Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[pinkchick]

Pink - can't wait to see what  your Barnie X girl produces - she's so pretty!

I have a Marans x BLRW girl who is @ 2mths old and I can't WAIT to see what her egg will look like!
right now, she's just starting to feather in and she has BLUE LACED RED LEG FEATHERS!!  So neat!!




Marcy - all my OE have pea combs.
I'm pretty good at feather sexing  from days 1-5 - other than that, I have to wait and see on those pea combs.
I wish they were easy to sex, like straight combs!

Thanks! I can't wait to see her egg color first of all....I'm hoping that I didn't lose color in the first cross to the Barnies. I probably did, but the magic of backcrossing is...I can get it back.
Going to cross one of my Blue Copper Marans roos over my Blue Laced Red Wy girls and see if I can get that beautiful lacing in some Marans crosses. Vicki says they will be nice size meat birds and why not watch pretty blue laced ones grow out before I eat them, right?

Must see photos of the Blue Laced Red leg feathers lady!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Petvet12]

I just noticed last might that out of my Blue Copper's, It looks like I have only one pullet. They are still young and there's always hope, but I'm almost certain of it.

 

[pinkchick]

I just noticed last might that out of my Blue Copper's, It looks like I have only one pullet. They are still young and there's always hope, but I'm almost certain of it.

That stinks out loud!!!! How old are they now? Photo's?????

 

[flgardengirl]

I use a "ring" of tires I stack the tires to look like that old Michelin Tire guy plant them and keep adding compost 3 tires high is all I do but they are pick up truck tires so big I do it to keep those hungry gophers out because I have wire in the bottom tire they grow great and I have Yukon's in one

Ok all you gardening pros; do any of you use a "Potato Box or Tower" to grow your taters in?? My friend just told me about this the other night, and it sounds like the way to go! Then I read online, that this method doesn't do so well with the Yukon Golds, my favorites. Anyone ever try this??

I am using one of those round laundry tubs from walmart (the solid plastic tub not a laundry basket type). We drilled a bunch of holes in the bottom and buried it halfway to help keep the roots/tubers cooler. We added some seed potatoes and let them grow up a little then added more etc. This is really DH's project lol. He was real mad because the bad free ranger decided they liked potato foliage and ate it to the soil line. He had to a put chicken wire teepee around the barrel and zip tie it at the top. I don't know why those crazy hens like potato foliage its supposed to be poisonous and in the nightshade family. They don't bother the tomatoes which are in the same family.

Marcy,
I have had Olive Eggers with staight and peacombs. The females usually have peacombs and the males it seems like have straight combs more often than the females. Some of the males can have odd looking combs very much like the telescoping or carnation type marans combs people have shown on this forum. I have gotten a few girls with the straighter combs or a in between pea and straight comb and they usually lay a browner egg.

 

[Petvet12]

I'm on my phone so I can't get pics just yet. That are just over three weeks.

 

[DMRippy]

My dad did the potato tower thing and it grew like crazy but the potatoes on the bottom were rotten. I think they are hard to keep watered too, might be why they were rotten.... he may have over watered. He said he would not do that again. He is an avid gardener too.... used to own a garden center.

 

[pinkchick]

"Do the oliver egger EEs have straight combs? How easy are they to sex and how old before you can reliably sex them (unless you are an expert vent sexer). I am raising some EEs that are Ameraucana X Orloff and I have to wait forever to figure out sex. Still waiting on a lot of them LOL. They are beautiful birds, though. I just have one splash and one black Ameraucana, moved them into my mixed layer flock with no male for now. Maybe would like to hatch some oliver eggers in the fall. Right now I'm a bit burnt out on hatching and too many chicks--incubators all going off in another week after the last of the turkeys come out. I've been hatching since last fall---and it is getting beastly hot here---need a break."


Hi Marcy!

In order for an olive egger to lay an olive colored egg the bird must have the peacomb, provided it is a cross with a single combed bird. If the bird gets the single comb there is something like..less than a 3% chance that it will lay an olive egg. The blue egg gene and peacomb are closely linked/parked in the order of things. I cannot reliably sex my olive eggers as early as I can the Marans. I watch their comb development as the boys will get bigger and broader combs before the girls do.

Now.....with Orloff's having the Walnut comb it will be especially hard for you to tell who is going to lay an olive egg. In this case you will truly have to wait and see.

I love the looks of the Spangled Orloff's.

 

[DMRippy]

Christi Rhea, I beat your day yesterday..... First the hubby had a flat on the lawnmower and could not fix it. Then I activated a new phone and the battery was dead and I could not find the charger or extra batteries.... panic for about 20mins then switched back to old phone. Hubby then did not have the stuff to fix the flat. LEFT my phone at home after all that.... packed up some little roos to GIVE away, finished farm work loaded them in the trunk of the car dropped hubby at home to cut grass, he left the tire in the car so I had to turn around and go back home. Got stuck in traffice! OH yeah got a notice from CODES that we had to clean up the duplex next door that we DON'T own! Delivered the little roos and got a phone call about an hour later they were ALL DEAD! Heat is my guess in the trunk..... and I am PMS.....


OK I can't top the ear drum thing..... but that was pretty good!

Today is a new day!

 

[DMRippy]

Oh I forgot the 3 year old puked too and woke us up at 4:30 am.

 

[pinkchick]

Potatoes~


I use the good old fashioned mounding method straight in the ground for the 'tators...but my neighbor did something that caught my interest last year. He used Black ABS colvert, and I think it was 12" in diameter and he cut the run of it down into 18" tall sections, if I remember correctly. He planted his 'tators in it and continually added soil to the top and would ever so slightly when ready to harvest, lift the ABS up, exposing the bottom 2" or so and would harvest the potatoes from the bottom first. He continued doing this well into the winter months and enjoyed his fresh 'tators. He said he was happy with his new system and he is doing it again this year.