Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[pinkchick]

Vicki~

If and when I get it narrowed down the guilty parties will go directly to the laying flock and will not be used for anything other than laying eggs. If I ever need to sell them, they will be sold as mixed breed chickens only and I never commit to any certain breed that is in them to the buyer, but with the comb problem I will probably never sell them just so that someone can't breed them, period. When the time comes they will probably go in to the freezer.

 

[gilavina]

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good deal. That makes me feel better since that's about how I do things. I have some in my breeder stock that I think I will need to be making some hard decisions about. At least I will have a laying pen for some of them to still get spoiled. I had a great hatching year and so an overhaul is definitely in order.

 

[Debbi]

Good morning all

Pink ~ I sure hope Gnarles gets some lady friends. Bet he's wondering how he went from Golden Child to pauper!

Poor guy, I hope your testing vindicates him. JR just takes my breath away everytime I see him...till I can get close enough to see the stupid comb

What really surprises me, is that JR is bigger and wider than both of the Bill boys??

I was watching all the chooks this morning, when I noticed a trio that looked to be in a "standoff". It was Myron, Bill, and Olivia. Just standing there, frozen in place. At first I thought we were about to have a roo spat over Olivia, but 5 minutes later, they were in the same position! No movement, no sounds, just starring, as if having a conversation via ESP!

Never saw that before. Billy eventually walked off, and Myron & Olivia just stayed there, starring. Then Myron pecks at a tall weed that had seeds on it, and tried to feed it to her. Could it be the wild teenagers are growing into gentlemen?? It was really touching to watch. No breeding took place, just a nice moment, on a beautiful morning.

 

[Ivywoods]

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OH, I thought you were going to say your gopher had made his way over to your marans and they were watching the gopher tunnel approach.

I laughed myself silly at that one.

 

[Debbi]

Oh Susie, you silly girl!

I wish that fool gopher would tunnel into the main run and churn it up for me! The goofy thing stops right at the fenceline of the Silkie pen for no reason. Maybe he's not so goofy, come to think of it. If he raised his head in the main run, the Marans would surely lop it off!

 

[gilavina]

hey Debbi Debs....

hope you had a good day! I've been wondering all day about your splash eggs and when you think you'll get them? How many are you getting? And...one more question...are they from a pure splash pen?

I had a scare with my favorite splash girl... yesterday my uncle came over to check in on the trio of coronations we bought together at the sale and he wanted to see the progress on some of my other birds. So, I made a pit stop in the feed room and grabbed some treat food for them and headed down to the pens and where my birds were freeranging. We were looking at different pens and breeds and just chatting about them and it all of a sudden hits me that my butterball splash girl that is forever my shadow is missing from the freerangers. She never goes missing...not even when she has to lay...she will leave her nest to come greet me...she is a sweetie. I started kind of mildly freaking out and started searching every inch of the property....and I mean every inch. I gave up and went back to the house and figured I head back out in 20 min and check again...So 20 min go by....i wander around and happened to look up into one of the stalls I converted into breeding pens that have a wired front...and there she sat.... on the other side of the wire...in the pen?!!? I still have no idea how she got in there at all.

But its a bonus since she was is getting along swimmingly and that's the breeder pen she will go in there anyways. Silly girl

 

[Debbi]

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The silly girl was just giving you her stamp of chicken approval on the new pen!

Gosh, for a minute there you scared me, I hate it when folks lose their good stuff or favorites!

The eggs should be here tomorrow!

They are from a Blue/Splash pen, and she was sending 15 or more. I want to see what the eggs look like before I go hoping and bragging any, we all know how that goes.

She assured me there were no problems with the flock's combs, and the birds I saw all had slate legs, and heavy shank/toe feathering. Also looked nice and typey too! Let's hope..I'll post some egg pics tomorrow.

 

[gilavina]

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The silly girl was just giving you her stamp of chicken approval on the new pen!

Gosh, for a minute there you scared me, I hate it when folks lose their good stuff or favorites!

The eggs should be here tomorrow!

They are from a Blue/Splash pen, and she was sending 15 or more. I want to see what the eggs look like before I go hoping and bragging any, we all know how that goes.

She assured me there were no problems with the flock's combs, and the birds I saw all had slate legs, and heavy shank/toe feathering. Also looked nice and typey too! Let's hope..I'll post some egg pics tomorrow.

You're telling me....my heart pretty much sank down to my toes when I realized she wasn't there. I love that crazy bird...I'm hoping she will increase the size on my girls in the blue coppers I'm going to get to working on. Just what I need...another color eh?

I'm so excited for you to get your eggs! I can't wait for pictures of the beautiful eggies. Got the 'bator hummin away?

I will head out early, early, early friday morning to the junk jaunt and hope to find great deals...but I decided when I was at work today that I will be taking my laptop....so I can check in on BYC in the evening in the hotel! I'm a dork! hopefully I'll have pics of treasures to share. Who knows what I'll find!

 

[Christie Rhae]

Does this look like a marans pullet comb and wattles? She acts like a hen, grew feathers like a hen but the only other chicks I have right now are ameraucanas so these comb and wattles look HUGE.
She is a little over 6 weeks. What do you guys think? Possible pullet or emerging cockerel?

 

[gilavina]

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I would vote...definitely a cockerel. Hopefully that's not a bad thing as he looks good so far for just 6 weeks old!