Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[they'reHISchickens]

I just did a preliminary candling of my fbcm eggs since it is 12 days now. I promised the GD we would candle this Sunday. I used a new LED large maglite with a homemade cover that has a 1 inch hole in it, in a pitchblack room. The 2 RIR eggs looked clear GD will be disappointed because those were her chickens. Perhaps the orp and EE roos don't like the RIR? The FCBM eggs will give either brown-egg mutts or olive eggers. I am hoping I can tell which by the resulting combs.
With the maglite, I could see the air spaces and a lighter area at the opposite end of the marans eggs. Most of the eggs that I assume are good are just dark with the air space and the lighter area. A few seemed lighter throughout the egg so I am thinking they are clear.
I feel we will have a good idea of fertility with them. Of course, the blue eggs are still unknown even with the maglite.
The next batch going in is pure blue/black copper marans since I have the breeding pen set up. The girls are laying well.
Told hubby I want to make a cabinet hatcher this week so I can start the others asap. I can dream, can't I?

 

[jlgoinggreen]

Quote:
Wow! Sounds like a lot of hard work, yet so much fun. We are just getting into the meat and potatoes of this now. I started last year, but then got rid of most of my chickens and now starting all over. I'm excited about it though.

Yeah...it is a lot of hard work, but I do enjoy it. The place isn't big enough for too much larger stock, so chickens are my choice. I do have three tiny pygmy goats...they just never have gotten very big. This is going into my second year of being back into poultry. I love how naturally all the things I learned and lived by when I was growing up came back. Its a challenge, but I really am working to do as much as I can in the way of sustainable living and am finding that while it takes a lot of time, it really is satisfying. I like myself better as a result of it...I lost some of that when I was living in a city. I hope to grow the majority of my own foods again this year and to make more progress around the place.

That's awesome. We had to move and sold everything. I miss my cows and my goats (we had jersey cows and mini nubian goats). We are working to start all over in about two years (God willing). In the mean time I will have my chickens and garden to keep me busy.

 

[Hens and Roos]

Quote:
Good luck with your hatch...

we are in the process of making maple syrup and just waiting for it to get to temp and then into jars it goes!

Nice! I've never made maple syrup, but have always wanted to learn how...does it take a long time to go through the whole process?

the longest part is boiling the sap down to get it to syrup and that depends on how much sap you have to boil. We boiled down about 28 gals of sap and ended up with 13- 8 oz jars of syrup. We also have our 2nd batch of sap starting to be boiled down and for that we have about 32 gal of syrup collected. We have only 4 trees to tap. This is our 4th year to do this and my DD(11 years) is hoping to take some syrup as a fair project.

 

[Debbi]

Ooooo! I LOVE pure maple syrup!! I especially love the maple syrup maple leaf candies we used to get as kids in CT. Hard to find the really good and pure syrup out here in the midwest! Two things I miss the most from the east coast is maple syrup and Maine lobsters!! Also, Blue Soft shelled crabs!!!!!

 

[they'reHISchickens]

@jlgoinggreen We are in Northern Berks County. Have you heard of the Chickenfest this May in New Tripoli? That's where we got our FBCM eggies last year from Cottage Garden and A Happy Chick.

 

[Ivywoods]

It was a pretty nice day here today.... finally. A little windy, but tolerable. I got the laying hens coop all cleaned out and a fresh dust bath with D.E. in there. I spent some time sitting in the pen with the ladies while they had a treat of cracked corn. I had most of them eating out of my hand. My marans rooster kept looking at my hand but he stayed back for the longest time. Finally when some of the other chickens spread out a little more he came and started eating out of my hand. After a couple of them tried to take a little of my hide with their corn I decided to hold it out to them in a scoop.

I moved some wooden spools that had been out all winter. We use them as a playground for the baby goats. When I looked under them there was a bunch of nightcrawlers right on top of the ground. I picked them up and took them over to the hens. They looked at them with a look that said, "What the heck is that?" One finally picked up a worm and in a few seconds they were all picked up and the chase was on. Hilarious.

