Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[pinkchick]

ahhhhhh.....the sweet humm of the 'bator.

 

[gilavina]

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awesome! I'll have to live vicariously through your fall hatching. I will not turn on the bator!

Do you thin down your flock pretty well for winter?

 

[Debbi]

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do you just have boys that need to go now or are you all done culling?

I've still got one pullet and two hens that need to be gone...then, on to the boys.

 

[Debbi]

Pink ~ I knew you'd cave!!

 

[pinkchick]

What is this thinning down the flock you speak of?!?!?!?

I downsize a couple times through the year....and somehow, majically, at some point I go back out and do a head count and I'll be if I don't have just as many birds again as I did before I thinned the flocks.

I don't know how this stuff happens.

 

[gilavina]

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do you just have boys that need to go now or are you all done culling?

I've still got one pullet and two hens that need to be gone...then, on to the boys.

Thats really not bad at all! I'm so not telling how many birds I have left to cull....or how many I've culled in the last 4 weeks. I do have quite a few girls that will go to a friends laying flock...so that's good...but I will say I had large hatches this year to give myself a good start for next spring and its paid off wonderfully!

 

[Debbi]

I MAY have some eggs coming next week...so the bator will be humming here too!

 

[Debbi]

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Noooo, it was the "humming of the bator"

The latter is chicken algebra! Equation: -Px-R=PPP+RRR

 

[pinkchick]

Hoot and Hollar Debbi! We can almost hatch together. Whatcha gettin'?

Well ladies....it's been fun, I gotta run. Have a great day!

 

[gilavina]

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haha...I'm so glad you said that because I seem to have the same syndrome. I really want to thin down pretty severly this year tho since I've got a couple new breeds and color varieties to work with. Its hard tho....I've got a few girls I'm going to pen up for a day or two inside their runs to see if I can figure out what color egg each lays and thin accordingly. That's really about the last kind of culling I need to do since I've done pretty well on combs, bodytype etc.