Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[Debbi]

Housefull ~ Your pic isn't coming through

 

[Illia]

Quote:
Tolbunt IS gold lacing though. All he's missing, honestly, is the mottling, which is recessive anyway.

 

[Debbi]

Well, I did know the gold laced was in there somewhere!

All these colors and now a different breed (Silkies) with different colors to learn, my brain is full! I need more GBs!

 

[Illia]

It goes like this -

Marans are crowwing and mahogany.

Tolbunt is crowwing, possibly mahogany, columbian, and has melanizer, patterning gene (lacing) and some sort of mottling gene.


Because both share the same crowwing base (what makes the brown-red / black copper color) that allows the Tolbunt's lacing to easily pass onto the F1 offspring.




Anyway, back to Marans discussion. . . .


I want to show you guys something else crazy. This is my Blue Wheaten cock, a few months ago. He was gorgeous!

And this is him now.

- He's terrible looking.

 

[jeremy]

Is he getting ready to molt?

 

[Illia]

I don't think so - He's looked like this for a decent while now. I think part of it has to do with his diet. In the winter he and the other boys were spoiled with various grains, sunflower seeds, flax, kefir, etc. Now all he gets is hen-feed and the plants in his enormous run which he never touches.

I think the big thing is the fact that food like sunflower seeds really helped his feather quality, but hen feed, gosh, that stuff is completely useless. Nothing but corn, wheat, and soy with some fillers.

 

[Harris5]

Quote:
That is a very big difference in feather quality! Is there any other way to feed aside from mixing grains, which I'm finding is cost prohibitive to maintain a decent protein content, or hen-feed?

 

[Illia]

Greens are THE BEST way to get good quality into your birds, protein however, I prefer through Quinoa, Amaranth, and Kale. My only issue is my absolute low amount of greens and Quinoa or Amaranth. My field of Quinoa never even germinated this year, second faliure in a row, which is really a let-down because we live in the perfect climate for it. . . . And my Kale is tiny little babies due to a dry, sunny season - Too dry for the greens to do much. So I've started over a few times, and this last time it is finally going somewhere. . . But slowly.


<< Not a fan of true grains unless they're old-type colored corn, tested negative for GM of course, and oats. I don't mind oats. Or Teff. LOVE Teff.

 

[Housefull]

I'm having a hard time getting pictures up. I'm working on an iPad and an android lol. The laptop is on strike.


Blue by little2shy21, on Flickr


Blue2 by little2shy21, on Flickr

 

[DMRippy]

I am not raising show birds, but I am like y'all I don't like the lack of protein in feed and I really wanted my birds to have plenty of bugs but that can't free range right now. I started a meal-worm farm so they could have plenty of bugs and protein. But that is a work in progress.

I also have found a source for spent grains which are very high in protein. I am going to mixing that with the layer feed and scratch (12%) to tone down the protein some (between 20-30% usually 22-24%). I will let you know if I see any improvement. I get 2 5gal buckets a week, way more than I will be able to use a week so may be sharing with some neighbors

If anyone feels they may still be lacking something let me know I am willing to supplement if needed. I have one red girl that has been in what looks like a molt for months and some of the eggs are just not has healthy looking as others so I though this might help after some research. Any thoughts? (only barley, no hops or anything else)