Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[gilavina]

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did ya end up having a productive day despite the crappy coop?

 

[Debbi]

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did ya end up having a productive day despite the crappy coop?

Well, no, not really. Went to town to buy much needed groceries...does that count??

I had written the seller of the coop a very informative e-mail as to what kind of cheap a**ed product he was selling. Got a very smug reply, informing me that I should've bought a higher end coop for 200 bucks more than what I paid. ??? the low end product, which was the only one he had for sale at the time I bid, was bad enough. Made of "Canadian Fir"! Yes, maybe, but Canadian fir that is LESS than 1/8th of an inch thick?? Assembled in China maybe? With staples??? Remember when you were a kid, and you bought those "glider" type airplanes???? Holy crap! The Silkies wouldn't even be able to stand on the floor of this thing without crashing through it in a week! The nest box was held? on by a crappy gouge in the wood that was supposed to be an insert kind of thing; NO screws, just sitting on an 1/8" cockeyed edge???????????? The front, sides, and roof, had what LOOKED like grooved siding. Ok, I know what the cheapo siding looks like, but this didn't even PRETEND to be that! The whole backside of the coop was plain, no grooving even to pretend, cheap, 1/8" thick pressure board. NO pretense of a varnish or protective finish, yet it was supposed to be a coop?? Do people in CA. keep their coops in the house?? I've lived in CA. in the high desert and the lower desert, and this thing wouldn't hold up to those dry conditions. As long as this housed chickens that didn't s**t, in areas where it didn't blow, rain, or get cold...this MAY hold up for 6 months! And that is if you only housed THREE BANTAMS that didn't weigh over 2.5lbs. each! Touted to house 4-5 large fowl, and 8-10 bantams???? NOT!!! PM me if you care to know who sold me this piece of absolute CRAP! Needless to say, after I e-mailed him and divulged my complaints and suggestions for a better product, and then he sends me a condescending reply telling me to buy a "higher end model", he got a well deserved "negative" feedback on ebay. That said, in the 11 years I have bought and sold on ebay, I have only left 3 negative feedbacks... so, did I have a good day??

 

[dkcrumly]

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Here is mine (a pullet) at 3 weeks old just about.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/80295_dsc01482.jpg
Hope that helps! (She is feathering out to very little coppering on her hackles so she is pretty much a pure blue, but that doesn't bother me. I'm not doing a breeding program or anything.)

Can you tell me how you know this is a pullet? I have two chicks that are 3 weeks old and one has tail feathers and the other doesn't, so I'm hoping at least one is a pullet!

kristen

 

[gilavina]

Quote:
did ya end up having a productive day despite the crappy coop?

Well, no, not really. Went to town to buy much needed groceries...does that count??

I had written the seller of the coop a very informative e-mail as to what kind of cheap a**ed product he was selling. Got a very smug reply, informing me that I should've bought a higher end coop for 200 bucks more than what I paid. ??? the low end product, which was the only one he had for sale at the time I bid, was bad enough. Made of "Canadian Fir"! Yes, maybe, but Canadian fir that is LESS than 1/8th of an inch thick?? Assembled in China maybe? With staples??? Remember when you were a kid, and you bought those "glider" type airplanes???? Holy crap! The Silkies wouldn't even be able to stand on the floor of this thing without crashing through it in a week! The nest box was held? on by a crappy gouge in the wood that was supposed to be an insert kind of thing; NO screws, just sitting on an 1/8" cockeyed edge???????????? The front, sides, and roof, had what LOOKED like grooved siding. Ok, I know what the cheapo siding looks like, but this didn't even PRETEND to be that! The whole backside of the coop was plain, no grooving even to pretend, cheap, 1/8" thick pressure board. NO pretense of a varnish or protective finish, yet it was supposed to be a coop?? Do people in CA. keep their coops in the house?? I've lived in CA. in the high desert and the lower desert, and this thing wouldn't hold up to those dry conditions. As long as this housed chickens that didn't s**t, in areas where it didn't blow, rain, or get cold...this MAY hold up for 6 months! And that is if you only housed THREE BANTAMS that didn't weigh over 2.5lbs. each! Touted to house 4-5 large fowl, and 8-10 bantams???? NOT!!! PM me if you care to know who sold me this piece of absolute CRAP! Needless to say, after I e-mailed him and divulged my complaints and suggestions for a better product, and then he sends me a condescending reply telling me to buy a "higher end model", he got a well deserved "negative" feedback on ebay. That said, in the 11 years I have bought and sold on ebay, I have only left 3 negative feedbacks... so, did I have a good day??

