigh 30 lbs. or more. Will hold up to 8 months in storage. Vigorous vines are easy to grow. 140 DAYS."
I had a coupon so I didn't pay their full price, but there might be some other places that sell them too

 

[gilavina]

Quote:
Yeah...my birds looooove it! I haven't given it to them cooked yet...I usually shred mine up with my food processor and mix it in with cooked rice, a bit of grain, some warm water, and some spices like cayenne and etc. They go crazy for it! If you are looking for bang for your buck there is another winter squash I'm growing. Its in the butternut family and is called Argonaut. It looks just like a butternut, but it grows much larger squash. I have limited space, so I'm always looking for something that will produce more efficiently! Especially since I dedicate a small section of my garden for the birds to have foods I can put in cold storage for use during the winter months.

Here's the little blip from the gurney's catalog on them
"You’ll love Argonaut’s honey-sweet flavor and meaty texture; tastes much better than older butternut types like Waltham! Enormous butternut type, bright gold fruits are 15 to 27 in. and weigh 30 lbs. or more. Will hold up to 8 months in storage. Vigorous vines are easy to grow. 140 DAYS."
I had a coupon so I didn't pay their full price, but there might be some other places that sell them too

Oh yeah....I was gonna ask too out of curiosity, of those that use spices in their birds food....do you use a lot of them? What ones do you use? and how often do you mix them in? How much to you mix in? Its still new to me, so I love hearing other people's tips and tricks
I'm gonna give growing my own cayenne and cumin plants a shot and see how they produce so I can dehydrate and grind my own spice...we'll see how it goes...

 

[Ivywoods]

I've planted the varieties you mention plus a couple kinds of plum and apricot. I've also got the raspberries, gold, black and regular, grapes red concord and I want to add white grapes.

I haven't done the spice thing with the chicken yet. Maybe this summer....

 

[Mountain Mel]

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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..

come'on mel you gotta check out your antique shops first! We got one for a steal at $4

I see them there and at Goodwill and other second hand stores all the time. Also the cute wire baskets shaped like chickens. I even saw some painted cast iron wall hooks that had chickens on them (They were $1 each at Habbitat for Humanity) I didn't get any of them though, just didn't know what I'd use them for.

Back to Marans... So I set the 10 eggs Sunday night and what do ya know one of my cochins proves she's broody starting yesterday so now she's got 4 BCMs under her too! Nothing like keeping the options open with 10 in the 'bator with 4 under a broody. And set so close I wonder if I can get lucky and put whatever hatches under the broody to raise and opt out of the electric bill of a heatlamp? We'll see.

Better than wasting gas driving to every antique shop in the area, Sew & Gro

mentioned to me to check on E-bay. OMG! They have pages & pages of real cool wire baskets.

 

[Ivywoods]

ebay is where a lot of mine came from. That and old farm auctions. I've never found one in a thrift or antique shop around here.

 

[Hens and Roos]

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We've started planting trees when we 1st moved out to our place 4 years ago- we have 2 cherry, 1 pear, 4 apple trees, plus blueberries, raspberries, strawberries and a type of blackberry that has a solid berry- the 2 cherry trees had 3 cherries on them last year. The kids enjoy watching and picking the fruit. We didn't have luck with the concord grape plant

We also tap our silver maple trees and make Maple syrup with the kids.

 

[gilavina]

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Hahah...that's what the other trees are...apricots and plums! thank you! It was driving me nuts enough I was thinking about going down there just to see what I had...hahah
I've got red raspberries and strawberries as well. I tried gold and black raspberries, black berries, and blueberries last year, but it was such a wet spring when I planted them, I think they just never had much of a shot to get going...I doubt whether they will come back this year...kinda bummed about it, but I didn't pay much for them and so I'll give it another shot this year.

I just went down to do mid morning egg pick up...and the black copper pullet I've waited allllll winter to decide if she was going to ever lay her first egg....gave me a present....a nice dark ruby brown/red egg....its kind of scratched up since she decided she would rather lay it in the goats hay feeder than the nests, but it is goooorrrrgeeeous! I had to take a serious double take...I just couldn't believe she finally, finally laid an egg!!!

 

[Ivywoods]

Quote:
We've started planting trees when we 1st moved out to our place 4 years ago- we have 2 cherry, 1 pear, 4 apple trees, plus blueberries, raspberries, strawberries and a type of blackberry that has a solid berry- the 2 cherry trees had 3 cherries on them last year. The kids enjoy watching and picking the fruit. We didn't have luck with the concord grape plant

We also tap our silver maple trees and make Maple syrup with the kids.

Last year my two sisters and I got together for a "sister's weekend." We made about 90 some jars of jelly of various kinds. We made a lot of sandplum jelly, which is one of my favorites. All the pulp from the fruit went to the chickens. They gobbled it up. My marans were only about 6 months old then. I had LOTS of sandplum seeds, which are about 3/8 inch in diameter. They ate a lot of them, but not all of them. I'm sure it was just too many. I'm hoping as my trees mature that any fruit deemed "non-human consumption' can be enjoyed by the chickens and the goats. I just pray my hubby's goats don't get out and eat my trees!

 

[gilavina]

Quote:
We've started planting trees when we 1st moved out to our place 4 years ago- we have 2 cherry, 1 pear, 4 apple trees, plus blueberries, raspberries, strawberries and a type of blackberry that has a solid berry- the 2 cherry trees had 3 cherries on them last year. The kids enjoy watching and picking the fruit. We didn't have luck with the concord grape plant

We also tap our silver maple trees and make Maple syrup with the kids.

Last year my two sisters and I got together for a "sister's weekend." We made about 90 some jars of jelly of various kinds. We made a lot of sandplum jelly, which is one of my favorites. All the pulp from the fruit went to the chickens. They gobbled it up. My marans were only about 6 months old then. I had LOTS of sandplum seeds, which are about 3/8 inch in diameter. They ate a lot of them, but not all of them. I'm sure it was just too many. I'm hoping as my trees mature that any fruit deemed "non-human consumption' can be enjoyed by the chickens and the goats. I just pray my hubby's goats don't get out and eat my trees!

That sounds like a really fun time...canning with family and all to share the load and have fun while working! I usually help my mom with canning, but it can get seriously hot in the middle of the summer. I day dream of a summer kitchen....those "maybe one day" kind of things....
I never thought about giving the pulp from the fruits to the birds last year....I totally should have....I will definitely be doing that this year! And excuse my ignorance, but I've never heard of a sand plum...what is it exactly? I mean, is it different than just a plain ol' plum?

 

[Ivywoods]

Sandplum is a wild plum that grows in Kansas and Oklahoma. You probably have some in NE, too, and other states as well. It's rather tart, but makes great jelly. We have a lot of them along the edges of our corn field, in the draws. You can search google images and there are a lot of pictures of them.

We made sandplum jelly when I was a kid, and it has always been my favorite. Unless you make it or know someone who does it is very hard to come by. Most people dont' turn loose of it once they get it.

We froze all our fruit then waited for cooler weather in September to do our jelly making. Much more pleasant. I had an elderly friend that did a lot of canning, and she had an outdoor kitchen in her husband's shop. It made canning summer veggies easier.

Guess I'm going to have to plant some of that big squash for my marans! I love watching them go after treats!