Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[gilavina]

howdy Donna

 

[DMRippy]

howdy Donna

So trying to catch up on BYC.... crazy day on here for me

Got some more pics of a pullet today. Maybe more tomorrow.

One a day is the most I can hope for since I am checking their egg color in the process. Once I get done with this pen, I will send you guy about 1/2 each and then the other half later..... there were more pullets in that pen than I thought

gives me more culling room

 

[desertmarcy]

Instead of moving the hens, how about moving the roos into their pens? At least you would know who the roo was to all of the hens, then use the trap nests to see what hen was producing what. JMO

Yes, I can put the cockerel in with the pullets, but as I said, I do not have trap nests right now. Trying to figure out a method that will work to identify individual pullet's eggs without a trap nest.

 

[gilavina]

So trying to catch up on BYC.... crazy day on here for me

Got some more pics of a pullet today. Maybe more tomorrow.

One a day is the most I can hope for since I am checking their egg color in the process. Once I get done with this pen, I will send you guy about 1/2 each and then the other half later..... there were more pullets in that pen than I thought

gives me more culling room

haha alright, sounds good. I did some work in the pens myself today, not as much as I would have liked, but I believe I still have another chunk to go and what will be left will be the best I've had yet in my breeding pens for next year.

 

[DMRippy]

Quote: Do you have a small cage? I have some growout pens and I just keep putting one pullet in till she lays and then back she goes. I put some vet wrap on her leg too so I know that I have checked her eggs already. I am just using it to find my lightest layers and figure out if they are worth keeping..... I am pretty sure I am keeping the ones that lay the DARKEST eggs.

 

[gilavina]

Yes, I can put the cockerel in with the pullets, but as I said, I do not have trap nests right now. Trying to figure out a method that will work to identify individual pullet's eggs without a trap nest.

If you put one pullet in each of the smaller pens and rotate that male instead of moving the girls, you won't need trap nests as they will each have their own little birdie condo, if that makes sense

 

[DMRippy]

Quote:
Did I mention I have another pen????? Not as many in there.

 

[gilavina]

Did I mention I have another pen????? Not as many in there.

you mean you emptied one? very good work. That's always one of the best feelings.

 

[desertmarcy]

Marcy, I have a lot of pens you are talking about and I use them for single mating all the eggs I collect. If need be you can mate a male with six female this way. I switch the male in the middle of the day to a different female and so on for the three days and then start from #1 again and down the line. set up your records so it includes the band # of the male and female, mark all eggs with the pen number and toe punch or slit mark all the chicks, soon as they are old enough wing band all and record the markings and band number in your record book.

Are your females permanently in those pens? I would like to be able to move the females back to their big pens when I am not collecting eggs and don't want flock issues. Depending on how long the females are away from each other, they "forget" who their flockmates are and the pecking order starts anew as I'm sure you know. And some decide they don't like another, like happened with one of my Blue Copper Marans pullets. Most of my 4'x4' pens are taken up by cockerels right now. Only have a couple I can free up for pullets. Now if I could ever decide which of my Barred Rock cockerels are going to stay, I could free up a few more

So a 4'x4' pen is big enough for a mating pen? I had a Black Copper Marans pullet that I had to move out away from the others because she was picking. I put her in with a Rhode Island Red cockerel in that size pen and he tore her up. Ripped the skin on one side of her. Then I had to isolate her until she healed

There was no place she could go to get away from him, so then I got to thinking that size pen was not a good idea. Maybe that particular male was just too rough.

 

[DMRippy]

Quote: Well not exactly, I had the Marans in with my other birds I hatched so they were by AGE, then I separated out ALL the Marans Pullets and put them in the one pen. I culled maybe 8-10 between the 2 BIG pens already. These are what is left so I am thinking about 15-18 pullets/hens (maybe 3 hens). About February I would like to start hatching Marans for ME and ME only. I can do more hatches after that but that would be my main birds to work with next fall. This year I had to get something to work with. Now I can pick the best of the best and maybe some 2nd picks and cull the rest. I would LOVE to keep 10 good pullets.