Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[gilavina]

Hey Debbi!! I zonked out while checking emails earlier. My headaches have been keeping me up at night, so I'm not getting much sleep...so I will take what I can get. My head feels much better today, so hopefully I'll be moving forward. Seems spring is pretty bad when those fronts come through so fast.

What day are you on for Wynette's eggs?
I'm gonna send ya a PM here in a few min.

 

[DMRippy]

I ended up with 33 out of 40 and that's with a poweroutage. I left the 7 eggs in and will take them out tomorrow night when I get home from work if nothing happens. I figured I'd give them 3 days to see how they do.

I did watch the humidity, very closely. I kept the humidity between 25 to 30% the first 18 days and ran at 60% for lockdown. They did fantastic that way. I use an gravity feed water bucket and during the first 18 days I will let the water in and then use the plastic pinchy thing on it to stop it from flowing because otherwise it gets too high, but for lockdown I put a sponge in the tray and let the water flow as needed and it holds steady.

Yipee on the chickers at your place! Hopefully you will have more greet you in the A.M.

Well I have the gravity feed water thing ready to go in, I just was not sure if I should use it to keep the humidity lower. So did you just add water every couple of days? Kinda defeats the reason for the gravity feed water

but at least you don't have to open the door.

I just took Pink's eggs out today. I have hatched another batch since then so I guess they will not hatch

That is a awesome hatch! Especially for Marans.

 

[Debbi]

Hey Debbi!! I zonked out while checking emails earlier. My headaches have been keeping me up at night, so I'm not getting much sleep...so I will take what I can get. My head feels much better today, so hopefully I'll be moving forward. Seems spring is pretty bad when those fronts come through so fast.

What day are you on for Wynette's eggs?
I'm gonna send ya a PM here in a few min.

Today was day 3 for the eggs.

 

[gilavina]

Well I have the gravity feed water thing ready to go in, I just was not sure if I should use it to keep the humidity lower. So did you just add water every couple of days? Kinda defeats the reason for the gravity feed water

but at least you don't have to open the door.

I just took Pink's eggs out today. I have hatched another batch since then so I guess they will not hatch

That is a awesome hatch! Especially for Marans.

Usually I don't have to shut the flow of water off, but its been unusually damp around here because of all the snow melting, so that's why I did it that way the first 18 days. It was wanting to spike pretty high somedays otherwise.

I'm so thrilled with this hatch...they are super healthy and happy and they are lookers too.... I cannot wait to see how they continue to grow. Its a time will tell kind of thing, but its looking really good!

 

[gilavina]

Today was day 3 for the eggs.

wahooo!!! Come one babies! grow!

 

[DMRippy]

Usually I don't have to shut the flow of water off, but its been unusually damp around here because of all the snow melting, so that's why I did it that way the first 18 days. It was wanting to spike pretty high somedays otherwise.

I'm so thrilled with this hatch...they are super healthy and happy and they are lookers too.... I cannot wait to see how they continue to grow. Its a time will tell kind of thing, but its looking really good!

I understand the wet thing. We have been having runoff water getting into my Marans breeding pens. BIG Puddles that will just not dry up. We added buckets of gravel to the back of the 4 pens effected and to one side. The hope is to deflect the water some till we can get the guy with the back hoe in to fix it permanatly. We also added a huge tarp over the pens so no extra water would get into the runs. Better to sacrifice eggs to dry the runs some. Rain for 2 more days then dry for a few days. It has been a very wet winter. Soon we will be begging for rain...

 

[gilavina]

I understand the wet thing. We have been having runoff water getting into my Marans breeding pens. BIG Puddles that will just not dry up. We added buckets of gravel to the back of the 4 pens effected and to one side. The hope is to deflect the water some till we can get the guy with the back hoe in to fix it permanatly. We also added a huge tarp over the pens so no extra water would get into the runs. Better to sacrifice eggs to dry the runs some. Rain for 2 more days then dry for a few days. It has been a very wet winter. Soon we will be begging for rain...

Same here...the two pens at the south end are like that and no amount of fiddling is making it better. Those are also the pens I'm wanting to take apart and have the whole pen system regraded by a neighbor with a bobcat...but it has to wait til everything is dry now....once that is done it will eliminate the pooling. And the bonus is that I can get to building my pens finally.

 

[3riverschick]

Same here...the two pens at the south end are like that and no amount of fiddling is making it better. Those are also the pens I'm wanting to take apart and have the whole pen system regraded by a neighbor with a bobcat...but it has to wait til everything is dry now....once that is done it will eliminate the pooling. And the bonus is that I can get to building my pens finally.

Our runs are smaller. we brought in 4 inches of well composted hardwood mulch, Not softwood, hardwood. Used it to build up the runs 4 inches above level ground. It drains without pooling. Dries quickly after the rain. bird's feet handle it well. I don't even use straw orany other kind of flooring on it. I put a 1 inch layer of lime under it to keep badies from growing under the mulch. Birds never dig down that far.

 

[gilavina]

Our runs are smaller. we brought in 4 inches of well comp[osted hardwood mulch, Not softwood, hardwood. Used it to build up the runs above level ground. It draisn without pooling. Dries quickly after the rain. bird's feet handle it well.

that's the plan when I regrade....to have that area be above ground level and the pens will all have a roof after I build...its just the waiting it out at this point.

 

[DMRippy]

My runs are creek gravel, but there is some dirt in the gravel. Not a problem in the other runs, but with the water running off the big hills and apparently draining in to the wet weather creek THROUGH the 4 runs it has become a problem. Once we get it regraded we will add some new gravel in the runs, by hand

We have a roof over part of the runs, not really for rain, but to provide shade in the summer.