Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[gilavina]

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How do your tomatoes do in the ground?

Me?? I had more tomatoes last year than I knew what to do with! Best crop ever. Going to till in some more sand and humas this year, along with the decomposed chicken coop litter and poop. Should be better than last year. Once I can finally till, if it ever dries out, I can put up my cattle panels around the whole thing. Of course, I will be adding chicken wire to the bottom 2'. There will be NO chickens in this garden!

Lisa ~ That was mean, mean I say!

Got nowhere to put that plant just yet..


Gilavina ~ Hang in there lady, our turn for the warm will come soon enough...I hope? Just hope we have a spring, and it doesn't go from nothing to 90!

no kidding! that transition last year fried quite a few of my cole crops. I was not too pleased about that. I am not giving up, it kind of actually makes me more stubborn and proactive about getting things done...haha... ( I blame it on the red hair)

 

[pinkchick]

Quote:
Isn't the variations from egg to egg and bird to bird just as cool as can be? I love it when I get eggs that are odd from anyone of the breeds I have...the purplish speckles intrigue me more than anything especially on a Welsummer egg. OMGosh when the purple speckles and purple hue happen on a nice rich Terra Cotta colored egg such as the Wellie egg...it's like looking at a desert sunset, hard to explain unless you have the egg in your hand. One word...they are beautiful. I think eggass got a couple of those Wellie eggs from me..I almost can't stand to part with those.

Morning Vicki!

 

[Debbi]

Gilivina ~ As for those Cooper's hawks, ahhh don't depend on the trees for cover! They are the ultimate chicken hawk, and will literally shoot through dense cover to get a bird or chicken! They will also hunt off the ground hopping after their prey if they can't fly in to get it. Funny thing is, I have never seen any around here till last year, never! They swoop between my house and large shed every day, in the morning. I was hoping they would snag a couple of the slacker cats that hang out on the roof, but no luck!

Don't get me wrong, the cats do hold the vermin and snake population at bay. I haven't seen a snake in my yard for years! I'm just not a cat person, and at my age, I don't want the neighbors thinking I'm turning into a crazy cat lady!

Crazy chicken lady maybe, that's ok...

 

[gilavina]

Quote:
Isn't the variations from egg to egg and bird to bird just as cool as can be? I love it when I get eggs that are odd from anyone of the breeds I have...the purplish speckles intrigue me more than anything especially on a Welsummer egg. OMGosh when the purple speckles and purple hue happen on a nice rich Terra Cotta colored egg such as the Wellie egg...it's like looking at a desert sunset, hard to explain unless you have the egg in your hand. One word...they are beautiful. I think eggass got a couple of those Wellie eggs from me..I almost can't stand to part with those.

Morning Vicki!

Mornin' Kim...glad you are getting a break from the rain! Hopefully the sun will come in full force for you today! I am noticing the sun seems to be creeping out a bit more today than the last week or two.

I'm also hearing lots of peeping in the incubator, but I'm holding off opening it until tonight when I get home. Its sounding pretty full tho!! Got a couple of experiment eggs in there that I'm dying to see how they develop.

 

[seabreeze]

Wow Pink, amazingly colored egg!! How in the world do you know which hen lays which egg?? I still haven't figured that out!! I have one BCM girl who lays jumbo-jumbo terra cotta colored eggs and not sure which one it is!

Love the sky shot!! Woke up here in central Willamette Valley to fog, fog, fog but no rain! Hopefully, fog will clear out but we are in a *low* spot here in Scio, so it can be sunny in Albany and 12 miles home, fog is stuck in a valley swale.

 

[Debbi]

I'm going to set some of my own eggs today. The dark boys will be the daddies by now.

The bad thing is, the chicks will be all the much darker (over melanized), but the plan is to get some size on my birds through those two turkey built boys! Build the barn first...

 

[seabreeze]

I thought our first hatch was due April 2, but nope, they go into lockdown then! OH well, I have enough to do right now anyway

 

[gilavina]

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Haha....yeah...I still get twitchy when I hear them doing their calling, I'm currently working on putting a more solid covers over the pen. Its a slow process with the weather, but most of my birds are still in the barn pens. I've been rotating pens I let out onto the lawn and down in the summer runs while I am out there with them working on stuff.

My problem hasn't been with the hawks so far this year...its with stray cats that have taken up residence in the barn. I'm going to be working on iradicating them....they are super wild, I think probably cats people have dumped off out in the country and then they follow the creek bed right up to our place....they have either killed off or chased away the original cats I had....but if that wasn't bad enough, they are egg thieves...it makes me pretty upset to go collect hatching eggs only to go find a nest full of empty shells...but it gets worse, much worse...there is an old scar faced tiger striped tom that is now teaching the others that its 'OK' to chase down and eat my birds!! First is was one of my pigeons, then a dove...and the other day they broke the door to the chicken house where I keep my bantams...that's just the last straw...this has all happened in the last three days...so now I'm in full gear to stop this. Especially since I have pygmy goats babies coming any day and they are going to be extra, extra tiny as their momma is a midget pygmy....I can't be worrying about these dang cats anymore!

 

[Batty about Banties]

Quote:
I woke up to the same sky!! Gotta love spring....I also adore your egg!! I am also trying to find a good breeder of Black Copper Marans. I also live in Washington and was wondering if you had any suggestions of where I could get a couple that lay the dark eggs.

 

[blackbirds13]

My Marans from Greenfire Farms arrived yesterday!

Ordered 12 - 8 Black Coppers and 4 Blue Coppers and received 8 Black Coppers, 3 Blue Coppers and 3 Birchens. One of my Blues looks completely white. I am not sure if this is a Splash because it is so white/yellow but it is out of their Blue hatch. But i'm so new - these are my first BCM's eva - I really have no idea. The chicks are too cute and I am very happy and excited. Can't wait to see them grow out.

Next month my Paul Smith Ameraucanas arrive. I have Lavender Eggs coming Saturday from an auction here on BYC and currently have my own eggs (hopefully green-eggers-to-be) in the bator...my poor husband won't know what hit him. I think I've decided to wait and try turkeys next year. I think...

but those egg auctions are soooooo tempting. Oh - my new Hovabator should arrive today if the UPS driver can make it up my very long snow-laden driveway.

Hopefully I can take some pics to post today...