Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[slick4591]

Quote:
Are you saying that you will have roosters that have nice shank feathering and feathering on the toes or feathering on just the outer toe??

If it is feathering on the outer toe only on these roosters then I would definitely do some test mating with her and your heavily feathered roo...you might find that you like the results. I have used sparsely feather shanked birds with birds that have nice shank feathering and have produced some very nice results. You may get a couple of chicks that have sparse to light feathered shanks and you could just selll them for layers or such and keep the ones that have the better feathering.
I have a clean legged rooster that I have used for breeding in the past and will use again for breeding, I am just very sure to not mate him over any other clean legged or sparsely feather shanked birds.

I have already culled my cockerels with no shank or toe feathering (2 of them). I have eight more cockerels that all have mid to heavy shank and outside toe feathering. One of those also has the middle toe feathering. I really don't have the luxury of keeping many males because of space and my plan is to keep only two. Of course, I want the best ones that fit my females. I know it's too early to know about color, but those that just don't fit my intended program i want off my feed bill.

The question about the pullet is because I'd rather not produce chicks like her, but I'm not sure if this is a trait she'll pass down even with mating to a good roo.

 

[Dylan6]

I plan on getting 25 australorps for eggs to sell but I didn't know if I needed 2 breeds or not.

 

[Mountain Mel 22]

Quote:
I can think of no reason for needing 2 breeds.

You don't even need a rooster if all you are doing is raising birds for egg production. If you want to produce eggs that will hatch then you need to have one rooster for every 7 or 8 hens (I think).

Cool thing about chickens....you can have all 1 breed or you can have a mixed flock...you will still get eggs.

Different breeds have different characteristics. Some breeds do better in cold weather than others.....some breeds lay better through the winter than others....some are more "sociable" and some are more agressive.

 

[Dylan6]

Thank you very much!

 

[Chinchilla2]

Quote:
Just a suggestion here but since you are planning on making various sizes of pans, why not hold back a small portion of the "dough" to add a bit of molasses or honey to as a way of testing the "poopiness" factor? You could even use a bundt cake pan for that one particular loaf as a way of being able to tell with molasses apart from the no molasses batches.

Another idea here for a "sticky" ingredient would be Crisco or some form of vegetable shortening (the white stuff not the liquid). It works well with wild bird suet cakes, won't stink after awhile like some of the animal lards, and the oilyness of it may bring out a little shine in the feathers.

 

[Chinchilla2]

Quote:
Shouldn't need two breeds unless you want to raise two separate types of chickens. However, if you are getting all your Australorps from one breeder, you might consider getting some more from a different breeder later on down the road as a way to bring in new blood and to breed out any undesirable traits that may exist in the starter flock.

 

[Debbi]

Good morning all

Vicki ~ Please do post your recipe when you get it done! I was thinking lard as a binder. Seeing as how you are feeding this in the cold, it should stay fresher longer. I fed suet cakes last year, and they didn't last very long! Gives them that much needed fat for the cold weather too. Just a thought. Might also consider throwing some scratch, oats, and maybe some alfalfa in there too??

 

[gilavina]

UGGGGGHHHH!!!!!

It finally happened. I went down to do chores really fast since I got a slow start to the day. Something got two of my pullets... One was a silver penciled Wyandotte Pullet (the best 1 of 2 of course) and one of my bantam BCM girls that was not showing any coloring yet. I'm heartbroken and ticked! I have all my traps primed and ready for tonight, going to move all my birds possible to the barn, move the birds I can't fit in yet to the lockable outbuildings and work on reinforcing a couple of pens and keep culling down the birds I've been watching grow til they all fit in the barn. I'm NOOOOT happy!

 

[stoopid]

I'm so sorry. I hope you get revenge.

 

[Debbi]

Oh man! Sorry to hear that Vicki. Why is it it's always the best pullets/hens, and not the cull roos they get?? Do you know what got them, as in tracks maybe? Set the traps for sure, hope you catch the bugger!! I had another bad bird last night that would not go in, this is starting to be a trend. Do you think anything ate mean old Blue Butt, or hell no!