Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[VillageChicken]

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Hey! Congrats on baby number two!!!

Boy or girl this time? And yes, you know we'll need pics of both types of babies!

Thanks. Baby#2 is a boy. And I will post a pic or two.

 

[HenThymes]

Hi All! Just popping in to let you know I have discovered to coolest thing about my young marans... They hate preditors and pest in their space!!

I found them playing chase with a dead mouse the other day and have been watching them the past couple of days chase away wild birds. I think that is the coolest thing ever.

Well, thanks for letting me share.

 

[Medicine Man]

por que my Marans eggs have blood spots inside them? Only the Marans, not the Lehorn or the EEs or the NAQs or Penedesencas? In fact, only the BC Marans and not the Cuckoos. It's disGUSting, I'm sure James Bond woud not approve.

 

[math ace]

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Dang, I am missing out! You need to send a few of those girls my way. . . . or at least a half dozen eggs so that I can get a broody marans.
I have four hens and only one has gone broody in a year. . . .

 

[Medicine Man]

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he'll be over for dinner tonight, but I don't want him to see...I guess I'll just give him the Cuckoo and Penede eggs.

 

[math ace]

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Yep, I have one BCM hen who gets horrid blood spots when the days are shorter with less light. Now that the days are longer - - -the blood spots have stopped.

 

[Medicine Man]

hahaha - it guess it's "tails" now.

 

[math ace]

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I thought for the longest time that I had an egg eater who really really really like white leghorn eggs. After watching for a while, I finally found out what was going on. . . . One of my leg horns is laying thin eggs. Sometimes they are so then that they break when the other hens sit on it to lay their eggs. It breaks and the other hen ends up wearing it from chest to tail.

I have a marans that lays one of those wacked rubbery eggs every once in a while too. . . . Same thing, she lays it and somebody else gets on it and then it breaks and yuck is all over.

I don't know what I am going to do now - - - BUT I have figured out which two birds are laying the jacked up eggs. I am thinking about putting them in a separate pen so that they don't teach others to eat eggs. . . . Then they can lay all the jacked up eggs they want too. I am having troubles justifing a coop for onlu two girls though. .. . Still formulating a plan

 

[math ace]

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You mean in roos, right? What color comb will the pullets have? And don't they also have wattles? Is it that it doesn't show up till they are older?

Pullets comb and wattles will turn pink a little later and they will be smaller.

The cockerels will be the first to show pink in combs and wattles.

Around 4- 5 weeks, the ladies are showing pink around the eye area and combs.

At 4 weeks, the girls wattles are just starting to develope and change color. The cockerels are much more brightly colored and bigger.


So here is one of my few pullets at 4 weeks ( 1 month) of age

Here is a cockerel at the same age

 

[Debbi]

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I thought for the longest time that I had an egg eater who really really really like white leghorn eggs. After watching for a while, I finally found out what was going on. . . . One of my leg horns is laying thin eggs. Sometimes they are so then that they break when the other hens sit on it to lay their eggs. It breaks and the other hen ends up wearing it from chest to tail.

I have a marans that lays one of those wacked rubbery eggs every once in a while too. . . . Same thing, she lays it and somebody else gets on it and then it breaks and yuck is all over.

I don't know what I am going to do now - - - BUT I have figured out which two birds are laying the jacked up eggs. I am thinking about putting them in a separate pen so that they don't teach others to eat eggs. . . . Then they can lay all the jacked up eggs they want too. I am having troubles justifing a coop for onlu two girls though. .. . Still formulating a plan

Lisa,

I had that problem with one pullet when she first started laying. They were offered oyster shell in a seperate feeder, but evidently, this pullet wasn't eating any. On occaision, everyone, even the cockerels would dip into the oyster shell bowl, but not this dimwit.

So, she kept on laying the soft shelled eggs, from the roost, in the boxes, and on the floor. I finally just started mixing the oyster shell in with their feed. In about 2 days, the soft shelled eggs stopped! Now I've seen people say that doing this will hurt the roos, but let me tell you, I have spent quite a few hours watching them eat. The boys usually pic around the oyster shell, the pullets take it in. Even when I fed it seperately, the boys would occaisionally go over and gorge themselves on it, so what's the difference?? All I know is that by mixing it into the feed, all the pullets are now laying nicely shelled eggs!