Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[gilavina]

here's the lovely frosti-ness that is winter going on here today

My boy Bucky....he's not so sure about all the snow...with him not even being as tall as my knees, I end up scooping out his and the girl's pens pretty often in winter. otherwise I end up with snowed in goaties.

Some of my other Caramel ladies...Ina on the right again, then cricket, and chinook. I have a caramel wether, but I think he is going to be a companion animal for a friends old horse...hopefully soon.

 

[gilavina]

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Yes, I'm starting to fear that here too. We are supposed to get a lot of snow here too, according to the persimmon seeds...

Got a few days of warm coming up, the little ones are going out! Cross my fingers, and hope for the best.

according to the persimmon seeds? what is that, never heard of that forecasting method for winter

 

[desertmarcy]

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I meant also to ask, how easy is it to breed out the carnation comb? I was planning on breeding to sell eggs to potential breeders, so I am worried I will have to start all over. I believe of the 3 hens, I can identify which eggs are hers. She is the darker gray one, with the red-orange band. I will post her pic again:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/93512_blue_copper_hen_red_band_2.jpg
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/93512_blue_copper_hen_red_band.jpg

But others on this thread have commented on too much copper color on the breasts of the other two hens. So now I'm in a pickle, don't have time or resources right now to start over. Would it be reasonable to raise some of the chicks from the other two hens and see what they look like after a few months? Or, I do have the one splash hen in with my black coppers. I should get blues from her. She is from the same bloodline as the copper-breasted hens, but also 'supposedly' from a Bev Davis hen, so I would think good genes there. And the black coppers look good. I raised 10 roos from the eggs I hatched and had a hard time choosing, most of them were nice. A rare white feather here and there on the feet. Opinions on starting my blue copper line from these? Sounds like you are advising to not use that KY breeder's hen for breeding at all, no exception? Thank you, I have so much to learn!

The problem with the Carnation comb, is that it does not show up unless the two genes are there, one from each parent, OR if you use a bird with the Carnation comb showing. This is how it has worked here, there are many other opinions, all I can attest to is what I see here, and I sure do have my share!
Put that KY bird in the eating egg pen, or the freezer! This hen pictured above looks very suspect too. Check her comb. Do you have any pics of the BCM roo's comb?? Try to get an up close shot. Those copper breasted hens are not properly colored, so if you are breeding towards the SOP, I would not use them either. I know how hard it is to start over, I am culling off about 90% of my flock! The problem with selling eggs from birds with these DQs, is that they are in ALL lines now! DP in KY has been a great contributor to that! Stay away from Ebay!!!

Debbi, the bird pictured above IS the one we are discussing, from KY. I don't have a close up of the BCMs comb, but here is the bird:

I ask again--please send link to the SOP thread or tell me where to find it, so I can look at that pic on page 17. I am having trouble finding it. I disagree that all Ebay sellers are bad. I've seen some very nice bird eggs offered on Ebay, from same sellers that have offered on BYC.

 

[Debbi]

I posted the link for you back a page or so, but here it is again. https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=517113&p=17

The roo is a nice looking boy, but I would treat him as a "carrier". My roo from that line didn't have the carnation comb, but did carry the one gene for it.

I agree, not all sellers on ebay or here are bad, but some don't know or care about the SOP, and breed willy-nilly.

 

[Debbi]

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Too much, too soon for me!! Pretty though. You mean you never heard of the Persimmon seeds weather forecasts before?? I bet you Dad has. Take a persimmon seed and split it in half lengthwise, so you get two perfect halves. They usually show a mark/design inside them; a "spoon, fork, or knife". Spoon forecasts lots of snow! Fork is medium I believe or normal snowfall, Knife is light or no snow. I've only seen the spoon and knife, never a fork. I can tell you each time I've done it, the seeds were correct! I learned that from quite a few farmers and other old timers out here.

Look at this link: http://www.persimmonpudding.com/cultural/weather.html Yes, I forgot, the knife means cold and windy too!

 

[gilavina]

Quote:

Too much, too soon for me!! Pretty though. You mean you never heard of the Persimmon seeds weather forecasts before?? I bet you Dad has. Take a persimmon seed and split it in half lengthwise, so you get two perfect halves. They usually show a mark/design inside them; a "spoon, fork, or knife". Spoon forecasts lots of snow! Fork is medium I believe or normal snowfall, Knife is light or no snow. I've only seen the spoon and knife, never a fork. I can tell you each time I've done it, the seeds were correct! I learned that from quite a few farmers and other old timers out here.

Look at this link: http://www.persimmonpudding.com/cultural/weather.html Yes, I forgot, the knife means cold and windy too!

nope never heard of it...learn something new everyday. There aren't many persimmons around here tho...maybe that has something to do with it

yeah, I agree the snow and such is too much already for me, and while pretty, is crappy to deal with. I'll have to continue to see if I can get things moved and get some protective covering on the stall fronts. I thought I had more thick stock plastic than I did, and am gonna have to make a run to town to get some more. After talking to you yesterday I'm getting my seeds sorted and organized again so I can get my orders out for the catalogs. Won't be long after the seeds come that it will be time to start them inside!

 

[Debbi]

That makes me all excited for spring to hear you say that!! I am going to wait this year until the weather has stabilized. Last year, we had that really nice warm weather show up way too soon, got antsy and put it all out there. Then came the rains...then came the drought and heat...Only 5 cherry tomato plants survived out of all that. I would like to plant some potatoes here this year, nothing like new potatoes! I also want to try Parsnips, have you ever grown them?? Will try the Cayennes again too, and the Banana peppers. Heirloom tomatoes too. Oh stop! Now I'm wishing for spring!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[gilavina]

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the hope of spring really is sometimes all that keeps me going through winter. I can't say how much I'm burnt out on winter....it got really really old having 6 months or more of it every year in mpls. Don't think I'll ever recover!

We should chat about seed/planting stuff on email. I have good tips for most plants and have good yields. The parsnips we used to raise all the time...have a crazy trick for getting really really nice ones of those too. I'll be planting those again this year too. Could even do a seed swap too if you wanted to try some new ones. I have about 25 varieties of heirloom tomato seeds, and craploads of other seeds. My diy seed safe is about 14"x24" and I'm quickly running out of space....but I also plant a huge garden plot every year....really if I'm being honest I run about three seasonal gardens through different methods of planting and spacing.

 

[slick4591]

We learned about the persimmon seeds four years ago and always check our trees. They have been correct every year.

One thing I haven't figure out yet is the brown wing bay thing. Would someone please explain what it is?

 

[Debbi]

Put my youngsters out in the run today when it warmed up a bit. Gees, those girls of mine are vipers! At least these chicks run, and the 5 of them scatter in different directionss, so Bossy Flossy had a hard time choosing who to go after. They'd run around to the other side of the coop, only to be met by another viper, out to peck their little heads. None of the three roos in the run even looked twice at them, just the evil hens. Talk about "Angry Birds"!

Had to go to town, so fixed them up an escape place in a corner of the run. They were all fine when I got home, but were very happy to jump into the carrying cage to be brought back in. Will do this again until Wed. when it's supposed to be 40 at night, then they are out in the coop in a crate at night for a time, until everyone gets along...or better anyway! Sheesh, what a pain. Whoever it was that has to assimilate one bird, good luck! That was the worst, and I'd rather have NONE hatch than to ever get just one. If I ever do hatch only one again, I will beg, borrow, or steal a chick of similar age from my neighbor!

Vicki ~ Yes! Very interested in some of your seeds, especially the heirloom maters!! I will contact you by e-mail and return to our regularly scheduled program here.