Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[flgardengirl]

Lovely eggs you guys!! I got the cutest little round dark egg from one of the young blue copper pullets. I hope they stay roundish as she gets older. Has anyone noticed if roundish egg layers change shape as they go from pullet to hen? I know the color changes sometimes but haven't had enough round egg layers to determine if they start off round if they stay that way....

Hi Debbie glad you are back. I haven't been posting as much as I would like..they are keeping me uber busy at school. I had to go to an orientation down at one of the downtown hospitals yesterday morning and it was a madhouse lol.

 

[pinkchick]

Hi Debbi!!!!!!!!!! Glad you are feeling better and that you are back. Congrats on the layers!

Day 23 and NO CHICKIES YET!

Candled this morning and I can see all the Barnie eggs are good and have movement, looks like they have broke the inner membrane, so hopefully soon. All but one of the Marans eggs still look good, not sure whats up with the one that doesn't look right. Air cells are still good so keeping my fingers crossed.

Maybe I will have little chick chicks when I get home tonight with my 2 new Birchen roos.

Zanna's hubby is a pretty funny guy....last night I heard him in the background while Zanna and I were on the phone offering up the BCM boys too.

Too funny!

Vicki~ It will be pretty late when I get home so no photos of the new boys until probably Friday or Sunday when I have a little bit more time or if I get home one day before the daylight is gone.

 

[pinkchick]

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Congratulations! That is a very lovely pullet egg and has nice shape! How many girls do you have that you are expecting to start laying?

 

[pinkchick]

flgarden~

Hi! Good to see you girl! Congrats on your new layer too! Nice to hear about all the birdies starting to lay.

I haven't noticed that the egg changes, pretty much what mine start out laying is what they lay. Will pay more attention to that since I have a couple of new layers.

 

[babyrnlc]

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Is that a Barnvelder in the picture with the Marans? Mine look so completely different but this is my first time to have them.

Yes that last picture is the barnevelder

 

[pinkchick]

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Nice congrats, can't wait tell my turn.............

Bigshawn and Welcome to the Marans thread!

 

[flgardengirl]

Thanks pink. I will have to pay attention also.

babyrnlc: I just love that chick in your avatar!!!!

 

[babyrnlc]

Quote:
thank you, its my Brabanter. I swear they had to cross it with doves to get this breed. It has the biggest eyes. They are super sweet too. I have two of them.

If I were ever to get into breeding to improve anything, this would be the breed.

 

[Debbi]

Good morning all

Great to be back! Vicki, the thinning process is at a standstill here. No one even wants free roos!

Can't say as I blame them, when I went to pick up feed yesterday, both the layer crumbles and the chick grower had gone up another 2 bucks per bag. It's getting ridiculous! And the dog food went up too. I hate to think of what prices are going to be for my Grandchildren, how are families going to make it? Can't wait to find out how much lumber has gone up since summer of last year...brace yourself old gal

. I think the whole world needs to just stop, and turn back the prices on everything to the 1960s rates. It still boggles my mind, that a new, lower end model car, costs more than what I paid for my home! I digress..

As for the culling of this hatch, I'm going to start as soon as they hit the brooder. From there, if I don't like anything at five weeks, they will be gone too. Not going to hatch anything out this winter either. Spring will be here soon enough, and according to the feed store gal, we are supposed to get more snow this year than we did last. The persimmon seeds are showing spoons again this year, always a not so good sign, so I will make it easier on myself.

Pip surprised me this past week. One of the younger roos picked a fight with him. To my surprise, he finally stood up for himself and ran the younger one off!

Yeah Pip! He's so useless, but he is so funny to me, that I can't part with him. He has never bred a pullet or hen yet. So last night I'm thinking, that's it. His beloved coffee can girlfriend is gone! No more toys to romance, maybe he will move on to a lady or two??

I hope so, I think he would really lighten up his mood and quit attacking my cats, if he had a girlfriend...poor Pip.

 

[flgardengirl]

DO you think he is trying to mate the cats? LOL I had two buff orp roos who would try to mate our little buff colored male pomeranian. The dog was NOT amused!!! LOL!

I have an ameracauna x silver phx rooster who truly HATES cats. There were some large stray tomcats trying to kill my freeranging key west hens and this roo got really ticked and now whenever he even sees a cat, he will attack it. He had a kitten cornered behind the well pump the other day and wouldn't let it out. Poor thing, I had to rescue it from the big bad roo.