blech....that doesn't sound like a very good day...sounds like that whole coop is a giant piece...and I don't really understand how it is he thought it was appropriate to reply like he did to you. I just don't get people sometimes.

still think you might use the pieces as a template and make a coop that way?

 

[Debbi]

Yes, I will do just that in time, but for now, I'm in a fix. Need the Silkies out to a coop, like NOW!!!! Looking at my setup now, I can jerry rig a roost area/run for some of the roos I have, and then put the Silkies in the small pen in the main run. That was another cheapo coop kit, but it was a helluva lot stronger than this one, and has withstood the MO weather for over a year! Add some hay bales and tarps, and both the Silkies and the boys may be good. Not much culling going on here until my son arrives, and that is an iffy thing,

If some of these roos don't calm down and don't quit attacking me, I'll be doing it myself via 9mm and a bottle of wine!

Oh, did I mention the OTHER hornet's nest I found today??? On my new deck???!!! Oh, hell NO! I took care of them myself!

 

[gilavina]

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holy crap! more hornets? I'm glad you got them taken care of...how big was that nest? And culling via a 9mm and a bottle of wine! that's the funniest thing I've heard in a long time!

I did some culling of my own today...culled two of the three splash boys. The one I kept...yeah...he has a couple things I wish I could change, but he is way better than the other two I culled. I think he will make a good breeder bird....will just have to select girls that will give me the best offspring. Tomorrow should be more culling...I'm going to be saving all my birchens til last...since I have the most of them. thinkin tomorrow will be a tieing up loose ends kind of day for my other pens. we'll see how it goes....

oh...and on that boy we were talking about today...do you think he is a mahogany?

 

[Debbi]

Vicki,

No, I would not, from the pics anyway, say he is mahogany. He has a nice, dark, but a balanced color on both hackle and saddle. Most, and I say this as what I have seen in pics and here, that are mahogany do not carry the color all the way through the back to the saddle. Looking at the mahogany boys here, they are colored in the hackles, black/green luster space, then colored the same or less, in the saddle. Just what I've seen, someone else may have a different view here.

 

[gilavina]

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ok...I didn't think he was a mahogany either, but had someone tell me he was...but like you said...I've only ever seen mahogany birds that do just have that color in the hackles and the saddles... I've never had a mahogany bird to look at in person and to compare to this guy...so I wasn't exactly sure. I like that dark tone he's getting...its that kind of copper that makes me happy...so just double checking!

 

[aChickted]

Can you use solid blue marans to improve egg color with the blue birchen marans? Seems to be a shortage of blue birchens that actually lay a marans egg...

 

[Debbi]

Ha! As for the hornets, these were not the same type as were the ones up the hill. These had a pretty good nest though, right under the top railing of my deck. The only way I knew they were there was because I was unwrapping the piece of crap coop on the deck. I just happened to look up while in a bent over position, and there was their nest!

This nest was only the size of my fist, and they were not the same type of hornet. The big ones on the drive were black bald faced, and extremely aggressive! These hornets were half the other's in physical size, and way less aggressive. I sprayed the nest with a 20' Raid can, and they were gone. That is except for the ones that were out foraging at the time, but when they came back to where the nest was, they didn't come after me or the dogs, they just left the area. The others that were up the hill, were twice the body size, and HIGHLY aggresive! Chase me 75' and wait for half an hour, yah, you are aggresive!!!!