Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[flgardengirl]

This is for Mathace: Here is a video I found on growing both Tomatillos and Malabar spinach. It is pretty good. I am growing the Malabar (tropical spinach) this year. It is supposed to be able to be used just like regular spinach and same nutritional content. You havest the smaller leaves (3inch and under) the larger leaves are more bitter. I am going to try and get my chooks and geese to eat it lol.
http://www.diynetwork.com/diy-fresh-from-the-garden/videos/index.html

grr for some reason the spagetti squash and bird house gourd video keeps coming up on that link. Just hit the scroll bar at the bottom of the video and scroll over to the Tomatillo video on page 3.

 

[gilavina]

Mornin all...candled eggs again last night. They will go into lockdown next wednesday. Out of 89 Marans eggs, 77 are developing fantastically. I have a pen of birds I figured wouldn't be fertile yet since I started collecting 2 days after putting in a new cockerel to see if he was interested yet. Apparently not. All but 4 of those eggs I pulled were from that pen. Now here's to hoping that they will all hatch really well

Hey Debbi....we were forecasted to have lots of rain yesterday, but got zilch.

I'm hearing tho next tuesday or wednesday it's supposed to freeze....so I'm pulling out the frost blankets now to get ready for the sensitive stuff I've planted, like herbs and bordering flowers

 

[flgardengirl]

What all varieties of Marans are you hatching, Vicki? I forgot to tell you that I have some Silver Sussex eggs on the way I am gonna let my broody OE hatch them if she is still broody by Saturday LOL!

 

[gilavina]

I've got BBS birchens, and BBS coppers going from 4 different pens....I'm so excited!
And I'm jealous about the silver sussex!!

 

[gilavina]

OH....and I'll try to see if I can get a pic of the girl I'm wondering is an olive egger or not

 

[bwalden]

NEW TO MARANS: I have a question......... I just hatched 10 Black Copper Maran eggs I bought from a breeder. I notice that not all the chicks looks the same. Some have spots of yellow around the neck just under the beak and others are all black in the exact same area. The breeder I bought these from said she has blue & black marans. Is one blue and the other black? I'm just curious about the color pattern. I can try and post some pics of them later if that would help. Thanks

 

[flgardengirl]

I've got BBS birchens, and BBS coppers going from 4 different pens....I'm so excited!
And I'm jealous about the silver sussex!!

You are the one that got me wanting the silvers LOL! Now, if I can breed them to get some lavender silver sussex someday

I hope they have the same personalities as my 2 Speckled Sussex girls. They are such talkers and so sweet.

So cool on the birchens. You are making good use of your new incubator !!!

 

[flgardengirl]

NEW TO MARANS: I have a question......... I just hatched 10 Black Copper Maran eggs I bought from a breeder. I notice that not all the chicks looks the same. Some have spots of yellow around the neck just under the beak and others are all black in the exact same area. The breeder I bought these from said she has blue & black marans. Is one blue and the other black? I'm just curious about the color pattern. I can try and post some pics of them later if that would help. Thanks

There can be some variation of coloring in the black copper babies. Some have more black than others. Its not unusual to have some off white coloring on the chests and faces and wingtips on bcm babies. I had one that was almost all black on her face when she was a baby. If the breeder has black copper and blue copper Marans you could get either Black copper or Blue copper babies or even splash babies if two of her blues mated. Some of the darker blues can look black especially when they are younger. If you post your pics I am sure someone can help you out.

 

[gilavina]

You are the one that got me wanting the silvers LOL! Now, if I can breed them to get some lavender silver sussex someday

I hope they have the same personalities as my 2 Speckled Sussex girls. They are such talkers and so sweet.

So cool on the birchens. You are making good use of your new incubator !!!

I think that the people I got my lavender silvers from have been working on them for 3 or 4 years...so I think its possible.
I am putting that incubator to good use, that's for sure. I am excited about this year's hatches with the birchens. It should be a really good year! And I can actually be a lot picky-er than last year since I am able to hatch a lot more! Yay!!~

Oh and I especially can't wait til those birchen girls are old enough to hatch from. I'll be doing a bit of fall hatching this year I think just for those girls!

 

[flgardengirl]

NEW TO MARANS: I have a question......... I just hatched 10 Black Copper Maran eggs I bought from a breeder. I notice that not all the chicks looks the same. Some have spots of yellow around the neck just under the beak and others are all black in the exact same area. The breeder I bought these from said she has blue & black marans. Is one blue and the other black? I'm just curious about the color pattern. I can try and post some pics of them later if that would help. Thanks

Example of BCM babies