Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[pinkchick]

Quote:
x2 On the organizing and simplifying thing. I don't know how we end up with so much junk.
I also have a some tree limbs down in the back and a few from the last storm just kinda hanging there that need to get pulled down and cut up. Our chain saw is on the fritz and ancient so thats why I let it slide so long. Maybe I should get dh a new one for our anniversary LOL!

DH gave me a cordless chain saw so that I could limb the trees over the coops, especially the Marans coop...long story short, me and chainsaws don't get along very well. Nobody warned me not to cut 4" diameter limbs directly over head and if they did....they didn't tell me to get the heck out of the way and most of all they didn't warn me to not look up. BAMM!!!! I had the nicest purple goose egg smack dab in the middle of my forehead for several days. Lucky it wasn't worse. I haven't done any limbing this year, lol.

 

[pinkchick]

Quote:
Glad to hear you took it easy yesterday. Don't over do it today!

 

[pinkchick]

Did I mention that I have another broody pullet??????

She just started laying about a month ago maybe less.

But atleast this time it's not a Marans. It's one of my BLRW pullets. She isn't budging and is as nasty as the BCM hen who just hatched out chicks, likes to take my hand off everytime I reach in there to see that she is still sitting on nothing. I think she has scared the others off because I haven't been getting any eggs out of that coop since she has been occupying 1 of the nest boxes. She just so happens to be in the favorite box. Has anyone else ever experienced no eggs from the others when there is a broody in very small group of hens?

 

[wyan_zen]

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Thanks! She's going under lock and key as soon as I get the breeding pen completed.

Your hen is real pretty She has some nice coloring around her hackle and she may get a little more as she gets older. Your male is a little too red in the breast area but looks like he might be nice and stocky when he gets bigger. Do you have any dark girls with very little or no coppering to use with him?

Fuzzy Feet's a beauty isn't she. She outshine her other 2 BCM sisters/half sisters. We call the other 2 BMC pullets #2 and #3. #2 has the same amount of copper in her neck, but has a bit of frizzle at the top of her head like she just got out of a convertible joy ride. Her leg feather is not as lush as FFeet. #3 has a lot more copper to the degree of fancy EE and even less leg feathering. #3 may be an olive egger.

We plan on keeping the roo for sentimental and maybe Marans/olive egg layer purposes. Him and FFeet are from the same roo, but most probably different hens. Wish we knew their parentage. Only so much we can control when we don't breed them ourselves.

We just got into BYC half a year ago just for the fun of it and to educate our kids that food comes from farms and not from the "store". We got what we needed to get started and our source's (and friend) breeding stock is not show quality. He is doing so to support himself and having what most local folks want; i.e. RIR, Delawares, EE etc. I think he sold his C1 Jean BCM breeding team shortly after we got our 4 BCMs as straight runs. I wished we has the resources to adopt that team, but there will be another time.

Thanks for all the input we have gotten so far. Post what parts you would like to evaluate so I can break out the camera again. (Help with my photographic skills as well!)

 

[wyan_zen]

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Pink, do pullets decide to go broody out of the blue?

 

[gilavina]

Its turned into a party here while I ran outside and did some work. I agree 100% Kim about simplifying...If you could have seen how much stuff I took out of the old haymount this summer you would probably fall over

Most of it way stuff my dad collected and was always going to "make something out of it". I kept the awesome usable stuff and that is what will make the pens I'm working on, but the rest went into a roll out dumpster....our trash guy is seriously one of the nicest guys...He gave us the biggest roll out...which is a flat 100 dollar charge plus 20 bucks per ton to dispose of. Well...he knows my mom and she was one of his first customer accounts when he started his business...so when we got the bill in the mail....our regular trash bill is about 25 bucks a month for several bins (I'm clearing out everything...including tearing down old out buildings and hutches...salvaging the good and throwing the bad...anyways...the bill was just over 100 bucks...should have cost me about 400 something close as we can figure. NICE GUY!!

