Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[Debbi]

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What does vinegar do for the egg?

Makes it taste funny....

Hmm, add a little mayo and they'd be deviled eggs!

I agree VC, dry seems to be the way to go!

 

[Ivywoods]

I just took my last chick of the season out of the incubator. Well, that's not including the 6 guinea eggs that I just put into lockdown.

The last chick was a late hatching BCM. I went down yesterday to clean out the hatching tray of all the non-hatchers, shells, etc. Lo and behold here's another chick that hatched late, but it had a major part of the shell stuck to its back. It couldn't stand up. Its feet were curled up. It could only lay on its side and kick. I pulled the shell off the chick (along with a little chick fuzz) and left him in the hatching tray for another day. I just brought him out a few minutes ago. He's standing up, walking around, toes are all straight. He's al little wobbly, but I think I would be, too, after being in the dark for so many days and then being brought out into the light where there's enough room to stand up straight.

All the chicks are doing great.

I wonder, however, if we aren't doing the breed a disservice by keeping chicks that are so late hatching, and then using them later in breeding, possibly raising more late hatching chicks. Anyone got any feelings or thoughts on this subject?

 

[MuffsnFluff]

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Thanks! I'm pretty happy with them so far! The parent stock was gorgeous on the cottage hills, so I'm hoping those ones will be just as pretty! I have no idea what the ebay ones will do!

Hah hah! Maybe have your UPS guy start throwing him some corn!?!?!?

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Awesome! Wish I had a rooster that would do that, lol! Course after having the worstest flogging easter egger back a few years ago,

I'm careful to leave the roosters alone and not baby them anymore so they have some respect/fear for larger creatures than themselves, lol. So far it's worked and I haven't had an aggressive one since then! Of course now, with the Marans and my son picking them up umpteen times a day I just hope they don't get aggressive!

Thanks! We'll see how he does!

AyeUpChuck, THEY ARE ABSOLUTELY ADORABLE!!!!!!!

Of course, there isn't anything much that's cuter than a baby chick

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What does vinegar do for the egg?

Makes it taste funny....

I was wondering that myself, lol!!! Think it kills bacteria or something?

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Yay! Glad he's doing OK!!!! You just never know on those late eggs, it's always so hard to know whether to toss 'em or let 'em sit awhile, lol.

 

[MuffsnFluff]

Mornin' everyone! Now I'm caught up

Been a crazy few days with teething on my youngest son and I haven't been on

I'm ready for a happy boy, lol!

On the chicken front got the buff orps moved over this morning out of the in-law's chicken house to the outside run with the marans. They're about 3 weeks younger than them I guess, but they are growing slower, so it took awhile (can't have them small enough to walk through the chain link, I don't have have the energy to keep chasing them back, lol!!!) They're legs are SO SMALL compared to the Marans, makes them look like they're walkin on toothpicks

And George and the boys were doing the rooster dance at them for the first 15 minutes, then a few pecks and chasing, and now everyone's ignoring each other

Blows my mind how the marans are only 2 months old or so and they're already so big! Of course I'm use to the banty cochins, which are the size they're at now at maturity, lol!!!

Speaking of broodies and banty cochins, Sweety's eggs are pippin' today! But I'VE CAUGHT HER OFF OF THE NEST TWICE THIS MORNING ALREADY

(which is how I knew they were pippin' lol!) She had BETTER hatch them off and not change her mind today, lol!!!! I've got some more broodies but I'd hate them to change their minds about setting (to keep the chicks from dying or whatever) when their "own" eggs are only half set! She's funny though, I go in to look at 'em and she comes running back to jump on the nest talking the whole time! So maybe if I keep checking on her she'll stay on long enough for them to hatch

 

[Lotsapaints]

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Normally late hatchers should be "old" eggs and it can happen from shipped eggs my splash copper took 25 days to hatch all his chicks start hatching on day 20 and finish up by the 21 and I've had 2 100% hatches from him so I don't think that's true. His eggs hatch better than my Delawares and they hatch like popcorn......

 

[Ivywoods]

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Normally late hatchers should be "old" eggs and it can happen from shipped eggs my splash copper took 25 days to hatch all his chicks start hatching on day 20 and finish up by the 21 and I've had 2 100% hatches from him so I don't think that's true. His eggs hatch better than my Delawares and they hatch like popcorn......

I don't even bother hatching eggs that are over 10 days old, and I keep them cool and turn them every day until I set them. So far I can't say that any of my marans have hatched like popcorn. My lakenvelders are pretty much right on time, and my bantam partridge wyandottes can be as much as 2 days early.

I've heard so many people say that their marans eggs can take a lot longer to hatch and it seems to be true with mine as well. It does seem to be a trend with the breed.

What do you consider "old" eggs when hatching?

 

[edgarmongold]

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I have always found that you get what you put up with in a breeding program.

 

[gilavina]

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Normally late hatchers should be "old" eggs and it can happen from shipped eggs my splash copper took 25 days to hatch all his chicks start hatching on day 20 and finish up by the 21 and I've had 2 100% hatches from him so I don't think that's true. His eggs hatch better than my Delawares and they hatch like popcorn......

I don't even bother hatching eggs that are over 10 days old, and I keep them cool and turn them every day until I set them. So far I can't say that any of my marans have hatched like popcorn. My lakenvelders are pretty much right on time, and my bantam partridge wyandottes can be as much as 2 days early.

I've heard so many people say that their marans eggs can take a lot longer to hatch and it seems to be true with mine as well. It does seem to be a trend with the breed.

What do you consider "old" eggs when hatching?

I'm not sure if its just my incubator or not, but I seem to run a half day to a full day ahead of schedule on my hatches. I use a sportsman and keep the temp at 99.5 do 50 to 55 % humidity on the first 18 days and about 65 to 70 percent humidity and have great luck. I have done shipped eggs and eggs from my own stock and they all hatch about the same. I usually have other breeds like sussex and wyandotte eggs too that hatch right at the same time. I can pretty much gauge that whatever is going to hatch will hatch all within the first 36 hours from the time they start pipping. Any eggs I check have usually stopped somewhere along the development process or were a chick that was so big it couldn't move in the shell....sometimes those are upside down and I think get stuck. The only time I had any chicks drown was when I had to use a styrofoam incubator last year and the humidity kept spiking for some reason and when I checked the eggs I could tell they had drowned.

 

[BarnGoddess01]

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Ok, since you brought it up, I'm going to ask - I, too, am new to Marans. Mine are 9 and a half weeks now and HUGE. I've had leg troubles with a couple of them (a pullet that I culled at 3 weeks and now a cockerel with a hip that doesn't seem connected) so I'm wondering if I'm feeding them incorrectly. What is everyone else feeding their Marans? 23 chicks hatched altogether (Ameraucanas, EEs, and Marans.) Only trouble is with 2 of the Marans.

 

[syble]

Here are a couple of my blue & splash marans. My hens are 2 dark blue feather legged and 1 splash clean legged, and the roos i'm really watching are a dark blue feather legged, a light blue strong feather legged (giant head) and a splash with the best feathering on his shanks and feet (not the middle toe).

blue hen


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dark blue roo(he'll look better when his tail comes in!)


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Light blue roo


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Splash roo


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Head shot of the light blue roo:


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I seam to have missplaced the splash hens photo...