Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[DMRippy]

Totally not Marans related but sharing with my Marans friends .... 16 lavender Ameraucanas on lockdown! I'm stoked!!

I had only 4 lavender and 2 splits to hatch but that was GREAT at my house... let us know.... maybe on both threads? I think I am up to almost 10 lavenders.... still hatching....

 

[DMRippy]

We found Raspberry plants on clearance at TSC.... 2 plants in a box for $1 a box

we bought 6 boxes, 3 diff kinds. My dad got them going and they are doing great. We will transplant them in the fall.... maybe we will even get some berries this year

FREE would have been better but that was a good deal. Normally they were like 5 or 8 a box.

 

[flgardengirl]

Thats a good deal. I dont have any raspberries but have kiwi, blueberries, and blackberries.

Now why do all my birds keep going broody in pairs? I have a blue girl and a black copper girl broody in the same box again grrr.

 

[DMRippy]

Thats a good deal. I dont have any raspberries but have kiwi, blueberries, and blackberries.

Now why do all my birds keep going broody in pairs? I have a blue girl and a black copper girl broody in the same box again grrr.

2 just got off mommie duty... and now I have 4 maybe 5 all in different pens... time to move everyone

that should break them up.... and it seems everyone has quit laying to boot... I hope they don't all get the same idea at once...

 

[Debbi]

Wow what a deal. I never find those kinda deals around here. I decided to start my own sweet potato slips this year and started some growing in water in the window and then of course forgot about them So the other day I see something peeking out from behind the curtain way up by the ceiling. I open the curtain and two huge sweet potato plants fall down LOL! OOPS!!

The guy at the feed store said that when he went to his supplier's place, they had about 40 pallets of seed potatoes sitting on the dock, with a sign saying, "take as many as you want!" For some reason folks aren't planting that many potatoes this year?? I was going to start some sweet potatoes, but I remembered the last time I ate some, I got feeling pretty lousy. I think it may interfere with my thyroid replacement hormones, never had that kind of a reaction to them before?

 

[Debbi]

I've still got 3 Silkie pullets sitting in one nest box in one pen, and two others in the other pen. I took some eggs out of the Partridge pen yesterday that they had left. Seems they should've hatched by now?? They were either clear or early quitters. Here kitty, kitty!

They are now setting on about 9 eggs, and Lord only knows how many the three girls are sitting on?? I did notice today, that the one very serious wannbe mom, sits tight. The other two will get out, grab a bite and a drink, putz around a bit and then go back in, then the next one comes out. The serious gal is the last to come off the nest, she grabs a drink, a bite, takes a poop, and back she goes!

 

[flgardengirl]

I have heard that sweet potatoes as well as some other veggies, beans, and grapeseed are goitrogenic and known to interfere with thyroid hormone synthesis so you may be on to something.

 

[cherylcohen]

Kim - love the stink eye pic!

Cheryl - I LOVE your pens - I'm working up a plan for a very similar row house, but was thinking of keeping everyone on wire floors in the run part (wood floor in the coop part)

Anyone have opinions on keeping the birds on the floor (and with what footing?? I'm seeing dirt, wood chips, and a bigger gravel like Cheryl's coops)
I live in northeastern, PA - so very cold, snowy and/or wet a lot of the year...
Would like to have a walkway or roof of some sort, so I can be under cover while doing my chores

THANKS, I'm actually removing most of the gravel, it's nice soft sand/dirt underneath. i vote for a sand/dirt/DE mixture in your runs, they need to be able to dust themselves.

 

[Buckhunter76]

So the blue marans are more rare than the black? And how are the eggs, are they different in color? Just wondering, lol.

Wow, just when I thought there were good people on here, and totally got brushed off with a question, it's cool though. I guess it was just a complicated question

 

[Christie Rhae]

Quote: lol... I am sure it was not intentional. This thread moves fast and posts get missed sometimes.
I don't think solid blue is any more rare than solid black. It is the E/E based solid blue or black that is rare. There are people who sell "solid" blue birds but they are actually blue coppers that have had all the copper bred out of them. It does not change their genes at the e locus though. They are still E^R/E^R (birchen) birds even though you cannot see the copper.. or silver for that matter I suppose.