 

[Raven1]

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Debbie may I suggest a heater for you. We got an Eden Pure last year and have been raving about it since. It is so nice, all the claims they make are true and it really made a huge difference in our heating bill! We now only turn the whole house heat on enough to keep the pipes from freezing and heat the room we are in with the Eden Pure! I know I sound like a commercial but we really really like this thing and would recommend it to anyone. I have breathing problems so have to have clean heat and this does it beautifully!
Ok off my soapbox back to our regularly scheduled Marans!

 

[pinkchick]

Quote:
Pink, do pullets decide to go broody out of the blue?

WoW! Good question!

Ummmm.....I think they lead into it. I notice signs about 2-5 days prior to them finally settling in.
This latest gal took about a week to make up her mind. 1st sign was she stopped coming out for treats.

When she was laying she didn't care if I put my hand under her to get the eggs if she was in the box when I went in there to collect. A few days before she went broody I went in the coop (just opened the door to go in...hadn't even touched her) and she got up, ran outside freaking out and telling her story to all the land at the top of her lungs. When she was done crying out loud she came back to the coop door and looked in to see if I was gone, but I was still doing chores so she stayed out, but watched me closely. Silly girl went right back in as soon as I walked away from that coop. The next day she held her ground and didn't leave the coop, but was happy to tell about it. She sang her song for the next couple of days everytime I went in the coop. Then all of a sudden it seemed she was planted firmly in her spot and ain't nobody getting her out. But she still likes to take my hand off even though she is guarding and sitting on nothing.

 

[flgardengirl]

Quote:
x2 On the organizing and simplifying thing. I don't know how we end up with so much junk.
I also have a some tree limbs down in the back and a few from the last storm just kinda hanging there that need to get pulled down and cut up. Our chain saw is on the fritz and ancient so thats why I let it slide so long. Maybe I should get dh a new one for our anniversary LOL!

DH gave me a cordless chain saw so that I could limb the trees over the coops, especially the Marans coop...long story short, me and chainsaws don't get along very well. Nobody warned me not to cut 4" diameter limbs directly over head and if they did....they didn't tell me to get the heck out of the way and most of all they didn't warn me to not look up. BAMM!!!! I had the nicest purple goose egg smack dab in the middle of my forehead for several days. Lucky it wasn't worse. I haven't done any limbing this year, lol.

My goodness!! Its a good thing thats all you got lol. I am scared to death of chainsaws but I will cut something laying on the ground I am not gonna deal with those hanging limbs dh can pull them down and then we will cut them or burn them. My great uncle built a log cabin in N. AZ and he used the chain saw all the time. One day he was out sawing and slipped cut his leg half off at thigh level. He was lucky they were able to save it ...that's why I am afraid of chain saws now LOL! One time my grandma was using a small chain saw up at the family cabin and was sawing a log on the ground. Turns out that log was full of bees and they all flew up her koolots shorts she was wearing..boy was that a disaster!

 

[wyan_zen]

Quote:
Pink, do pullets decide to go broody out of the blue?

WoW! Good question!

Ummmm.....I think they lead into it. I notice signs about 2-5 days prior to them finally settling in.
This latest gal took about a week to make up her mind. 1st sign was she stopped coming out for treats.

When she was laying she didn't care if I put my hand under her to get the eggs if she was in the box when I went in there to collect. A few days before she went broody I went in the coop (just opened the door to go in...hadn't even touched her) and she got up, ran outside freaking out and telling her story to all the land at the top of her lungs. When she was done crying out loud she came back to the coop door and looked in to see if I was gone, but I was still doing chores so she stayed out, but watched me closely. Silly girl went right back in as soon as I walked away from that coop. The next day she held her ground and didn't leave the coop, but was happy to tell about it. She sang her song for the next couple of days everytime I went in the coop. Then all of a sudden it seemed she was planted firmly in her spot and ain't nobody getting her out. But she still likes to take my hand off even though she is guarding and sitting on nothing.

Thanks for sharing! Something I need to watch. Since we will be doing through our 1st ever laying, we are still waiting..and waiting.

5+ month pullets are maturing as the weather is turning cold, not a good combination.