Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[Arielle]

Well I did it. I didnt want wait till tomorrow. Very hard to do. I dont know why. I have hunted for most of my life. But as I get older Im valuing life more. I hope I dont have to do that again anytime soon. Goodnight everyone.

I find this is very hard to cope with, too; I put it off until my kids are not around. I don't need their input on the situation . Much easier to tell them after the fact.

I too have come to value life much more as I have gotten older; I remember a friends mom who took the spiders outside as a kid. I get it now. I hope you find peace in the coming days.

 

[Cadeau]

Evening all!

Snapped some pics today!

Can I get some honest opinions of these girls - trying to cut down to my very best for autumn single mating!

#1 The girl in the very back:






Eyes are bright, clear bay; shanks are feathered down the outer toe


Girl #2




eyes are bright, clear bay; shanks are feathered with a feather or two on the outside toe.

and, just for fun - my young blue laced red marans girl! (joking - she's BLRW x BCM!)


her eyes are also bright, clear bay and her shanks are feathered with BLUE LACED RED feathers -

She's a sweetie! (and lives with the free range layers flock)

 

[NuAgePaulBunyun]

We have added 5 new hens to our flock and from what I have read, it seems the outsiders are being bullied. I understand it is in natural selection that the new hens will 'establish' the pecking order by fighting the new additions. The problem is the new hens are much smaller, but same age if not older. It seems our original hens are about 1 and 1/2 times the size. Plus the Silkie is tiny tiny.
The newer smaller hens are much more agile and seem to fly much more efficiently. How long until the new hens are allowed into the pack (whether it is in the bottom of the pecking order or not)
And if I let the new ones out to free range and keep the original set inside the run ... Will that keep the problems of integration brewing ?

Hoping to have a friendly fight free flock soon.

Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using Tapatalk 2

 

[Debbi]

Welcome to the Marans thread!

I usually put any new chicks or other new birds into a separate run right next to where the established flock is. They can see each other through the fence, but can't get at each other. My Marans hens are the worst when it comes to bringing in new birds! If you can keep them separated for at least 2 weeks, then you can open the pen door so they can intermingle. Using treats to distract the older birds and getting everyone to eat together seems to help too. Just keep an eye on them, and there will be some tangles, but after the 2 weeks of seeing each other, they are not quite as strange to the older birds. Then they can establish their pecking order with fewer and lesser spats. Some folks introduce new birds at night. Problem with that is, come morning, the fights are on! I don't let my new birds free range with the older flock either, not until they have all settled in together in the run. Once everyone are friends, then they can free range together. If you let them all free range while still not friendly as a flock, some fights will ensue, and the new birds will go off on their own, not a good thing with predators around. That's just the way I do it, others will have a different way that works for them. ETA: By the way, you need another Silkie! Silkies like to stay with their own kind for the most part. My Marans don't even recognize my Silkies as chickens!

If your Silkie is a roo, they will fight with the larger roos too! I had 3 of my Silkie roos get into the main run yesterday, and all 3 attacked my main Marans roo, Clyde! Clyde finally had enough and went into the coop and roosted so I could put the 3 bad Silkie boys away. It was like he knew he could hurt them if he fought back seriously, so he avoided the fight. The Silkie roos were all puffed up after that fiasco, thinking they got the better of old Clyde, they were sooooo proud of themselves.

 

[lawatt]

hi, just thought i'd introduce myself to this thread -- i'm new to chickens (in the last month), and two of my nascent flock of six (soon to increase!) are cuckoo marans -- i got them at the age of about 5 weeks, and they were initially *incredibly* flighty and suspicious -- but now they're the two friendliest birds i have, one flies up to perch on my shoulder almost every morning when i bring treats into their coop. now they're 10 weeks and growing fast! here they are, ethel and dixie (named by a friend of mine):




i won't be doing any breeding, but am fascinated to read more about these delightful birds!
best,
laura (sonoma county, CA)

 

[Wynette]

Hi, Laura! WELCOME to the Marans thread - I'm glad you found us, and we love pics!

