While all my roos start crowing at between 4-8 weeks, I have never had one that young try to do the deed! Of course here, by that age they are in with the rest of the flock, and the older ladies would put him in his place, right quick! If you have some older hens, stick him in there with them and watch him closely. I bet they scare the tar out of him in about 10 minutes!Hello one and all
I haven't been on this thread for a while and am just catching up. I wanted to add that I have a 11+ week old FBCM roo that seems to be maturing REALLY fast. He as been mounting the ladies since he was 10 weeks old. Is this normal for this breed? Or his he just a very mature young man?
That sounds easy enough, now to find some used stock tanks. I was thinking about getting one for a swimming pool for me this summer! How long does it take for the potatoes to be full size? What about new potatoes? Can you grow different varieties in the same tank, like Reds, Yukons, and Sweet potatoes??
You can grow all kinds of potatoes...and I grow different ones in the same tank, usually try to do differing color ones so you can tell what they are when you harvest and on the sweet potatoes I grow those separately, without the hay. On those I will make sure to turn the soil really well. The sweet potatoes need to be grown a little differently. As far as harvesting, you can grow new potatoes...I never go by a calendar...instead you can kind of gently pull the hay away and check the potatoes and I will leave one kind of potato to harvest through the summer as new potatoes and leave the rest to harvest when the plants turn brown. I regularly get different size potatoes, but quite a few of them are very large, weighing between one and two pounds. The littler ones I will pull out separately and use those as roasting potatoes that I put in with carrots, onions and a processed marans roo (sussex is even more tender), in an oven bag and let it slow roast for several hours...talk about taaaasty! The other potatoes you harvest, you'll want to cure in the sun for a few days to let the skins harden so you can have them for winter storage.
Mark the chicks that come from the darkest eggs with a leg band and if you get a pair from the darkest eggs mate them together and you will have a chance to improve your egg color. Not sure how great of an improvement but it should help some. Otherwise, you will have to get more Marans from darker eggs to mix in or just start a new line depending on the other qualities these birds have.This may be an absolutely dumb question so I apologize in advance if it is - I've not had Black Copper Marans before and I ordered some hatching eggs. I was expecting to see dark chocolate colored eggs when they arrived. I didn't see the eggs in advance so I wasn't aware of how light this person's eggs would be - you can imagine my disappointment. Even my Lavender Orpingtons are laying darker eggs then a few of these eggs. I'm hoping all is not a loss. I'm hoping the resulting pullets may lay a darker egg. Could that be possible? Could the pullets that hatch from these lighter BCM eggs lay darker eggs then the egg out of which they hatched?
Thanks in advance for your help with this.
Bobbie
Here are a few pictures of the eight eggs in the incubator next to my silkie eggs.
As with all Marans they go through cycles that the eggs are not as dark. At the begining of the laying cycle they are darker and do lighten up towards the end of the cycle. The birds will molt and start the cycle over again having darker eggs at the begining once again. Your eggs could be eggs at cycle end?????? Or they could just be from lighter egg laying hens. Either way I would do like others have suggested and mark those from the darker eggs thus selective breeding your darker eggs laying hens and roos. I have purchased maran eggs on ebay and byc. I have received light and dark from both. My best advice is to find someone, a breeder who you know has good stock and nice dark eggs and stick with them. I have found one in ohio who has black and blue copper marans and they are nice and dark. If you want I can give you her contact info. You can message me for it. She packs and ships with great care. Never had one broke or cracked egg from her.This may be an absolutely dumb question so I apologize in advance if it is - I've not had Black Copper Marans before and I ordered some hatching eggs. I was expecting to see dark chocolate colored eggs when they arrived. I didn't see the eggs in advance so I wasn't aware of how light this person's eggs would be - you can imagine my disappointment. Even my Lavender Orpingtons are laying darker eggs then a few of these eggs. I'm hoping all is not a loss. I'm hoping the resulting pullets may lay a darker egg. Could that be possible? Could the pullets that hatch from these lighter BCM eggs lay darker eggs then the egg out of which they hatched?
Thanks in advance for your help with this.
Bobbie
Here are a few pictures of the eight eggs in the incubator next to my silkie eggs.
