Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[Stellar]

Quote:
BOYS!!!! HAHAHAHA Oh boy! Well, they carry the gene for dark egg so all you need is a Black hen somewhere down the road OR more cuckoos

Love my cuckoos!

The egg color was this not long ago:

http://i1219.photobucket.com/albums/dd435/stellargamebirds/024-4.jpg

Getting darker!

The banties got to this color:

http://i1219.photobucket.com/albums/dd435/stellargamebirds/003-6.jpg

That was Black Copper, the cuckoos need work in the bantams. I still need to work on type and size but at least egg color is in on some varieties.

how long did it take you to get that color in the first photo? and what color did you start with? I'm curious cause I'm working on my cuckoos for darker egg color...they average 4s and every once and a while I'll get something darker, but this will be my first real breeding season with the hens I bought less than a year ago, so hoping for good news.

It took me exactly two years to get that color. I will have to get a photo of what they looked like at the start. I culled a lot and picked the darkest layers and both roosters and hens had to hatch from a dark egg.

 

[Debbi]

Quote:



Got to be the weather. I just heard on the local news today that they were having a Bald Eagle watch over near Springfield somewhere. Said there were sightings in this one spot of 100+ Bald Eagles, come and watch them! Usually this time of year, they have traveled south of here. All my roos are getting froggy with each other too! Pip has always been the odd man out, and yet the peacemaker within the flock. If any roos were treating a hen badly, he would step in and break it up. Same thing with squabbling roos. But these days, he is taking on all challengers and winning the spats! I still have as yet to see him breed a hen here...maybe is time is coming?? He has definately been a Psych case study for sure!

Love those Jersey girls too Lynette!! My friend had a few that would let lambs and Great Pyranees pups nurse off of them! Great drinking milk too!!

 

[gilavina]

Quote:
how long did it take you to get that color in the first photo? and what color did you start with? I'm curious cause I'm working on my cuckoos for darker egg color...they average 4s and every once and a while I'll get something darker, but this will be my first real breeding season with the hens I bought less than a year ago, so hoping for good news.

It took me exactly two years to get that color. I will have to get a photo of what they looked like at the start. I culled a lot and picked the darkest layers and both roosters and hens had to hatch from a dark egg.

yeah! I'd totally love to see the progress pics! I've got the best girls i held over from hatches this last year and those girls I bought that were from the flock I got my original stock from and am hoping this will be my first year in earnest moving forward.

 

[Cadeau]

My BCM vary - I have several different lines and they sure are different in personality!

I have some that you'd swear they've grown up in the wild and some who run over, hop right up, chatting and cuddling!

My Splash girl is the super shy, don't EVER pick me up one!

 

[samantha1128]

I am off Monday, so I will try to get some pictures. My rooster looks almost exactly like the rooster posted on the black copper marans.org website. Kind of crazy. He has a lot more feathers on his feet though. He was the only one that hatched with my first attempt at hatching bcms and so i named him UNO! They were very dark eggs from the wade jean line. His girl is a good color with lighter feathered feet than him, and she lays brown eggs with purple speckles. Her sister layed the darker eggs and she was killed by a coyote. My 2 little ones are looking good so far. The one I think is a male is taller and she has much more feathers at this point. He is also a tad more shy which wasn't the case with UNO.

I think I will introduce them in a few weeks and hopefully this new female will lay a darker egg because of her father. We will see.

 

[Christie Rhae]

Quote:

lol lol!!

 

[Lotsapaints]

I have Marans from several breeders the most friendly hen was a Cuckoo hatchery girl she would come up and eat right out of my hand. The rest of my older Cuckoos I hatched from one breeder and they are beggars always running up for treats or anything. I have Black Coppers from 2 breeders the rooster is calm and I never worry about him doing anything but the Cuckoo rooster is named Frog for a good reason he tries to intimidate me and my husband but it doesn't work he's spent lots of time wrapped up in a towel or in the net mostly all he does now is flare his neck feathers but I wouldn't let him range around. My Splash rooster is aloof and doesn't want to be handled but his off spring are pests. One of his daughters is the yard chicken dogs don't bother her because she doesn't run acts like she's part dog checking them out when they're digging for gophers or squirrels she lays her egg in the box jumps out and goes to visit my Ameracauna rooster and then roams the property like the turkeys and lays a dark egg I wonder how sad she's going to be when I lock her up with the rooster of my choice.....my Birchens are tame maybe shy compared to the blues and I have one bossy pullet she's a bossy girl and my Wheatens are friendly though the top rooster is bossy now to the other roosters. I have 2 Salmon roosters one I had to move he was trying to kill the top Wheaten guy and I put him in with my kind nice Golden Cuckoo Rooster and he now knows his place (the Salmon guy)without any fighting I really love my Golden Cuckoo he's just a sweetie to everybody and is like my Delaware rooster they know they are the top dog and there just isn't a fight about it. Mostly all my chickens try to trip me I just thought that's how chickens are.......my turkeys come up to the house if I'm late feeding mostly though lately they've just been strutting around it's like spring here too just way dry-my short grass is drying up right now it's sad.

