Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[gilavina]

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Sounds like you had a full day! Its great to see people coming out of the woodwork, its gonna turn into a party in here. One of these days I'm gonna have to just head down your way and help you out on a project or two! I would love that!

It would be like a BYC coop raising of sorts hahaha

 

[flgardengirl]

Haha it took me 2 years to get a solid black roo. I have 2 black hens. That 25% -50% black theory is bull lol (at least around here). So now I can use him on them and on Cocoa (my fat blue hen). I have 3 other blue hens but 2 are super tiny, so not sure if I should use this guy on them. He is like 3 x thier size lol.

 

[gilavina]

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is he a sweet boy? I run my testosterone filled boys in with my oldest hens and they train them in a snap to treat a lady right. I have some small girls too, and don't worry with the boys that have been in with my hens.

 

[flgardengirl]

He is a flighty boy. Once I catch him he is good. I made the mistake of letting him free-range since he was little, along with some of his hatchmates and olive eggers about the same age. The whole pack of them are wild. They go in thier coop at night or run under the house lol, otherwise they are all over the place. He is stuck in the breeding coop tonight hehe but I don't have a run up around it yet...still working on that part.

 

[gilavina]

heres some cuckoo pullets from this year's hatch...they are still a work in progress but I am getting there. I sent some pics to Anna so she could see some of my stock since some of the girls might find a new home at her place. The leg feathering is my project for this next year...it will take a bit, but the feather gene is definitely there

she is not wry tailed...I caught her in mid run

excuse the messy waterer....when they get to dusting they fling all sorts of dirt in there...I have to clean it twice a day, but usually wait til they have roosted for the night to do the second cleaning roll )

 

[flgardengirl]

I really need some of those. Not fair!! How many of those girls do you have? Do you also have a silver cuckoo rooster?
If I don't find any good ones with feathered shanks by spring, I am gonna do the naughty and order them from Ideal LOL. I don't care about egg color, just if they are silver cuckoo with feathered shanks. I want them for a project

 

[gilavina]

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haha I have my 5 original hens and my cuckoo cockerel Claude Hopper...this is him in the background when I let him freerange with a bunch of my layers. He only has a couple of feathers on his legs as do the original hens. The offspring is getting much better.

I have made improvement on the feathering. here is a pic I posted a while back of the progress on the leg project. This is on a cuckoo cockerel that is about 3 weeks old.

As far as the number of pullets...I think I have 11...but there are three young chicks that I'm not sure on yet. The hen that hatched them makes little babies that are hard to tell the sex of right away...the cuckoo spot is about the same on all of them. The last hatch I thought I had 4 cockerels...ended up with 1 cockerel and three pullets...usually I'm good at telling which is which. I suppose she'd just tryin to keep me on my toes

I also have another cockerel thats about 2 months old growing out that is showing promise...so I'll have at least a couple to winter over.

I don't think they are lookin too bad...they are like tanks when they grow. I love it!

 

[gilavina]

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if you order from Ideal....I don't think you will get leg feathers...I know a few people that have ordered them from hatcheries...not one has gotten a feathered shank bird....

 

[flgardengirl]

Claude Hopper is a handsome fellow. He looks big!! Ideal *says* they have both feathered and unfeathered silver cuckoos and that you can order either one. I know it would be a gamble. My black boy has pretty good feathering on his legs so I guess I could mate them to him if they are unfeathered and that would probably darken up the egg color some. I haven't tested him as far as egg gene color yet but it should be half decent.

 

[gilavina]

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thanks! Claude is huuuuge and so are the girls. Like I told Anna...they are kind of what I look to as the bench mark for the size and shape for my Marans. They are built and a half. I love it

Hmm...hopefully if you ordered feather legged you will definitely get some...I think that's relatively new for an option... What kind of project are you planning on working on?