Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[snowbird]

I believe these two young males are hatch as they look just alike. For their age I see nothing to not like, I can not see the feet and leg feathering though. Very nice tail angle.

 

[NuAgePaulBunyun]

What's being pregnant got to do with chicken chores?? Excercise is great for pregnant women! I was breeding, showing, and training dogs, and butchering rabbits and chickens throughout BOTH pregnancies. The only thing she really needs to stay clear of is the cat's litter box! Cat feces can have harmful effects on the fetus.

Believe me when I say, this is an never ending, ongoing learning process here! NO one knows everything, and even if they did, that same knowledge may not be pertinent to someone else's flock. It sure does help to have a sense of humor about it! Here's to hoping that Clyde is the only one in the stew pot!

was told by doctor to keep her from inside the coop and be cautious of tracking feces and stuffs into house. so i just went with that. she still part of the chores such as feeding as long as it is not in the coop. we try to let them free-range as often as possible maybe about 5 hours a day around 3 or 4 days a week.

last night found a skunk in our run with the coop door unsecure just before sundown, so when i went to secure the chickens the ****** skunk ran into the coop where he lodged himself into a corner behind some boards. grabbed the gun and headed out, Cecelia (aka Momma Hen) warned me as she was seeking answers to our little problem from her phone , not to shot him in the coop as no matter what the skunk will spray . so i shoo-ed him/her out. nervous as ever. just started really quitely with a "Cha-Cha-Cha' sound (reminded me of the sound you make when you try to teach a child, kinda ridiculous) but the little booger stared right into the high-beam MagLight and froze. as i slowly walked into the coop with him dragging my feet he started for the door. as i got a bit louder he kept moving out of the coop and exited the run the same way he entered. SUPER LUCKY. i could of been sleeping out with the chickens after that .

i bet that skunk has been robbing our eggs. its all making sense. he didnt even look her the chickens just checked to little roosts where (we hoped) they would lay the eggs.

 

[BarnGoddess01]

Regarding who told me that Marans would not have spurs...................I cannot go there, I don't believe it would be appropriate..........but if someone wanted to read through the old Marans thread and some of the new one it is posted more than once.

I did a TON of research to write an article on Marans for my local poultry club and never came across the suggestion that Marans were ever spurless - not the feather-leggeds OR clean leggeds. Totally news to me.

 

[SIMZ]

Hi everyone - do you have time for another question?

I acquired some beautiful little 7 week feathered-leg cuckoo cockerels and one black copper cockerel. I'm not sure of their history except that they were extras from a breeder.

My question:
The black copper cockerel doesn't have any coppering at 7 weeks. Would a mix between a cuckoo and black copper result in an all black cockerel? I'd like to keep him for my BCM hens and future breeding, but not if he's not pure.

Thanks!

 

[Arielle]

Quote: I know I did not say my birds were spur less, I said they were much smaller at this point compared to my other roosters.

 

[gilavina]

alright. Here's the first batch of chicks I held back from the second hatch of the year. These are out of my alternative BCM roo. They aren't great photos as they didn't like being caught up and put in my art work area, but its the only place I could think of that would be easy to catch them if they got loose....and yeah, it happened a few times haha I'm tired now. I can already see where two roos will probably go (the same two I held onto to watch the comb development) All are very beefy type tho...just like I like them!

first boy....blue copper out of one of the blue copper girls I held over from last year. Love the copper on him so far. He'll be one, if he makes it through the culling process that will be paired with some splash girls to lighten up the blue a tad.



roo 2... also cull number 1 I believe. He has a lazy comb haha. But love his chunky type and copper color. Too bad, but its good to know I'm getting more consistent in the color of copper I like from all my roos at least. Also a tailless wonder. Had a feather picking pullet...she is no longer here.


ugh! Stupid lazy comb....I love his copper!

Roo 3 - like him, but a couple middle toe feathers which I could live with, but also has what I think is a sprig bump. Holding onto him to see how it develops out of curiosity. More than likely will be a cull



Roo 4 - He's pretty big. Has lighter hackles than I'd like, but is getting darker copper in with it, so hoping that his collar will fill in the rest of the way with the darker color like some of my boys do when they get to a couple months of age.


I'll be watching the copper on the neck very closely... but otherwise he is just beautiful to me.


On to the ladies, who were also terrible to get to stand still!



pullet 2 - she was crafty at getting away...hence the ruffled up feathers haha



Pullet 3 - bit lighter leg feathering, but I have boys with tons of leg feathering to work with. She also is getting nice copper in the neck...hopefully she will get more


Pullet 4- meet the craaaazy girl. This is the only shot I got of her still...she really is beautiful in stance...

Also only has a few leg feathers like the girl above. Just waiting to see what the body type will fill in like since I have boys I can cross on them if they are good enough.


I still have 10 more chicks this age to go, but with the heat may have to wait til later or tomorrow when its supposed to be cooler.

 

[desertmarcy]

This is my pet yard snake, Samantha. She is a 5 foot black rat snake and has lived in my back yard for the past two years. She does like to come out and watch my chickens, but I tell her they are not for her, and so far she hasn't made an attempt to get them. She usually comes out when I am doing yard work and will stay as long as I do. I think we have an understanding so to speak. She is actually on the opposite side of the house where the chickens live.






Bravo to you for leaving the snake be. Their intelligence is a bit...shall we say, primitive, so I don't think the snake will respect any understanding you might think you have with it. As long as there is plenty of prey for the snake on that side of the yard, you should be okay, but rat snakes do like to eat eggs. Or young birds.

Nice looking snake BTW, I love the pic of it coming out of the crack between the logs.

 

[snowbird]

Couple of comments on the spurless marans. When a person get spurless fowl of any breed it is usually caused from too much inbreeding and not enough culling, just like any other fault. When I had a good flock of Buff Brahma bantams I had that happen to my flock and had to go outside and get some closely related fowl to put back into my flock and fixed the problem real quick.
I do not know who said Marans do not have Spurs but agree that someone could have a flock of Marans or any other breed without spurs if they had a closed flock and did not keep a close eye on what they were raising. This is not a biggie as if you have fowl long enough you will find much worse faults.

 

[gilavina]

Couple of comments on the spurless marans. When a person get spurless fowl of any breed it is usually caused from too much inbreeding and not enough culling, just like any other fault. When I had a good flock of Buff Brahma bantams I had that happen to my flock and had to go outside and get some closely related fowl to put back into my flock and fixed the problem real quick.
I do not know who said Marans do not have Spurs but agree that someone could have a flock of Marans or any other breed without spurs if they had a closed flock and did not keep a close eye on what they were raising. This is not a biggie as if you have fowl long enough you will find much worse faults.

good point Don...to be honest, I hadn't thought about that aspect.

 

[qball53]

Thanks for the Clyde well wishes! He is my buddy!

Good on the chickies, Donna! Snakes don't make it too long around here. Last summer, I watched two hens tear apart, and suck down a 3' snake! Happened so fast, I didn't even have time to see what it was! Snakes, birds, and moles don't dare go into my Marans run, the Silkie run gets moles though, but they stop at the fenceline...

We have found copperhead snakes in our nest boxes. A few months ago we found a rat snake in the Birchen Marans nest box. He had swallowed an egg and had a rather large lump about half way to his stomach.