Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[Koolduck]

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My Marans are just like yours....they act like Im going to pull each and every feather out one at a time! My white Marans have settled a bit after they started laying but, I would not call them lovey...I guess we are lucky and just have "special" marans!

 

[ruth]

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OooooooooHHHHHHHHHH Ruth!!!!! I don't know if I should laugh or if I should cry!

Good One! Thanks!

So what happened........is he a cross with a naked neck?

He looks like a couple of my bad boy roosters after they've been fighting. They chase after each other and pull one another's back neck feathers out.

I thought y'all might get a kick out of that picture. Actually he's my Blue Copper - he's just molting. Most of my birds look like that right now. It's been high 80s and 90s for several months and 110 for all of August plus 90% humidity year round. We are just now seeing "cooler" mornings and evenings. All of my birds, should I decided to process them, won't need much in the way of plucking.

Here he is last year at just a few months old - already big - and already being taught a lesson or two by the older, bigger roos - one of which took off the tip of one of his comb points. Today he's a big scaredy cat:

Taken a few days ago:

And here's my Blue Copper girl - taken yesterday after putting her in a pen - she's not happy and quite flighty right now because she's finally in a pen that has a top and she can't scale the walls and get out like she's done every other time I've tried to pen her in. She likes being a Free Bird.

 

[X2Farm]

Ok, so I said I'd post pictures yesterday... got busy, sorry!!! Here's some better pictures of my chick in question... It looks like she's got some copper comin through

And as you can see, she was being pitiful. Soon as she settled in Hubbys lap, she just about rolled over and snoozed

it was too cute

 

[Eveil]

Ok i have a question. It has been raining for a loooooooooooong time here. Everything is wet and muddy. We had 31 days of rain then less then a week of sun and more rain. Its so wet that the ground splashes water out every time you step. The chickens are hanging out in wet muddy ground. There are no puddles because the drainage in there run is good but it is getting a little crazy. The run is covered to help keep the rain out but it is still way wet. With no sun to dry it up its just not getting better. The geese and chickens are slipping in the mud. My hubby wants to put down gravel so that there is no mud. Will this hurt the animals to be walking on it all the time? Are yard was never really grassy and what grass they had growing in there pens has long sense been consumed by them. Has anyone els had this happen? What would be the best thing to put down so that they are happy and there is no more mud? Any help would be very much welcomed.

 

[ruth]

I set all of my penned breeder birds free duiring our rainy season each year. Everyone else is always free and I can't stand seeing the penned birds walking in sludge and mud that starts to stink. I don't think being in a wet pen can possibly be good for them so I turn mine loose. They come back to their pens/coop at night and get on their roosts but during the day they can get on higher, drier, and grassier ground and their feet can stay dry - plus it gives them a break from being in pens. With our six dogs and three cats, we are able to have hundreds of free ranging/free roaming chickens, ducks, peacocks, geese, guineas and goats. The dogs do a wonderful job of keeping predators away. I know not everyone can free range but, to answer your question, I would build a temporary pen on higher, dry ground, or let them out as much as possible because I'm not sure, short of building up the level of the run, that there's anyway to keep them on dry ground with that much rain.

 

[cherylcohen]

sorry to butt in!

does anyone have any golden cuckoo or splash hatching eggs?

 

[flgardengirl]

Sand is good to keep the runs from being so muddy. We have sandy soil here so the water soaks down pretty good but it still gets a little mucky during the rainy season here. I have been thinking about what I could do for this and I think that this fall, I am going to rake up lots of bags of leaves and just stack them around the runs. Then when it rains and gets muddy I can open one and throw it out there. That should help a little. I can let our chickens and guinea keets freerange a little while I am watching them but we have almost 4 acres that is not fenced and the nieghbor's don't exactly keep thier dogs in their yards. Our Muscovies freerange totally during the day but they can fly up on the roof of the house to get away lol.

Ruth, your blue copper boy is really pretty with all his feathers. He has a nice copper coloring (not too dark and not too light). My blue copper guys seem rowdier than the black coppers lol.

 

[Lotsapaints]

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I'll have some French and clean legged Golden in the Spring but nothing now....I bought some Blue Copper x Blue Copper and the Splash Roo I have is beautiful I thought blue was nice.....

 

[cherylcohen]

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I'll have some French and clean legged Golden in the Spring but nothing now....I bought some Blue Copper x Blue Copper and the Splash Roo I have is beautiful I thought blue was nice.....

DARN, they sound great too!...

 

[Lotsapaints]

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If the run is covered I would cut canals to keep it out and use pelleted bedding to soak up the moisture but that is a temporary measure. I live in adobe dirt so I have rubber mats then clean those no mud in the pens or holes that they would like to dig. I rotate outside pens to keep it from getting yucky there they can dig and have fun.