Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[Debbi]

loprettaerin ~ Wow! They sure look like a partridge to me now. Congrats!

Jeremy ~ Atta girl Frenchie!!!

Nice color and shape to boot! Give that pretty girl a cookie!!

flgardengirl ~ So sorry about your pullet. We don't have smoke here, but the temps are high and the humidity has been choking. I wet down the run and under the deck for the bird to cool off on. Cold front coming in today with more storms, so maybe the temps will back off for awhile?

 

[Debbi]

HEY PINK!!!!

Check THIS out!!

Read the first post. See where they are??

hehehehehehehe

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=527351

I'll have to see it to believe it!

 

[flgardengirl]

Yeah me too. I saw that about the pink silkies as well lol.

 

[loprettaerin]

Quote:
Thanks deb and geeb's I thought I was just losing my mind there for a second. I guess I will be doing lots more test hatches with there eggs to see if can get some good one going from them and also maybe find another roo to play with. lol

 

[Ivywoods]

Quote:
Oh no! Sorry about your young pullet. What a bummer.... BUT Don't bring them into the house! Sometimes when chickens are in cool air conditioning, then go back out into the heat it kills them almost right away. We had that happen to two roosters. We transported them in an air conditioned van, then put them out in the pen. It was still hot out, but not 100 degrees. They had shade and everything. Within an hour they were dead.

I think I would find a different way to keep them cool. I like to make a wet spot on the ground somewhere in the shade where they can dig and scratch and lie in the cool moist dirt. They seem to love that.

 

[FireTigeris]

Quote:
Oh no! Sorry about your young pullet. What a bummer.... BUT Don't bring them into the house! Sometimes when chickens are in cool air conditioning, then go back out into the heat it kills them almost right away. We had that happen to two roosters. We transported them in an air conditioned van, then put them out in the pen. It was still hot out, but not 100 degrees. They had shade and everything. Within an hour they were dead.

I think I would find a different way to keep them cool. I like to make a wet spot on the ground somewhere in the shade where they can dig and scratch and lie in the cool moist dirt. They seem to love that.

I agree I'd keep them in the runs with misters and lots of shade...

mine are ok so far w/o misters yet...

 

[math ace]

Quote:
I am REALLY WORRIED about all this smoke and the chickens....

I am having trouble breathing and I am only in it for quick in and out trips...

I hope I don't lose too many. I've got 5 week, 9 week, 11 week, 13 week, 16 week, 4 month, 5 month, and over 1 year olds in this smoke...
I know a couple of the younger ones are sneezing and one of my roos is sounding hoarse when he crows. .. .

HEAT and SMOKE - - for weeks at a time ! Just terrible!

 

[math ace]

Quote:
Flgardengirl and I are way over on the west side.... near Callahan. The smoke is mega bad over here.

 

[math ace]

Quote:
I am with you on the misters.... I found one of my pullets in a tub of water yesterday. She was just standing knee deep in the water.

Last year, when the extreme heat hit.... I filled a bucket of water up in the morning and dipped every chicken. It took most of the day for them to dry off.
This year, I have four times the chickens.... So, I don't know if I will do the dipping thing....
It would take a while to dip over 50 chickens.

 

[flgardengirl]

Thanks you guys. I do have misters I take them down in the winter and set them up in the summer. I only had enough to run around two runs but I have way more coops than that now. I have just been letting them ALL freerange during the day on these horrible smoky hot afternoons.
I have some washtubs of water set up various places around the yard as well as thier regular waterers. This pullet that died was about 5 1/2 mos old. She was a beautiful dark blue girl and just started laying nice dark egggs (Cocoa's daughter

. I am thinking it was both the heat and the smoke. When I found her she was in the deep shade under a nice big oak near other chickens. Maybe she had asthma or something else that I didn't know about that contributed to it..I will never know.
I was only gone for a half an hour into the house and I went back out to check on them and I found her. There was even a waterer nearby. I have decided to go ahead and breed whatever blues I have left asap because they way it is going lately I might now have any left if I don't lol.

All our chickens were panting pretty hard yesterday. I even let those crazy turkeys have thier run of the place. They follow me everywhere and pull the buttons off my pants and peck at my toenails. Man they are pests but cute ones. They like to drink directly from the hose so if you pick up the hose they will chase you lol. I bet if I set up a sprinkler they would play in it!!
It is supposed to be 98 today and it is smokier today than yesterday grrr. I can feel it burning my eyes and throat when I go outside.
The chickens have been under the shade of trees, vehicles, and the boat taking dirt baths and siestas. There is a big outbuilding with a large shaded carport they can go into as well. It has a dirt floor and water spigot that usually has some wet soil under it lol.