Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

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Ok I have a silly question.. I am new at the chicken world. I got my first chickens march 2010. Easter Eggers where my first. Anyway, I just found out a fair is going to be close to me this weekend. I checked the website and there is no info in how to enter into the poutry show. Do I just show up on the day livestock is to be shown with my chicken I want to show? I was thinking of showing my BCM pullet she should be laying in 2 weeks and my Splash rooster? At 8 months old is he a rooster or a cockrel? Maybe I'll just feel the waters and do the next one. The kids will have fun either way. They have never been to a fair.
 
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can u pm me the website?...ill take a peek and see if i can help ya
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Hey Math and everyone! Between work and dog shows practically every weekend I don't get much time to post but I wanted to quickly chime in on this one. Congrats on your hatch! I'm jealous of all you with babies--my incubator has been placed on "lockdown" in a top shelf I cant reach in the garage by my husband LOL!

I had an untested broody so for the first time I decided to give her eggs I wasn't attached to so Trader Joe's eggs fit the bill. They were on day 8 or so and she had explosive broody poo on the nest that got on nearly all the eggs. When I got home from work I noticed the mess so I quickly cleaned her up, wiped off the eggs and replaced the bedding in the nesting box and she happily jumped back on and it was business as usual. Well all the eggs in that nest were viable up until that incident (candling white eggs is a dream after having Marans) but the next night when I candled the eggs there were blood rings in all eggs but one. The one "survivor" appeared as if the vascular system was shutting down as the veining was only half of what it was the day before. I still left the eggs under her and the next night I candled--ALL were blood rings indicating quitters. I know she did not get off that nest because there was a thermometer probe in there that recorded the highest and lowest temps and there was nothing below a 96* reading.

From this experience it really leads me to believe that the poo most likely caused bacteria to infect the egg and kill the developing embryo.
 
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The poop could cause bacteria to get in the egg so that would cause death and a stinky egg......

with my turkeys who never worry about keeping eggs clean I wash them with tek trol; 1 tlb to a gallon of warmer water than the eggs by at least 20 degrees I make sure the water is about 95 to 100 and dip them until I can get all the gunk off. I've done the same with shipped eggs that had egg goo all over them and had some hatch.....I usually only try and set clean eggs but I have one hen who lays a darkie and leaves poop on it they hatch even if I don't clean them...
 
OK...so I took a couple of pics tonight when I was out feeding some of my chicks before it gets dark for the night. Its supposed to get really cold here tonight, so I just wanted to make sure they have food in them to keep them warm. These are all birchens, except for one solid blue girl...
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They aren't the best pics since they were running around like crazy snatching up snacks.

Here's a few of my pullets..these are all from my second to youngest pen...they range from 1 to 2 months old...so still have quite a bit of growing to do.

some blue birchen pullets....

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my solid blue girl...I love her varied shades of blue pattern...it reminds me of a calico pattern in a way

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a black birchen boy...so far his color is coming in really nicely

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now this boy....he's not a Marans
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but he is a birchen
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here's a close up of the hackles that have just started coming in this week on my lavender silver (birchen) Sussex. The little girl is getting in her markings on the neck as well...she is such a cutie...the only thing I don't like is the feather condition on them. I'm pretty sure I'm gonna need to track down some silver sussex to cross back in to improve the feather condition on the lavenders.

this first pic kind of makes it hard to see the markings clearly, but it is an accurate representation of the shade of lavender. The second photo shows his birchen coming in much better, but the setting sun washed out the lavender color...

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http://foothillscountryfair.webs.com/
I have a guy who trades a lot of chickens tell me about it. He bought me 2 BCM pullets today! I pick them up before he loads up his 100's of chickens for the fair. I told him I was looking for them, but they had to have gold on there heads and feathers on their shanks. So, I hope they are good breeding stock. I have found out the BCM mostly found at coop's and mass order places don't look like the ones in Europe. Very little color, bad combs and featherless legs are common. At least they wont be kin to mine.
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The poop could cause bacteria to get in the egg so that would cause death and a stinky egg......

with my turkeys who never worry about keeping eggs clean I wash them with tek trol; 1 tlb to a gallon of warmer water than the eggs by at least 20 degrees I make sure the water is about 95 to 100 and dip them until I can get all the gunk off. I've done the same with shipped eggs that had egg goo all over them and had some hatch.....I usually only try and set clean eggs but I have one hen who lays a darkie and leaves poop on it they hatch even if I don't clean them...

I know my key west hens don't exactly keep thier eggs clean. I think if there is a proper coating/bloom on the egg, it should protect it unless some especially virulent bacteria or virus etc is present. The key west hens hatch super healthy chicks even from dirty eggs and they never ever get sick either. Come to think of it, none of the KW chickens have ever caught anything around here, even fowl pox, when all the other ones had it lol. The guineas have messy eggs sometimes and hatch perfectly healthy chicks too.

ETA:
I think that poopy shipped eggs may be worse to hatch than your own that have poop on them because the bloom probably gets compromised in shipping even if it gets tiny areas of bloom that are rubbed off from being wrapped, knocked around in the box, etc. it allows the bacteria to get into the porous part of the shell. I had two shipped eggs that had poop on them go bad in the incubator once, so I don't usually set poopy shipped eggs anymore. Man those things reeked too.
 
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My husband NEEDS to take my incubator away from me!
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I don't want to raise any chicks in the winter months like I did last year.... so I am going to have to stop on my own
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I have the LAST batch ( and how many times have I said that before
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) in the incubator right now. Man, I would LOVE to get one more batch done before the I quit...... BUT I KNOW BETTER than to try it any later in the year.

The first batch of chicks I ever hatched was last November. They were set in October and hatched early November. Yep, not doing that again. They weren't fully feathered and the temps were low. What a PITA! NOPE, not doing it again- -- Gotta STOP this HATCHING MADNESS!

However, IF ONE OF THESE HENS WANTS TO DO THE BROODY THING..... I will be more than glad to supply her with the eggs!
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