Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[slick4591]

I have five at the moment, but the handyman is on call.

 

[gilavina]

I have five at the moment, but the handyman is on call.

haha, too funny. Unfortunately I'm the handyman here, so I'm always on call too.

 

[desertmarcy]

Where did he tear her up? It might be the nails as well, I also keep those really well trimmed and filed. If you have your birds up on wire at all, its important to keep the nails well maintained as they can turn into weapons fast.

He ripped her side.

 

[gilavina]

He ripped her side.

yeah, sounds like if he doesn't have spurs, then it had to be toenails.

 

[desertmarcy]

yeah, sounds like if he doesn't have spurs, then it had to be toenails.

Sounds like I better get the snips out. Came back from camping last fall and camped on a field of pumice. I collected several bags full. I bet that will work well to round out the nails.

 

[gilavina]

Sounds like I better get the snips out. Came back from camping last fall and camped on a field of pumice. I collected several bags full. I bet that will work well to round out the nails.

indeed!

 

[castell73]

Thank you!

In Spain cartons eggs have 6 & 12 slots but in France have 6 too and 10 !

I don't know the reason (and I live a few kilometers from french border)

Best regards,

Marc

 

[BarnGoddess01]

Thank you!

In Spain cartons eggs have 6 & 12 slots but in France have 6 too and 10 !

I don't know the reason (and I live a few kilometers from french border)

Best regards,

Marc

Thank you, Marc! Narrowing the source of those eggs down, it seems. Perhaps they are directly from France and represent what Marans eggs look like over there. Mighty impressive, I must say.

And let me say again, glad to have you with us. It will be lovely to get some European perspective on Marans. We might have to send you on road trips into France seeking more of those uber dark eggs!!!!

 

[snowbird]

After banging my head for a while these are the breeding pens I came up with. The PVC only cost like $20 and the houses were bartered for. My handyman (which I'm not) had this scrap material he used. Can't remember the price on the field fence, but it's already tested coyote proof. Also, had to paint the outside of the houses or the chooks would live inside a billboard. I think they are large enough for six birds, but five has been my max so far.
I'm keeping the males in these houses and moving the females to and from their pens.
Don, I'm still trying to grasp why you are moving males daily. How do you know which breeding combination works best? Musta missed something somewhere.

Hey Slick, Moving the males to the individual females is the only way I have done it here. Moving the females to the male would work the same way. All of my female breeders are seperate during breeding season. By six months all my Males are seperated and this is always the way I have done this also. I was hatched into a Gamefowl family and this is where a lot of may ideas come from.

 

[slick4591]

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.

Don ~ I think where I'm lost is in switching the males daily. I don't see where that is what I think of as single mating. What I'm doing now is breeding the girls to one male and hatching those eggs. I'll go back and switch the girls to a different male and see how those chicks turn out and figure out which is the best male/female mating. Don't know, but my way may be a slower process than what you're doing.