 

[pinkchick]

Quote:
Vicki, If you had told me last year that I would have a bunch of Silkies, I would've laughed at you! I'm not a "fluffy" kind of person, especially when it comes to my animals. Guess I'm getting softer with age, although a few folks I know would howl at that one!

I saw the e-mail, skimmed over it, will respond tonight. I know how busy you are..

haha....I suppose...I've been around them...but am always drawn to the dual purpose birds...always have been

Thanks for bein understandin about my slackerness!

While we're on the subject of temperament and personality of birds...anyone have a Marans that's just plain shy? I have a black girl that has just a tiny amount of copper, but she is so shy I barely see her...and I LOVE HER. she's just a beauty!...I have moved her to a couple of different pens to see how she would mesh with them, but she decided for me where she wanted to be. She's hopped over a 7' fence to live with my wyandottes and some coronation sussex in a grow out pen. She's the only black one in there, so you'd think i'd see her more often, but nope...she is content to stay at the outskirts... I have never even been able to get a photo of her...

I constantly worry about her....because I'll lay awake at night trying to remember if I saw her when I shut up pens for the night....and worry something got her. She's about to get moved to prep for breeding season...but she's about given me a heart attack on several occasions when I couldn't find her! Have I mentioned...shes REALLY good at hiding? And its not a fear thing...she's just a loner...content on her own and kind of just marches to her own beat. Maybe that's why I really, really like her!

My Splash gal, Darryl, was the same way until the past couple of months, she is not the same bird now. I think that she has changed since she was finally able to raise some chicks. Now she comes running up to the fence, under my feet in the coop and doesn't care if I pick her up........really strange for a bird that wouldn't let a person near her for almost 3 years.
She will even take treats now from my hand......vs. when she was being a Momma and tried to take my hand.

 

[gilavina]

Quote:
haha....I suppose...I've been around them...but am always drawn to the dual purpose birds...always have been

Thanks for bein understandin about my slackerness!

While we're on the subject of temperament and personality of birds...anyone have a Marans that's just plain shy? I have a black girl that has just a tiny amount of copper, but she is so shy I barely see her...and I LOVE HER. she's just a beauty!...I have moved her to a couple of different pens to see how she would mesh with them, but she decided for me where she wanted to be. She's hopped over a 7' fence to live with my wyandottes and some coronation sussex in a grow out pen. She's the only black one in there, so you'd think i'd see her more often, but nope...she is content to stay at the outskirts... I have never even been able to get a photo of her...

I constantly worry about her....because I'll lay awake at night trying to remember if I saw her when I shut up pens for the night....and worry something got her. She's about to get moved to prep for breeding season...but she's about given me a heart attack on several occasions when I couldn't find her! Have I mentioned...shes REALLY good at hiding? And its not a fear thing...she's just a loner...content on her own and kind of just marches to her own beat. Maybe that's why I really, really like her!

My Splash gal, Darryl, was the same way until the past couple of months, she is not the same bird now. I think that she has changed since she was finally able to raise some chicks. Now she comes running up to the fence, under my feet in the coop and doesn't care if I pick her up........really strange for a bird that wouldn't let a person near her for almost 3 years.
She will even take treats now from my hand......vs. when she was being a Momma and tried to take my hand.

haha...like that turn of the phrase there in the last line! I have a couple of girls that will try to take off your hand when broody too...I have a pair of oversized work gloves I wear to protect myself!
Its good to know that there might be hope this little girl of mine might become more friendly. she's always been one of my favorites...she's just such a butterball

 

[Debbi]

Good morning all!

Cooler this morning, but it's still in the upper 30s, I'll take it! Cloudy right now too, and so far, no wind. Hope it stays like this for a part of the day, that would help with pic taking!

Day 20 here in the hatcher. Humidity dropped to 42% during the wee hours, hope it didn't dry everyone out! I hate the LG, my King Suro is sooo much easier.

Looks like the "heat" is done?? Will give them a quick intro later this morning after I ingest more coffee. It sure will be nice to get back to "normal"...