Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[Ivywoods]

Gilavina-GREAT! I'm so glad you can make it to Sedalia. We will definitely have to look each other up!

Congrats on your coronation sussex!

I'll bet they are lovely!

I've been so happy with the BCM hen I saved, and the young pullets are looking nice, too. I didn't know which of my hens was laying the darkest egg, but as it turned out, the hen I liked the best and saved IS the one laying the darker eggs!

Jeremy-LOVELY eggs! I am going to make some olive eggers this coming spring. I haven't decided which ameaucana to put with which marans, but hopefully by the time I need to start getting fertile eggs I will have decided which ones to use.

I've weeded through most of my chickens and am pretty much down to the ones I want to keep for breeders except I still have too many cockerels. Maybe I should put an add on craigslist and see if anyone has anything they would want to trade for some roosters. I can't imagine.... but you never know!

 

[gilavina]

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indeed we shall! we'll have to see figure out details when it gets closer. The sussex are gorgeous...I already have about 10 coronations growing out right now...and a few light sussex and a pair of lavender silvers... but they do help to round out the group indeed!

SO glad for you that your girl is indeed one of the dark egg layers. I hope you have a really good hatching year this coming spring!

 

[pinkchick]

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Holy Cockeroli! That is a BIG EGG! Pretty! Congrats on your chookies starting to lay! To this day I am still like a kid in a candy store when I find a new pullet egg and squeal in delight. What can I say...... I'm still just a big ol' kid.

 

[pinkchick]

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Jeremy~ Do you have a roo in with those girls????

Those are beautiful!

Nope, no boy yet... I'm holding out for a Bill the Third.

I love how glossy they are, it's like someone buffed them!

Start the count down......Lil' Bill is now in with my final pick of ladies.........I have to start the count as of today for rooster stuff from Gnarles to leave a few of the ladies. Yesterday I went to let Lil' Bill in with the "clean" ladies after his week of living infront of them so they could get used to each other and wouldn't you know it....ol' Gnarles wasn't giving up that easy and had come back for a visit.

There he was in the coop yard behind the coop talking to his used to be girls and doing the wing dance. That stinker got out of his new pen and went right back to where he had been. All I can say for Gnarles after I caught him (again) is that he is not very happy with me, I put a top on his run and now he definitely cannot get out. I feel pretty sorry for the ol' guy....as soon as I lighten the load with a few birds he will have his own little laying flock and won't be stuck hanging with the rest of the bachelors. He just looks at me like....."Ummmm...how come you are leaving me in here?"

Ohhhh....BTW....I have another Blue Copper cockerel growing out that is just turning 5.5 months that is also from Bill, he is getting some very nice copper and is going to be huge like Lil' Bill and Bill, but he is very dark blue like Bill. Don't know what I am going to do with him, but I am liking him very much! Will get a photo of him soon.

 

[pinkchick]

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Congrats on your girl that is giving you the pretties Ivy!

Ohhh and once you get one of those pretty olive eggs....you will be hooked. I got rid of all of my Ameraucana's (and it was especially hard to rehome the Lavenders) after my Olive eggers started laying...just give me those olives.

 

[gilavina]

mornin kim!

I know what you can do with that extra blue copper boy of yours! I think i just heard him say he wants to live in Nebraska

I really hope you will have taken care of your comb problem...I bet that was really disheartening when you realized what was going on. I hate moments like that.

 

[Ivywoods]

I'll have to look up the olive egger thread one of these days. Right now I have so many threads I am following along I don't have time to post much.

Anyway, I have some really nice ameaucanas; black, silver, lavender and wheaten, and one buff cockerell. If the buff had turned out to be a pullet I was going to keep it for my olive egger chick maker, but darn, I don't want to keep a cockerell just for that purpose. I think I will end up putting my old BCM roo, Goliath, with one of my silver pullets. I'm not sure yet. Goliath is so big I hope he doesn't smash the poor little ameraucana!

Then, if you take one of those first generation olive egger pullets and put her back with a BCM roo again, you get an even DARKER olive egg.... is this correct?

 

[pinkchick]

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Me thinks I will keep him....just because. Won't hurt to have a nice extra DARK blue boy the spitting image of Bill running around...with feathered shanks I'll add.

Iam delighted with the amount of copper showing in Bill's male offspring, I only hope to get more copper in the females now. Took some time to get this much copper in Bill's boys.....Bill is soooooooo dark it has been a little challenge.

As soon as the ladies in with Lil' Bill are clean again, or 6 weeks is up..(I just know Gnarles got to them again) I will be doing a test hatch with them and watching for the stupid comb thing. I was so depressed about the comb thing you just don't know...but not discouraged enough to give up on my beloved Marans...no way!

I have some final test eggs from Gnarles in the inubator now, mated with specific hens. Hoping that I can narrow down that it is not these particular hens.

 

[gilavina]

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Me thinks I will keep him....just because. Won't hurt to have a nice extra DARK blue boy the spitting image of Bill running around...with feathered shanks I'll add.

Iam delighted with the amount of copper showing in Bill's male offspring, I only hope to get more copper in the females now. Took some time to get this much copper in Bill's boys.....Bill is soooooooo dark it has been a little challenge.

As soon as the ladies in with Lil' Bill are clean again, or 6 weeks is up..(I just know Gnarles got to them again) I will be doing a test hatch with them and watching for the stupid comb thing. I was so depressed about the comb thing you just don't know...but not discouraged enough to give up on my beloved Marans...no way!

I have some final test eggs from Gnarles in the inubator now, mated with specific hens. Hoping that I can narrow down that it is not these particular hens.

haha...I don't blame you at all for keeping him...I know I probably would too hahaha. I'm really glad that you didn't give up on the Marans....I think your stock is lovely! So, you said Gnarles is being retired to a laying pen...will the girls that come up guilty go there too? I still am sorting through what direction to go with that. Most of my focus right now is working on setting up my breeding pens for next year. I don't work til a bit later today, so I think I'll sort through my breeding stock from last year and start making room for the improved offspring from this year. Its hard when you are attached to certain ones tho eh?

 

[pinkchick]

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Yes.

I was going to try keeping an Olive Egger roo around for giggles but I just can't justify another pen, so I keep my olive egger females in with Bill and made all my OE's with Bill.
A 3rd gen. OE grand-daughter of Bill's should be laying in a couple of months. Hoping the egg color remains nice and deep like her mothers.