Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[gilavina]

Mine love the leftovers too. Less picky than the dogs!! LOL Still no takers on left over broccali though!!

maybe I'm a mean chicky momma...but when I want the chickers to eat something I know is good for them but they favor other things more...I will chop up something juicy that they like, such as tomatoes or watermelon or etc and let the juice marinade the other scraps...they will munch them up like candy that way! haha

 

[Arielle]

maybe I'm a mean chicky momma...but when I want the chickers to eat something I know is good for them but they favor other things more...I will chop up something juicy that they like, such as tomatoes or watermelon or etc and let the juice marinade the other scraps...they will munch them up like candy that way! haha

Chickens are just like kids!!!

 

[gilavina]

Hello all, I have just gotten started with a few Birchen and Splash Marans, they are not run together. I recently started thinking about Blue Birchen and wondered if any existed. I have come across a few pics and see that Bev has them listed as a variety on her site. Anyone know where I can purchase some ????

blue birchens definitely exist, those are my main focus, but am not releasing them until I make more progress on them. You can find Birchens in both black or blue, but finding the quality is much harder. You'll definitely want to do your homework and research breeders. I have stock from several places, but am working on developing my own stock from them since I haven't been able to find ones that I really like.

 

[gilavina]

Chickens are just like kids!!!

haha so true!

 

[DMRippy]

Grew up coastal Maine--I can't handle the heat. Even MA is too hot in the summer for me. So I manage to get thru the winters. Patience.

Visted FL ONCE only once. Haven't been back since. I put my boys on the plane with DH to visit family and I stay home. Now if someone could make it Fall all year round I would be VERY happy.

Spring sounds better, not too hot not too cold, just right... if we could do without the non stop rain.

 

[DMRippy]

I will grow different greens, cabbage, comfrey, melons, squash, pumpkins, mangels, etc. Plus they will get scraps from other veggies. My birds live for the trimmings and extras!

I think the only garden I will have will be for the chickens.... I just don't want to plant and harvest in the heat. Greens is mostly what I was thinking. I have even tossed the idea around of growing grass in trays that I could put in the pens for them to eat from.

 

[gilavina]

I think the only garden I will have will be for the chickens.... I just don't want to plant and harvest in the heat. Greens is mostly what I was thinking. I have even tossed the idea around of growing grass in trays that I could put in the pens for them to eat from.

I've done it and they LOOOOOVE it! The other thing you can do and they grow super fast is oat sprouts.

 

[Arielle]

Spring sounds better, not too hot not too cold, just right... if we could do without the non stop rain.

Right now, I'll take spring !!! I've been outside a couple times today and I can't seem to get warm. My fingers are so darn cold, they are slow on the keyboard. ANd I just noticed I forgot to take off my barn jacket.

I picked up the 7 eggs from this morning. 1 marans. She must fly over the run fencing to get to the nest boxes, or she has been living with this group of hens and I didn't notice because she looks just like the black sexlinks. Except for the legs.

 

[DMRippy]

I've done it and they LOOOOOVE it! The other thing you can do and they grow super fast is oat sprouts.

I have all kinds of feed ideas, but nothing seems easy.... but sprouting things like that seem easy. Were do I get oats to sprout? Sunflowers... I will grow that and corn (for us mostly) and tomatoes too. I so need to start those seeds. They are heirlooms from last years hand full of tomatoes we got. Looking for duck weed to grow for them. Anybody want to send me a gallon bag of your pond weeds

I really want to supplement with greens as much as I can since mine don't get to free range.

I sold 1 hen and 3 pullets yesterday and 2 non breeding Marans today.

Finally they are paying for feed.... now if they could just pay me for the BACK feed

 

[gilavina]

I grow the garden to be as self sufficient as possible...not only for my own peace of mind, but for the money aspect too. Things have gotten so expensive I can't even handle forking over the dough for things that are like 4 times the price they were just a couple years ago. Its ridiculous. It literally hurts me inside to see peppers (which i'm addicted to) going for 1.49 each. I'm also hoping to eventually get to where I have a small to mid size CSA of sorts.