Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[Debbi]

Pink - you're so right!

Riding horseback used to be my outlet, exercise, and mental vacation.

Since I haven't been able to ride, I've gotten into the chickens - it is SOOO calming to sit in the coop with a bunch of babies on my lap!!

Ditto! Horses is what got me in the shape I'm in today. I was breaking and training race horses when the horse fell, and I landed standing up still on the horse. Dislocated my right femor. The neighbor saw it happen, and then the horse got up with me still on it! Talk about seeing stars!! He came running over, and said he had a jockey do the same thing, he knew what to do. Before I knew it, he had reduced the femor back into the socket. That was at 17. Was fine until about 30, then the arthritis started creeping in to stay..

 

[Debbi]

It is really nice here today too! In the low 90s, but a nice stiff breeze. I went out and wormed all the chooks again, this time with Eprinex. Got all but 3 Marans, the crafty devils would NOT come into the run! Kim, care to guess who one of them was??

I had a can of Blue Kote with me to mark the ones that I had already wormed, and also sprayed the bald backs on the poor girls. He who has no purple, WILL be wormed tonight!

 

[Arielle]

Quote: Many things can interact--makes treatments challenging for the doctors

 

[Debbi]

Mission completed! All chickens now have a purple spot!

Of course, Bad Charlotte had to flap just as I was spraying the Blue Kote, and now my right hand is purple!

 

[gilavina]

haha...awesome! its a muddy mess here today, no chicken fun for me today.

Although I did find one of my momma kitties on the old milk stand with three baby kitties! I'm already in love with one of them. A really dark charcoal grey tortie...just adorable!

Still gonna do some work to see if I can get some shots of the younger cockerels growing out, but just gotta wait out the storms. Sounds like more coming in tonight and tomorrow here.

 

[Debbi]

We still need more rain here, at least 3 days of a good, long, soaking rain. It rains in small downpours, then quits, and the grass just stays brown. We are supposed to get more storms on Sunday, I sure hope they don't knock out any power or phones this time! Darned lightning around here is really poweful stuff, and is constantly hitting the ground. One of the phones guys out here that was replacing my line some years ago, said it's because of all the Walnut trees?? Never heard that one before, and the only tree that has ever been struck on my place, is the huge Catalpa tree that lives 15 feet from my front door. When the lightning hit that, it fried my phone lines, and because I had an answering machine attached, it also fried my whole electrical system! Thank God at that point I was still just renting, but now, it's all MY cookie!

It's also struck my shed (twice in one storm!), and fried my well pump! And I also got hit from a ground strike! Not a big fan of lightning here ...

 

[Arielle]

We still need more rain here, at least 3 days of a good, long, soaking rain. It rains in small downpours, then quits, and the grass just stays brown. We are supposed to get more storms on Sunday, I sure hope they don't knock out any power or phones this time! Darned lightning around here is really poweful stuff, and is constantly hitting the ground. One of the phones guys out here that was replacing my line some years ago, said it's because of all the Walnut trees?? Never heard that one before, and the only tree that has ever been struck on my place, is the huge Catalpa tree that lives 15 feet from my front door. When the lightning hit that, it fried my phone lines, and because I had an answering machine attached, it also fried my whole electrical system! Thank God at that point I was still just renting, but now, it's all MY cookie!

It's also struck my shed (twice in one storm!), and fried my well pump! And I also got hit from a ground strike! Not a big fan of lightning here ...

Geez Debbi, the storms sound very extreme there where you live. I have one very tall pine that takes the lightning strikes. THe tree is splint right down the side and is slowly rotting. I value the tree as it saves our house from a direct hit. We once had some fuses destroyed because the strike traveled thru the ground. I lost lights in the bathroom! Flet luck that was all that happened. I hope you get rain but with out the lightning.

 

[Debbi]

Geez Debbi, the storms sound very extreme there where you live. I have one very tall pine that takes the lightning strikes. THe tree is splint right down the side and is slowly rotting. I value the tree as it saves our house from a direct hit. We once had some fuses destroyed because the strike traveled thru the ground. I lost lights in the bathroom! Flet luck that was all that happened. I hope you get rain but with out the lightning.

I don't know what it is about this area, but if lightning is going to hit the ground, it hits here! Someone said something about "magnatite"?? A mineral in the ground, but I've never heard that one before either. The Catalpa is still here, even though it took a direct hit, and traveled from the top all the way to the ground. One big limb is badly scarred, but it still produces branches and leaves. This tree is huge, at about, I would guess, 50-55 feet tall. It was planted in 1975 by my friend's sister who used to live here years ago. Oh, and I forgot the antenna, that got taken out just a few months ago, so no TV here any more! Plus, in the 18 years I've lived here, I've probably lost about 15 phones and/or answering machines! Maybe the Big Man is trying to tell me something???

 

[Hens and Roos]

http://www.google.com/products/cata...a=X&ei=dfWrT7COGYPu2gWNvKyoAg&ved=0CF0Q8wIwAQ

I found it on Ebay, and other folks say it's on Amazon dot com too.

We just order some concentrated garlic oil and DH sprayed it on our yard to help keep the misquito population down. He spilt some of the concentrate on the garage floor and I noticed today that the fly population has cut way back- so I took a small dish of it to the coop and will see what that does over the next few days.

 

[Arielle]

I don't know what it is about this area, but if lightning is going to hit the ground, it hits here! Someone said something about "magnatite"?? A mineral in the ground, but I've never heard that one before either. The Catalpa is still here, even though it took a direct hit, and traveled from the top all the way to the ground. One big limb is badly scarred, but it still produces branches and leaves. This tree is huge, at about, I would guess, 50-55 feet tall. It was planted in 1975 by my friend's sister who used to live here years ago. Oh, and I forgot the antenna, that got taken out just a few months ago, so no TV here any more! Plus, in the 18 years I've lived here, I've probably lost about 15 phones and/or answering machines! Maybe the Big Man is trying to tell me something???

Electronics are notorious victims of lightening. Only the phones get destroyed. I'm afraid to put up an anntannae. Out pine is about 75 feet, or more, hard to guess, so I like thepine to be the tallest things around. Once this old tree falls, there are 2 more next to it to help us save the house. House isn;t very tall and we are surounded by woods with tall trees. We are not in the middle of a big field. FIL took a number of hits livin in a parsonage in the middle of an old hay field. Catalpas are pretty trees, I like the form and the long pods are hysterical. My kids were asking if they were edible. IDK.