Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[heath_elisha]

Freezing here in MA..... the birds are all shivering today. Feeling terrible for them... it was -6 this morning and barely made it to 16 degrees today. No sun on the coop or runs. They are not liking it one bit. And not only is my mix roo still having seizure like episodes (slowly seems to be doing better though with my spoiling) but we also have a young EE roo that is damaging the backs of our pullets so badly that one had a large puncture hole under her wing. Felt so bad when my husband brought her in to show me. Ordered some saddles for them..... poor girls.... and finally my 5 marans pullets are all laying (not including my two "washingtons" that are 21 weeks old now) and I have to say that I am happy with two out of the five in regards to color of their eggs. Everyone is just giddy over my marans and their eggs - I even have 2 family members that want chicks in the spring from me! Marans will become an addiction for them

 

[math ace]

Any babies yet?? What kind of babies?

Delawares and 1 marans are the eggs in the incubator. NO PIPS yet. I am still working on adjusting the temps in the new incubator. My hatch ran late last time. I raised the temps slightly, but I may need to raise them a little more.

 

[math ace]

Freezing here in MA..... but we also have a young EE roo that is damaging the backs of our pullets so badly that one had a large puncture hole under her wing. Felt so bad when my husband brought her in to show me. Ordered some saddles for them.....

You may want to check the young roo's toenails. Blunting them with a file may help.

 

[vebyrd36]

Hmm I think Mother Nature forgot that we are flatlanders down here in West Texas, and we don't like SNOW. Cold all day and spitting snow. It is suppose to come down hard after dark UGH.

VIVI

Snow all day on Friday



11 PM Jan 3

26°F
Snow
FEELS LIKE:
18°
HUMIDITY:
95%
PRECIP:
90%
WIND:
E at 8 mph

 

[Hens and Roos]

Morning!
24 hours without a post????? That's just wrong!

Good luck to all who are hatching! How many of you out there are hatching?

We set 82 eggs on Dec 29th and 30th and hope to have chicks about Jan 19th! Late start for us this year as the girls weren't laying eggs in time to collect for a NYD hatch.

 

[flgardengirl]

Get him girl.... Don't let that boy head my way....

Do you think you could leave some posion out on top of the coops at night, since that is his point of attack? ? ?

Can't leave out poison there are too many cats around here. He has been hanging around here all year since it was raining so much this spring and everything flooded so I doubt he is going anywhere. I bet he makes rounds to all the neighbors since they all have chickens, geese, and/or guineas.
If we can't shoot him I will probably build a dog run around the coops and let our dog run there at night. Our bigger dog would bite him in half if he caught it. I usually keep that dog in the house with me at night since he is a trained guard dog but he works pretty effectively outside too. We lost one of our dogs last spring and she is the one who used to stay outside and keep the predators away. Once she was gone, they all started showing up.
I might look into getting a livestock guardian dogs to keep outside. The rescue lady I got my key west chickens from had a Great Pyrenees and told me it chased bobcats off on a regular basis at their place.

 

[flgardengirl]

We set 82 eggs on Dec 29th and 30th and hope to have chicks about Jan 19th! Late start for us this year as the girls weren't laying eggs in time to collect for a NYD hatch.

Wow that's a lot of eggies!

 

[flgardengirl]

Delawares and 1 marans are the eggs in the incubator. NO PIPS yet. I am still working on adjusting the temps in the new incubator. My hatch ran late last time. I raised the temps slightly, but I may need to raise them a little more.

O0O0O what kind of new incubator? Did you build one or buy one?

 

[heath_elisha]

You may want to check the young roo's toenails. Blunting them with a file may help.

Thought about that too. He doesn't have very much spur growth yet, so it is very likely nails. Wait till I tell my husband he has to help me do that! lol

 

[DMRippy]

I am having a good hatch, it is just late. I didn't set any Marans this batch..... I have about 40 marans chicks... but I have more cooking too. I had 10 SFH out 3 more pips and 4 with no action... but maybe by tomorrow. Most of my Project eggs hatched or were hatching. And I had 1 SLW out another pipped and 1 nothing when I left