Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[flgardengirl]

Hi kowgurl. I personally would not use the side sprigged roo because I have found that it can really show up in the offspring. I had a roo once that had a tiny spring way down low on his comb where I didn't notice it when I bought him. Several of his babies had sprigs, obvious ones too, even on one pullet. So I had to remove all them from the breeding program.

 

[flgardengirl]

All this talk of pumpkins makes me want to buy some for my babies. I think I will go to the Farmer's Market sometime this weekend. Maybe they will be cheaper there.

 

[gilavina]

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Sounds like a good plan. I scored some nice ones....I haven't weighed them all, but the 4 I got day before yesterday totaled 80.05 pounds...I got some bigger ones yesterday and will be storing them for use over the winter. it will certainly help to have them since i will have plenty of birds to winter over. although tomorrow is culling and processing day for sure

 

[flgardengirl]

AHHH so you are gonna play whack-a-roo tomorrow! lol. We just processed a bunch of muscovies a few weeks ago. We have a bunch of roos to do as well but I am not looking forward to it. Feed went up to @13.00 per bag here this past month. It was about 12.oo per bag. Definitely gonna have to scale it down for winter.

 

[gilavina]

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yup....that's what I'm gonna be playin... whether I want to or not. Feed has gone up here too and am not enjoying the feed bill at the moment...so quite a few are gonna be on the chopping block...I've given them their time and selected the ones that have filled in the nicest to hold onto until I can make my final decision...and the rest of the boys will be invited to the games.

I think my runners will be finding a new home for the winter too...and also about a dozen girls will be heading to a friends in Iowa....so that will definitely help! I can't wait until I am where I need to be for the winter.

 

[nincomcoop]

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That's five more than what I got today

 

[chevgrl]

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That's five more than what I got today

That sucks!

 

[chevgrl]

Quote:
Sounds like a good plan. I scored some nice ones....I haven't weighed them all, but the 4 I got day before yesterday totaled 80.05 pounds...I got some bigger ones yesterday and will be storing them for use over the winter. it will certainly help to have them since i will have plenty of birds to winter over. although tomorrow is culling and processing day for sure

How many pumkins would it take for a flock of say 40?

 

[gilavina]

Quote:
Sounds like a good plan. I scored some nice ones....I haven't weighed them all, but the 4 I got day before yesterday totaled 80.05 pounds...I got some bigger ones yesterday and will be storing them for use over the winter. it will certainly help to have them since i will have plenty of birds to winter over. although tomorrow is culling and processing day for sure

How many pumkins would it take for a flock of say 40?

I'm not totally sure...I just go by site on things. I bought quite a few because they are selling them for 3.99 no matter what the size or weight at my job and got first pick...So it I figured I'd rather be safe than sorry half way through the winter. On Kim's reply she mentioned she used just a couple pints of either frozen or canned pumpkin in each batch. I used quite a bit more last year as my chickens went ape for it. I don't cook mine...I heat up everything else in the mash mix....and then shred the pumpkin in my food processor and stir it in the mix. They absolutely love it. last year I had pumpkins a fraction of this size and could get away with about 4 feedings from those...I only feed the warm mix on just the coldest days or when the temps dip really low at night, I'll feed in the late afteroon so they have something warm in their belly for overnight. That's in addition to their regular meal in the morning....I just watch the weather and don't fill their feeders quite as full since I want them to eat up the warm stuff before bed.

I'm sure people are going to laugh at me, but I bought a dozen pumpkins...but I know I am going to have quite a few more than 40 to feed through the winter. Also...it might differ in the amount you feed yours then Kim's because of the differences in temps from the west. It gets downright nasty here sometimes with the cold.

 

[chevgrl]

Quote:
How many pumkins would it take for a flock of say 40?

I'm not totally sure...I just go by site on things. I bought quite a few because they are selling them for 3.99 no matter what the size or weight at my job and got first pick...So it I figured I'd rather be safe than sorry half way through the winter. On Kim's reply she mentioned she used just a couple pints of either frozen or canned pumpkin in each batch. I used quite a bit more last year as my chickens went ape for it. I don't cook mine...I heat up everything else in the mash mix....and then shred the pumpkin in my food processor and stir it in the mix. They absolutely love it. last year I had pumpkins a fraction of this size and could get away with about 4 feedings from those...I only feed the warm mix on just the coldest days or when the temps dip really low at night, I'll feed in the late afteroon so they have something warm in their belly for overnight. That's in addition to their regular meal in the morning....I just watch the weather and don't fill their feeders quite as full since I want them to eat up the warm stuff before bed.

I'm sure people are going to laugh at me, but I bought a dozen pumpkins...but I know I am going to have quite a few more than 40 to feed through the winter. Also...it might differ in the amount you feed yours then Kim's because of the differences in temps from the west. It gets downright nasty here sometimes with the cold.

I'm still confused do you just litterally cut a pumpkin into peices and freeze it? I have 3 deepfreezers which I used to keep full until we had a blackout for like 4 days one summer and 2/3 of my stock had to get thrown I made like 20 huge batches of chicken noddles and froze them when the power came back on. So nw I only us one lol. I have 2 almost never been use deep freezers not being used (until I gain enough confidence to use them again)