Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[gilavina]

oh no! That's no good! I sure hope you are able to turn the pens into little fort knox's to keep out any more predators.

 

[prettychicks]

Went to feed this morning, and something had dug under one of the henhouses...the BCM one, of course, and taken five teenagers. Well, one pullet...the best at this point...was left dead. The others were gone. Foxes, apparently. We'll be reinforcing chickenhouses this afternoon after work.

I am so sorry to hear your news.

 

[prettychicks]

Quote: Will get my usual starter tomorrow. And evaluate the effect. Ricketts and protein--more research to do. thank you. I have them on Poly vi sol at the moment.

Rickets is a deficiency in calcium and vitamin D. Earlier I said protein. Sorry for the error. It can happen very fast if they have little to no calcium in their diet. Keep us updated on what you find out.

 

[Arielle]

Quote: Will get my usual starter tomorrow. And evaluate the effect. Ricketts and protein--more research to do. thank you. I have them on Poly vi sol at the moment.

Rickets is a deficiency in calcium and vitamin D. Earlier I said protein. Sorry for the error. It can happen very fast if they have little to no calcium in their diet. Keep us updated on what you find out.
Yes, I realized you meant Ca/Rickets, though protein was worth looking at too. I'll give them some hamburger today to give the best quality protein. The feed bag says 22% protein, but lists no grains, so it is possible to be short on one amino acid and cause a major hiccup.

Only 3 out of 20 effected in one brooder and 1-2 less effected in the second brooder. Has me stumped.

 

[Debbi]

Yes, I realized you meant Ca/Rickets, though protein was worth looking at too. I'll give them some hamburger today to give the best quality protein. The feed bag says 22% protein, but lists no grains, so it is possible to be short on one amino acid and cause a major hiccup.

Only 3 out of 20 effected in one brooder and 1-2 less effected in the second brooder. Has me stumped.

Don't know if I'd give the wee ones hamburger meat, it may be too hard for them to digest? How about some hard boiled eggs, and/or yogurt?? The yogurt may also provide some good bacteria for them. Just a thought...

 

[Debbi]

Yeah!!! We finally had a rain here early this morning! First bit we've had here since the first part of April! It wasn't enough to end the drought, but the grass is already greener this morning. Went to town south of me yesterday, and all the newly mown hay fields were absolutely BROWN! Even the large round bales in the field looked more like straw than hay. Hope this doens't continue.

All 7 Silkie babies made it through the storm, and all were dry and tearing around this morning. Still one gal sitting on about 8 eggs. One blue chick had come out of the coop, and looked squashed. So I had 8, but the blue one got stepped on and died. Five Whites or Splashes, and 2 Partridges!

 

[Debbi]

Hi all and happy Memorial Day! I had a lady contact me who had seen my birds about half a year ago or so. She wanted to start a new flock, so I gave her a good package price of a group of Black Copper Marans that I really need to move out. Well she emails back and says no, she doesn't want Marans because she thinks the roosters will be too aggressive (she means to the hens---she wants a rooster who does a mating dance and courts the hens rather than "raping" them). She got rid of her previous rooster because of that behavior. Apparently she read that Marans, in their history, were used as fighting cocks and that's why she is thinking they are an aggressive breed. I'm not going to try to change her mind, I think it is already set, but I was just curious what you all think about that. I've only kept my one Black Copper cock, and he is very nice, not hard on the hens, not aggressive towards me in the least (or he would be dinner

). Seems to be that any history of being used as fighting cocks is so far removed from present day Marans, that it is irrelevant to their behavior now. Thoughts?

Hmmm, all of my roos are gangsters when it comes to breeding, even the Silkies! I think it's just the nature of the beast. What would she have them do, take the girls out for dinner and a movie first??

Sheesh...

 

[Debbi]

These shavings are from a cabinetry company, from planed lumber so they are kiln dried. The small pieces they certainly can ingest, so I removed ALL the shavings and then vaccumed their brooder! LOL Still not sure, still researching. Thanks for the idea .

Therein may lie your problem! Do you know for sure what wood they are using?? If they are from a cabinet company, I'm quite sure they aren't sorting out the different wood for shavings. Maybe they are, but then again, do you believe it? There could be cedar, mahogany, ash, oak, maple, and who knows what else in the mix? Some of that lumber too, may have been treated prior to the making of the shavings, who knows? I think I would find a different source for your shavings, or quit using them altogether for a bit and see if that doesn't help. Just trying to search down all the avenues for you.

 

[gilavina]

Yeah!!! We finally had a rain here early this morning! First bit we've had here since the first part of April! It wasn't enough to end the drought, but the grass is already greener this morning. Went to town south of me yesterday, and all the newly mown hay fields were absolutely BROWN! Even the large round bales in the field looked more like straw than hay. Hope this doens't continue.

All 7 Silkie babies made it through the storm, and all were dry and tearing around this morning. Still one gal sitting on about 8 eggs. One blue chick had come out of the coop, and looked squashed. So I had 8, but the blue one got stepped on and died. Five Whites or Splashes, and 2 Partridges!

we had some major rain the other night...raining so hard you couldn't see the light from the barn kind of rain. Its cooled things off significantly and we are still at 68 and its almost 10am. Couldn't be happier. Did check out the garden and saw that all but one of the white Kohlrabi split from all the rain, so they will be coming out of the ground here in a few minutes. Its too bad, but I still have the purples

 

[Debbi]

we had some major rain the other night...raining so hard you couldn't see the light from the barn kind of rain. Its cooled things off significantly and we are still at 68 and its almost 10am. Couldn't be happier. Did check out the garden and saw that all but one of the white Kohlrabi split from all the rain, so they will be coming out of the ground here in a few minutes. Its too bad, but I still have the purples

Ok, I AM a yokel, what's a Kohlrabi???

Melon maybe?? Squash? Turnip??