Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[chasehope]

my chickens eat barley (we feed it to our goats) and that would explain the slimy poop...great! Good thing we are working on penning them up and then they will have a set feeding program!

 

[pinkchick]

Well Jan is right.....I just read this......

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC17606/

 

[chasehope]

is layer crumble/pellet not sufficient? my husband is going to be mad if I tell him that I need to start mixing chicken feed as well! eh already thinks I am crazy that we feed the goats about 5 different things!

 

[Debbi]

Good deal, BOSS, I can do! Now, if I could only find a source for the gray striped sunflower seeds, my Quakers refuse the BOSS!

 

[snowbird]

Quote:
I feed a 20-22 % protein feed and when I give the Black Sunflower seed it is threw into the pen or lot to be eat of the ground

 

[Organics North]

Quote:
"Sufficient" is a word open to personal definition.

. .. Be mindful of what low protein treats you may give the birds though..

Notice Snowbird is at a 20 to 22% protein..Layer is what? 17% at best? Some feed racing pigeon feed, or grower from a bag and supplement the calcium the layers need, as a way to get higher protein in a breeding flock.

Here is a discussion in feeding and watering on the subject:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=396180&p=1

Me.. I mix my own.. Because I love the control of what my birds eat, while allowing me to not use ingredients that do not fit with my ideology....

Pink.. Thanks for the link..
ON

 

[bargain]

Hi, thought I'd post a few photos of our up and coming wheaten marans pullets - they are point of lay and will soon be moving to their own pen....(The lineage is Bev Davis and Buddy Henry....All have feathered feet and soo pretty!)

The sun faded her out on the perch a bit - but very nice , I think:

Some of the others:

Rooster that moulted out some tail feathers - they are finally coming back!

The eggs that these all came from were so dark. I have a few more pullets but haven't made their photos yet. This $39 camera is killing me but I'm going to use it up!

Thanks for letting me share!
Nancy

 

[lildinkem]

My Birchens and what to do?
I like my Birchen Marans boys. 2 year ole Bruno and his 9 month ole son Barry.
I bought a few Birchens chicks last spring from Ray along with some Black Copper chicks. The BC girls lay wonderful quality eggs. The 2 Birchen girls I raise didn't/ Plus both were not of the caliber I like for conformation.
So instead of using this Birchen Marans girl

I have two plans.
First is to take my boyz to my two pure Black feathered girls

Second is to take one of the boys to my Birchen Orpington. This girl has no Marans blood. So egg color will be crap. But, Bruno is from Betty Jo. Her birds always laid nice dark eggs. So, IF the babies comes out looking like an Orp, they will go to the Birchen Orp project pen. IF a Birchen Marans we raise and wait to see what plops out far as egg color.

Here is the rest of the boys, including my Black Copper breeders

I like Barry's tail

Young BC girl

 

[Happy Chooks]

Okay, I have a hypothetical breeding question.

If I got some blue Marans to breed to a Black Copper Marans rooster, this would create Blue copper and Black copper offspring, correct? If a blue copper is mated to another blue copper or a splash Marans, would the resulting splash offspring have coppering? Would that ruin the splash coloring at that point?

 

[chasehope]

I have a splash hen that is out of blue copper parents and her color is beautiful. there is NO indication in her color that her parents have copper.