Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[Arielle]

Ok, got a good pic of mystery chick, and BYC won't let me upload the pic??

This new format is very frustrating to us dial-up folks!! Looking at this pic, the chick looks very roo-ish to me. Don't know why the camera started working again either? Same batteries, but now it works?? I give up!

And gilvania--

I have dial up and I can post pics. I usually reformat my pics to be a smaller pixel to something like 600 x 800 which makes the file much smaller. I save it in a specific folder so that I can find it.

In the options bar until the Reply title, I select the square with multi pastel colors, follow the instruction, get back to the folder and select that picture.

THis is the only way I know; perhaps there is another way, too

 

[heath_elisha]

Morning All!

Last night I was on cloud nine.... well I still am! I candled the eggs in the incubator - just hoping to see some sort of life in there. I have been constantly checking the temp and humidity, blocking it from kids and cats, etc..... pleeease something come out alive! lol Well- when I candled I could confirm three little chickies! One egg I could even see veins... one was the eye.... I could not believe it! All the other eggs were waaaaaaaaaay to dark to see into though. We use a dewalt high powered flashlight with a cardboard cone on it to candle, which works fairly well. I expected to see nothing in these eggs- but I did

Now I feel better.... Not bad for shipped eggs from Washington (other end of the states) and first time incubating! Now for them just to hatch.................... Aug 4 can not get here fast enough lol. I feel better now too because if I didn't mess the 10 in the incubator up too bad, then mother hen with 14 under her must be doing great

 

[Arielle]

So exciting! Have my fingers crossed for you!



I just set 8 more eggs as my girls are laying. THey just needed a little light. Oddly the pen next to them witha common wall that is slatted, lets in enough light to trigger their laying too after a break.The decreasing daylight is annoying1 LOL

 

[heath_elisha]

So exciting! Have my fingers crossed for you!



I just set 8 more eggs as my girls are laying. THey just needed a little light. Oddly the pen next to them witha common wall that is slatted, lets in enough light to trigger their laying too after a break.The decreasing daylight is annoying1 LOL

I have a few (mutts) that are not laying as well. I thought it was the oppressive heat we have had.

Also, have any of you heard of putting cold water on the wattles of a broody hen, to break her broodiness? I have heard to cool her bare belly, but never the wattles. Is this something any of you have tried?

 

[HallFamilyFarm]

Does NPIP come to your house? That's probably a silly question

Each state is slightly different. Contact the agency in your state that administers the NPIP.

http://www.aphis.usda.gov/animal_health/animal_dis_spec/poultry/

 

[snowbird]

Don - can you please explain a bit more on the tails and where to look at width?

We seem to be looking from the side of those pullets, so do you mean how there are 2 clear rows of feathers?

I think I need an arrow

(pink? can you help?)

Look for the width looking from the rear to the front. The tail on these pullets is open and that is what we are looking for in the marans. The two rows of main tail feather will connect at the top and widen as they end in an open fashion with some fluff inside the two rows. If you use open tail Marans like these you will not get the pinched tail look that no one wants.
If anyone has pinched tail females try and find a Bushy tail male and use over them to open up the tail spread. I like a medium fan tail like these pullets have going on for them.

 

[desertmarcy]

Each state is slightly different. Contact the agency in your state that administers the NPIP.

http://www.aphis.usda.gov/animal_health/animal_dis_spec/poultry/

I have run into a problem with the NPIP program. I have the contact person's name for Arizona, emailed him, and this is the reply I got back the beginning of May:
"We really don't have an NPIP program in the state, but I am the contact for it, accordign to the state vet......... Let me contact them later this week and get it rolling again..... We just need to decide what you want to be tested for and so forth and then comply with their standards of care and husbandry etc. "

So I emailed back almost a month ago, no response. I had a whole slew of questions, none of which he answered either. I am very frustrated over this since my plan was to be able to ship birds. Does anybody have any suggestions about what I should try next? How can they not have the NPIP program in this state if it is required to ship? That is just not right!! And how would I know what should be tested for? I thought that was standard throughout the program?

 

[heath_elisha]

I have run into a problem with the NPIP program. I have the contact person's name for Arizona, emailed him, and this is the reply I got back the beginning of May:
"We really don't have an NPIP program in the state, but I am the contact for it, accordign to the state vet......... Let me contact them later this week and get it rolling again..... We just need to decide what you want to be tested for and so forth and then comply with their standards of care and husbandry etc. "

So I emailed back almost a month ago, no response. I had a whole slew of questions, none of which he answered either. I am very frustrated over this since my plan was to be able to ship birds. Does anybody have any suggestions about what I should try next? How can they not have the NPIP program in this state if it is required to ship? That is just not right!! And how would I know what should be tested for? I thought that was standard throughout the program?

Any hatcheries in your state that you can ask these questions?

 

[Cadeau]

Morning All!

Last night I was on cloud nine.... well I still am! I candled the eggs in the incubator - just hoping to see some sort of life in there. I have been constantly checking the temp and humidity, blocking it from kids and cats, etc..... pleeease something come out alive! lol Well- when I candled I could confirm three little chickies! One egg I could even see veins... one was the eye.... I could not believe it! All the other eggs were waaaaaaaaaay to dark to see into though. We use a dewalt high powered flashlight with a cardboard cone on it to candle, which works fairly well. I expected to see nothing in these eggs- but I did

Now I feel better.... Not bad for shipped eggs from Washington (other end of the states) and first time incubating! Now for them just to hatch.................... Aug 4 can not get here fast enough lol. I feel better now too because if I didn't mess the 10 in the incubator up too bad, then mother hen with 14 under her must be doing great

Congrats!!

 

[Cadeau]

Look for the width looking from the rear to the front. The tail on these pullets is open and that is what we are looking for in the marans. The two rows of main tail feather will connect at the top and widen as they end in an open fashion with some fluff inside the two rows. If you use open tail Marans like these you will not get the pinched tail look that no one wants.
If anyone has pinched tail females try and find a Bushy tail male and use over them to open up the tail spread. I like a medium fan tail like these pullets have going on for them.

Thanks!!