 

[NuAgePaulBunyun]

o this Silkie is no stud, SHE wants nothing to do with being mounted by my 2 roos. she is very ellusive and has found a cozy little spot in the coop to be protected from harm of the larger birds. it is fun to watch her out sprint all the others who seek her attention, out of the originalflock, (positive or negative). She sticks with the hens she came with.

The smaller (newer) hens seem to be much more agile and will fly into the trees or ontop of the coop if things get to heated. but stay inside of the coop when i open the run. i just dont have a way to seperate them from the flock.

hoping that letting time run its course, and i let the two sets of birds out at different times to free range. The new birds are from a rural area , but from a small town. and i am out in the sticks for sure a huge difference in rodents and critters to be aware of for them. they are (when let free) in the abandoned barn and outhouses. i guess natural selection will allow them to become aware or lunch for the rodents we have lurking.

i want to post a few pics so you can see the difference in size between the sets of birds.

and i am SOOO seeking another silkie (another hen perferrably) . we r down to 2 Roos and that is enough for 9 hens and a Silkie . i really dont consider the Silkie just another hen either. she is more like a little trophy hen. she (i think) will be the only one to lay white eggs, when she settles down and gets to doing her thing.

 

[Connie Marie]

Hi All,
So I am a newbie here and in the world of Marans. I wanted to post some pics of my current flock (9 weeks old) and ask a question about a small BCM chick I have. So here are the pics first (3 pullets & 3 cockerels). I would LOVE feedback on them although my pics are not great. I will try to get better ones when I am not chasing the kids too. Thanks!

The cockerel in the back..too much color? The hen in the back has color leakage...(mossy?)





These roos look to dark in their coloring to me..better tails though


My hens would not cooperate at all! Other than the one in the top photo, the other girls are very dark with some copper emerging around their necks.









Ok, so I hatched a BCM chick 5 weeks ago. I had a terrible BCM hatch. It was the only one that survived. It was small from the get go and has been very slow to grow (although it has feathered out fine). It now looks like a 3 week old in terms of size. Thoughts?

 

[Debbi]

Please do post some pics, we love pics here! I have a whole flock of Blue Partridge Silkies for sale, that includes 3 hens about 1 year old, one pullet at 6 months who just started laying, and 2 Partridge and Blue Partridge roos. I also have a very dark blue hen that throws Partridge, and a Blue pullet? at about 4.5 months old. I need to make some room for my other colors of Silkies and my future Wheaten Marans, so someone has to go! You can PM me if anything may interest you. I'm about 2 hours from you I think?

 

[Debbi]

Hi All,
So I am a newbie here and in the world of Marans. I wanted to post some pics of my current flock (9 weeks old) and ask a question about a small BCM chick I have. So here are the pics first (3 pullets & 3 cockerels). I would LOVE feedback on them although my pics are not great. I will try to get better ones when I am not chasing the kids too. Thanks!

The cockerel in the back..too much color? The hen in the back has color leakage...(mossy?)





These roos look to dark in their coloring to me..better tails though


My hens would not cooperate at all! Other than the one in the top photo, the other girls are very dark with some copper emerging around their necks.









Ok, so I hatched a BCM chick 5 weeks ago. I had a terrible BCM hatch. It was the only one that survived. It was small from the get go and has been very slow to grow (although it has feathered out fine). It now looks like a 3 week old in terms of size. Thoughts?

Welcome Connie! At 9 weeks, it is really too early to tell what they will look like after they molt. Unless they have obvious DQs, like clean shanks, or bad combs (as in Carnation or side sprigs), it is best to let them mature for a few more months. I see a couple of your roos are going to be dark as in mahogany coloring in the hackles and saddles. This won't help to add color to the female offspring, but if they are typey, I would hold onto them for a bit. The colorful roo has too much copper in his throat/breast area, but they may molt out some in his juvenile molt. I've only had one like that here so far, and he was a cull from the git go for an atrocious comb. Would need to see better pics of the girls. The mossy feathers, unless they are very slight and few, will usually get worse, and most folks cull them from the breeding flocks. I'm sure others will chime in when they get here. Welcome to the Dark Side...of eggs, that is!