While I cleaned the coop, hubby cleaned the barn. Later when all the hens should have been back in the coop I found 4 leghorn hens in the rafters of the barn. I couldn't leave them there. If one of them dropped a bomb on my hubby when he walked in the barn he would not be happy. I managed to get them down with a long handled broom.

I've never had a problem with any of my fat butt marans flying up in the rafters.

 

[gilavina]

Quote:
Yeah...it is a lot of hard work, but I do enjoy it. The place isn't big enough for too much larger stock, so chickens are my choice. I do have three tiny pygmy goats...they just never have gotten very big. This is going into my second year of being back into poultry. I love how naturally all the things I learned and lived by when I was growing up came back. Its a challenge, but I really am working to do as much as I can in the way of sustainable living and am finding that while it takes a lot of time, it really is satisfying. I like myself better as a result of it...I lost some of that when I was living in a city. I hope to grow the majority of my own foods again this year and to make more progress around the place.

That's awesome. We had to move and sold everything. I miss my cows and my goats (we had jersey cows and mini nubian goats). We are working to start all over in about two years (God willing). In the mean time I will have my chickens and garden to keep me busy.

That's too bad you had to move, but its great you have some poultry to work with! They really are so rewarding. Its awesome in a residential type area you are able to have them and have the room for a garden!

So, I just knuckled down and candled my eggs. I have officially decided from now on, with any shipped eggs I will be letting them sit for 24 hours, then putting them in the hatching tray at the bottom and not turning them for a few days. It has made a huge difference since I've started doing that. Out of 18 of the dorking eggs I only took out two clear. There might be one more to take out that looks like a borderline bloodring...it wasn't totally a ring, so I left it since it was only day 7. Otherwise I still have 15 that are developing right along. I didn't even bother candling the BCMs I had shipped...I tried one, I can't see a thing. The eggs I've gathered from my own stock has done well too. Very good news, I was so nervous...

Oh, I forgot to add to my projects that I'm working on a starting a line of bantam marans...I have some exceptionally small ones...The two eggs I put in for a test from that pen are developing so far!

 

[gilavina]

Quote:
Nice! I've never made maple syrup, but have always wanted to learn how...does it take a long time to go through the whole process?

the longest part is boiling the sap down to get it to syrup and that depends on how much sap you have to boil. We boiled down about 28 gals of sap and ended up with 13- 8 oz jars of syrup. We also have our 2nd batch of sap starting to be boiled down and for that we have about 32 gal of syrup collected. We have only 4 trees to tap. This is our 4th year to do this and my DD(11 years) is hoping to take some syrup as a fair project.

Wow! I had no idea it cooked down that much! 28 gallons for 13-8oz jars?!?!?! Crazy!

 

[Debbi]

Hi Susie!

Pretty nice day here too, expect for the 20mph winds. Seems the older I get, the less I can handle the wind?

What do you mix in with your DE for a dust bath?? I used wood ash, a bit of sand, and DE, and all of my birds would have nothing to do with it! Do you put your dust bath in the coop/ barn, or outside? I spread some DE mix under the nest boxes outside were they normally dig and bath, but now they won't hardly go in there.

Can't seem to get them to bathe anywhere except in the coop when I put down new shavings. So I've been adding DE to them when I do add some. Also need to find an outlet for some Eprinex wormer. Made by Ivomec, and is a pour on with no withdrawl time, for cattle anyway, and I saw a vet tech on another thread here that used it on her chooks and didn't with hold the eggs. Anyone ever use it? Where the heck do you get it?? Seems like, even though I'm in farming country, the chicken community is WAAAAAYYYY behind the times here!

 

[gilavina]

Quote:
Yeah...things are still pretty wet here too. I am holding off on the tilling and putting up my new greenhouse. Last thing I need is to make things even harder on myself.
I wonder if maybe your Pip does indeed have some social anxiety from being a lone chick. We had that with a pullet that was the sole chick from a hatch last fall. She was terrified by other chickens. So, we took another pullet and put her in a pen right next to her...and after a couple weeks put her in with the other one. She still acted funny, but we stuck with it...and shifted the birds we had in with her a couple of times until we found the right combo. They get along well now. Just needed the right mix. Maybe he just hasn't met a girl or girls he likes yet?