Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[gilavina]

Quote:
Mornin' Debbi!

I do plan on adding quite a few things that I think will be really good for the birds and am working on dehydrating veggies and fruits I've had plenty of in the last harvests from the garden and plan to have those on hand to add too...I am going to add grains of several kinds...and just in general work to make sure the birds have what they need. I am also working with my manager to see if I can purchase all the veggies and fruits i can use for my birds from the stuff pulled out of the produce case for a low flat rate per pound to help them recoup some of their money and for me to have an affordable source of fresh foods throughout the winter. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will go well!

I think I might look into the lard as a binder...that might be a good idea especially since it won't go off in the cold quite as quickly...and whatever extra I make I will freeze to prolong its life quite a bit.

That's what I didn't like about people recommending suet cakes is that last year I bought one as a tester...that was a mess and gone in about 2.3 seconds. my girls loooooooove their treats.

I'd love more ideas of what you guys think would be good in a homemade flock block. I'm working on my list of things to buy. I was going to go to lincoln today, but lunch, then working outside to reinforce my pens and move things as much as possible to give me the best chance against whatever the predator is will be my top priority today. So I'm thinking I'll head to lincoln tomorrow after work to get supplies. I am going to try to track things for recipes and also for price per batch as much as possible.

 

[gilavina]

Quote:
Oh I will..if its the last thing I do. I am baiting the traps with gizzards, livers and etc from when I butchered the other day. I freeze that stuff to have on hand in case I do need to bait a trap! I'm glad I kept it.

 

[gilavina]

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.

that's a good idea about the adding molasses to a small portion. I'm going to do a test run in a small batch to start and see how it goes. I am just nailing down my ingredients and then will play.

 

[gilavina]

Quote:
I don't know why they do that..it always is the best! There were no tracks...the pens down below are hard hard packed, so no prints. I'm praying its not owls, those are harder to catch in traps, but I will get down to the bottom of it. I always hate when they harvest and hiding places for rodents dwindle, so the predators come looking....grrrrrrrrr

 

[chevgrl]

I think I would try molasses. Its got to be better than pvc glue. I would think. Okay I'm gunna check up on reading the last 4 pages

 

[gilavina]

Quote:
haha...dually noted

I'm writing up all possible ingredients and will see how the items stack up on paper and sort out my options and go from there. Can you tell I like organization and planning? I'm such a dork!

 

[doubleatraining]

Do you find your non-hatchery stock Marans to be slow to mature?

I have a 5-6 month old rooster that hasn't crowed or mounted any hens. I'm not complaining at all about the crowing just trying to understand their maturity rate.

He is in with a flock of hens ranging from 4 months old to 2 years old. He is VERY respectful of the girls. He will come running for treats when I call but doesn't get within 3' of me. He gets all puffy and dominant when the feral cats come in the yard but ignores my GSD.

 

[chevgrl]

Quote:
haha...dually noted

I'm writing up all possible ingredients and will see how the items stack up on paper and sort out my options and go from there. Can you tell I like organization and planning? I'm such a dork!

I've had to stop putting pen to paper. Like that cause id spend all day writing my lists (they'd look pretty and neat) but I had acomplished nothing but a few lists

 

[Hens and Roos]

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.

that's a good idea about the adding molasses to a small portion. I'm going to do a test run in a small batch to start and see how it goes. I am just nailing down my ingredients and then will play.

How about using muffin pans to run your test batches, that way you only have a few with each molasses and honey in?

Sorry to hear about something getting a couple of your birds

friends of ours lost 21 chickens the other day to mink- they set traps but I don't know if they caught anything yet.

 

[flgardengirl]

vicki so sorry to hear about your pullets.

I hope you get the sucker that did that and put him down with a .22 or whatever you got handy. I hear racoons like marshmallows and about near everything likes canned catfood. We use the can catfood around her for the oppossums. I am pretty sure that's what got my wheaten marans hen. Looking forward to seeing your recipe when you get everything done. I've been wanting to try making some treats for the birds.

I could just kill the roos in one of my bachelor pens and I might go through and cull most of them too and will enjoy eating them later for what they did this morning: I found my light blue and one of my very favorite ameraucana hens in thier pen almost dead. She had a huge wound in her side and practically scalped. I found her laying by thier food dish pretty much dead. SHe loves being held so much and she opened her eyes and looked at me when I picked her up. I took her inside and got her warmed up a little with the heating pad and she started breathing a lot better so I thought for awhile she might make it but she died about an hour later. I feel so bad for her. I found a small tear in the fencing so I'm assuming that's how she got into thier pen. I hurried up and fixed it so it hopefully won't happen again. It is a full time chore around here keeping the fencing fixed and dealing with chicken drama!!
Now I seriously HAVE to hatch out some ameraucana chicks since I am down to one hen left.