Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[ellymayRans]

Well, was doing some more sorting of birds today and after lunch think I just have two small pens left to shift. I culled a few more birds this AM and am very pleased with the BCM girls I decided to hold back, 5 total and the three BCM boys. I'll rotate the boys and girls around for test mating, and big boy gets, for now anyways, a dozen girls, not all at once, I'm test mating those as well, but they are running all together while all the girls clear from the other birds they were with. I have three birds in Big Boys pen that are question marks, but for now will stay. So satisfying to be getting there finally! Last year was so rough on me in so many ways, so its like a dream having this time to work on the birds!

Happy to hear! Hope this year is better for us all! Sounds like you're really putting in a lot of hard work!

 

[ellymayRans]

Well, was doing some more sorting of birds today and after lunch think I just have two small pens left to shift. I culled a few more birds this AM and am very pleased with the BCM girls I decided to hold back, 5 total and the three BCM boys. I'll rotate the boys and girls around for test mating, and big boy gets, for now anyways, a dozen girls, not all at once, I'm test mating those as well, but they are running all together while all the girls clear from the other birds they were with. I have three birds in Big Boys pen that are question marks, but for now will stay. So satisfying to be getting there finally! Last year was so rough on me in so many ways, so its like a dream having this time to work on the birds!

Happy to hear! Hope this year is better for us all! Sounds like you're really putting in a lot of hard work!

 

[gilavina]

Happy to hear! Hope this year is better for us all! Sounds like you're really putting in a lot of hard work!

Thanks! Generally I work harder than I play. Just in the blood I guess, but am making up for last year and determined to have good forward momentum in the garden, birds, projects, pen building and etc this year. Really gets old seeing all the projects and no progress.

 

[Chesterchook]

Hello all, wondering if anyone here might know where to find some quality hatching eggs in Colorado?

 

[ellymayRans]

Thanks! Generally I work harder than I play. Just in the blood I guess, but am making up for last year and determined to have good forward momentum in the garden, birds, projects, pen building and etc this year. Really gets old seeing all the projects and no progress.

Sounds a lot like my days! DH only hates nice weather because I'm outside working with coffee in hand til after dark! He's such a girl!! LOL

 

[gilavina]

Sounds a lot like my days! DH only hates nice weather because I'm outside working with coffee in hand til after dark! He's such a girl!! LOL

haha coffee in hand is about right! I figure I can rest when I'm older, or dead

 

[desertmarcy]

Hi all. So for you master breeders out there, I have a question. I've been single mating this year and discovered one of my Black Copper hens is throwing some clean-legged or very lightly feathered legged chicks. About 9 chicks out of 22 hatched from eggs that I know came from her. I have since moved her into my layer-only pen and I'm not breeding her anymore. So the question is, since I don't know how the genetics work here, should I keep any of the offspring from her that have nice foot/leg feathers, assuming everything else about them is good? I'm wondering if the clean-legged problem will continue to pop up from these offspring as well. Feeding all the chicks I'm growing out is killing me financially---I need to do some culling SOON! Thank you for your advice.

Anybody have an opinion or experience with this

I haven't seen a reply, thanks.

 

[ellymayRans]

haha coffee in hand is about right! I figure I can rest when I'm older, or dead

That's my motto!! O my!
I have to say I'm so glad I found BYC!!!

 

[gilavina]

That's my motto!! O my!
I have to say I'm so glad I found BYC!!!

haha, indeed!

 

[gilavina]

Anybody have an opinion or experience with this

I haven't seen a reply, thanks.

I see I must have missed your post earlier. I know we had a conversation, I believe it was on here about how the leg feathering worked. I'm not sure I could direct you to it tho as its been quite a while back. My philosophy on making decisions what to cull is about what you want to choose to work on. If finances are a concern, where you are feeding the organic feed, I'm sure its a killer, I would sell the birds off as layers and in general select for the birds that are closest to what you would want ultimately.