Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[Buckhunter76]

Or do I need better pics?

 

[laughingclown]

Here is a Mossy girl I got rid of yesterday. My flock is dwindling!

 

[Debbi]

Priscilla needs to be re-named to Pete.

...or Elvis!

 

[Debbi]

Here is a Mossy girl I got rid of yesterday. My flock is dwindling!

Too bad she was so mossy, looked like a nice girl in the makings. Don't worry, if you are anything like me or others here, your dwindling flock will be back to crazy level in NO time at all!

 

[Debbi]

haha Keara - take mine - please!!

Really, only the buck has to go...he's turned into a jerk in the past few weeks...


Vicki - I'm trying to explain the mini pygmy goats to my SO.
We had pygmy and could. NOT. keep them in their paddock...

He's looking into different breeds of milk goat, now that our mommies are drying up.
Any suggestions, anyone?

I like the Nubians the best for milk. Toggenburgs are good too, but sometimes their temperament is a tad on the lacking side, even the does. Saanens (sp?) are fantastic milkers too, but I could not get used to those itty bitty ears!

If I have to look at something all day and feed it, I want eye appeal too! Those are the only goat breeds I've had experience with.

 

[gilavina]

Mornin' Debbi

I'm planning on getting some photos today of some of my younger birds and if I'm feeling up to it, might start moving around some of my breeding stock to prep for doing some new matings. Now that I have all that space freed up, it opens up new possibilities! Such a great feeling!

 

[Debbi]

They look like Marans babies to me.

 

[Debbi]

They both look very nice, but does the Black girl have yellow legs?? If so, they should be a dark slate color, not yellow.

I just picked up my first 2 marans pullets over the weekend - one "black copper" but really just black and another is cuckoo. They are about 5 months old. I don't know much about "type" - are they decent? If not - it is not a big deal, I really just have them for eggs and am just looking to learn

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[Debbi]

Mornin' Debbi

I'm planning on getting some photos today of some of my younger birds and if I'm feeling up to it, might start moving around some of my breeding stock to prep for doing some new matings. Now that I have all that space freed up, it opens up new possibilities! Such a great feeling!

Mornin' Lady!

All that free space will get you in trouble, but you already know that, right??

Yes, it is a good feeling though, albeit, for a short period of time. For those of you goat hunting, especially for the larger milk breeds, may I suggest you get POLLED stock, NO horns!! That is unless you enjoy pulling goat heads out of fences and cattle panels! I like the cattle panels too, but like Vicki says, line them with welded wire so this can't happen. Even with the pig panels with the graduated slots, the Nubians would stand on their back legs, and just poke their heads through at a higher level. If they had horns, they would've been in a heck of a fix! My neighbor had Kiko goats out here for awhile, until he started losing them to getting stuck in the woven wire fence, and the coyotes tearing them to shreds! I can't tell you how many of HIS darn goats I had to save!

 

[gilavina]

Mornin' Lady!

All that free space will get you in trouble, but you already know that, right??

Yes, it is a good feeling though, albeit, for a short period of time. For those of you goat hunting, especially for the larger milk breeds, may I suggest you get POLLED stock, NO horns!! That is unless you enjoy pulling goat heads out of fences and cattle panels! I like the cattle panels too, but like Vicki says, line them with welded wire so this can't happen. Even with the pig panels with the graduated slots, the Nubians would stand on their back legs, and just poke their heads through at a higher level. If they had horns, they would've been in a heck of a fix! My neighbor had Kiko goats out here for awhile, until he started losing them to getting stuck in the woven wire fence, and the coyotes tearing them to shreds! I can't tell you how many of HIS darn goats I had to save!

haha...one would think I would get into lots of trouble, but I'm on a mission. Now that I really am establishing some good prospects in my different varieties of Marans, I will be keeping them trimmed into nice small tight flocks. I have a list in my head of what I'm looking for from my grow out pens and have banded some of my breeding stock that are on the slate to possibly be replaced if better ones come along from my chicks. So far on the top priority of my list is to get a nice black and blue birchen cockerel and a blue copper boy. Of course, going for nice feathering on the legs is a high priority as well, esp in the birchens since they were almost all clean legged even a year ago. I will say, in my birchen breeding pen out of about 13 girls, only 4 are making the cut to stay. The offspring this year are showing so much more progress that I can't even really compare what I have in the grow out pens to the parent stock, in the hens anyways. Its a very good feeling.

I'm also contemplating giving up my cuckoos. I find I just don't enjoy them as much as my birchens and coppers. Plus if I get a good enough start with the Silver Marans coming soon, I will be definitely working more on those than the cuckoos. That's for sure.