Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[sewandgrow]

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Nice hatch Don!! What do you vaccinate for?

Hi, On day one everything gets the Mareks vaccine, I vaccinate for other things as they grow up. Don

Don,
Please ,...............we need you to educate those of us who do not vaccinate. I was told that my chickens will have an automatic resistance to Mareks because I have a turkey & have had it for a couple of years. I tried to google vaccinations & watched a You Tube video but could not understand the gentleman on the video from another country. What should we be vaccinating for & when & with what???? You are always so willing to help us & I for one really appreciate all the help I can get.
Thanks
Karen in Turlock

 

[snowbird]

Quote:
Hi, On day one everything gets the Mareks vaccine, I vaccinate for other things as they grow up. Don

Don,
Please ,...............we need you to educate those of us who do not vaccinate. I was told that my chickens will have an automatic resistance to Mareks because I have a turkey & have had it for a couple of years. I tried to google vaccinations & watched a You Tube video but could not understand the gentleman on the video from another country. What should we be vaccinating for & when & with what???? You are always so willing to help us & I for one really appreciate all the help I can get.
Thanks
Karen in Turlock

Karen, later today will do a post on what I do with regards to vaccinating. Some will say let the weak die and only keep the strong but sure is not what I recommend. Don

 

[syble]

Well after a long wait i'm finally close to having my very own marans! Hatch date is the 25th, 6 days to go! not that i'm not overly excited haha.

I cannot see much anymore (not that i could ever see much to begin with! at week one or so i could see barely the 2 tone yolk that usually means a growing embryo, but now all i see is dark, so i assume they grew and are good to hatch in 6 days. i pulled 2 but still have 14 good ones. At any rate, my question is this, do they require any different hatching process then other chicks?

I incubate in a GQF 1266, and will move them to a preheated modified hovabator for hatching. The modifications are a fan and a double deep bottom tray. I've hatched in it before and it worked great! I keep it at 99.5-100 and humidity is bumped up. i've been hatching in egg cartons, which seams to work well also. I always felt so bad for the later hatchers that would get spun 2 ways from sunday by the first to hatch. fingers crossed for good hatch!
Sib

 

[AyeUpChuck]

Hey Kim! Here are a few pics I got yesterday of your little wonders!

 

[sewandgrow]

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Oh I love mushrooms but would be afraid to poisin myself by eating anything I found so I buy all mine.....LOL

 

[AyeUpChuck]

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Oh I love mushrooms but would be afraid to poisin myself by eating anything I found so I buy all mine.....LOL

it's actually really safe. You just have to know what you're looking for. It's best to go with a forager who really knows what they're looking for. You can also just go and get a mushroom field guide which will tell you what mushrooms grow in your area, what to look for and what to avoid. It's seriously worth it!

 

[sewandgrow]

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Have a ball on the beach Denny............. Kim & I went to the Modesto sale yesterday. I took my 2 extra BCM cockerels from last July's hatch that I had kicked out of the pens & they were free ranging with the 2 Thom Dean Light Sussex cockerels from last Fall hatch. I got $20 a piece for them & that was better than the neighbor's dog carting them off & better than what response I get on Craigslist. I bought 3 BCM chicks from Kim she said they are Presley/Valentine. I don't know that cross but I think it is 2 pullets & a cockerel. The pullets are alot darker than the chicks I hatch. It will be interesting to see what they grow out as.

 

[sewandgrow]

Quote:
Hi Sib,
Are you able to keep the humidity up in the modified Hovabator?? I have a couple of styros from before I bought the Brinsea & have thought of using them for hatchers. I could lay my birdfeed cages in there & keep the eggs separated that way as to breeds & sources. That has worked out well in the incubator but does take alittle more space.

 

[sewandgrow]

Quote:
Oh I love mushrooms but would be afraid to poisin myself by eating anything I found so I buy all mine.....LOL

it's actually really safe. You just have to know what you're looking for. It's best to go with a forager who really knows what they're looking for. You can also just go and get a mushroom field guide which will tell you what mushrooms grow in your area, what to look for and what to avoid. It's seriously worth it!

I would love it................I know it ,but a friend of mine's ex husband who is an avid mushroom collector & has been for years screwed up royally & had to have a liver transplant so that scared me to death.

 

[syble]

Quote:
Hi Sib,
Are you able to keep the humidity up in the modified Hovabator?? I have a couple of styros from before I bought the Brinsea & have thought of using them for hatchers. I could lay my birdfeed cages in there & keep the eggs separated that way as to breeds & sources. That has worked out well in the incubator but does take alittle more space.

Well I basically got rid of the base that came with it, created my own styrafoam base coated in clear duct tape. its easily twice as deep as the orriginal base if not more. the bottoms flat which makes it easy to line for a better clean up. i have 5 plastic deli trays in the bottom that i can fill up with water to bump up the humidity to whatever i need, i just fill them all up before lockdown and it seams to work just great! also they support the floor haha. This will be my first attempt with marans, but i've successfully hatched turkeys and araucanas in it. i have wyandottes and meaties in there to hatch thursday, i'm sure they will be fine also

I just wanted to make sure that marans didnt require anything special for a good hatch. i'm so excited to have 14 viable shipped eggs out of 16, and want to get as many of them as possible to hatch!
Thanks
Sib