Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[Pathfinders]

Can someone tell me who has good quality Cuckoo Marans these days? Thanks.

 

[snowbird]

awesome! Well, except for the parts you don't like about them. What do you use for brooders? I don't think I've ever asked before. I need to get to town to rewire a couple of nice brooders I found in the haymount that I didn't even know my dad had. They'll be going on their maiden run this spring for sure. Can't ever have enough brooders!

Vicki, I use the brooders pictured in my profile I believe. They are 24"x48" with the GQF auto heaters. I have nine of those for the Babys and then I transfer them to floor brooder rooms that are 8'x10' until they go outside at about six weeks.
I try and stay away from the brooders with wire floors as I like mine to eat a little crap so the cocci stays away.

 

[flgardengirl]

I originally separated Twizzler and Spike because Spike was being very ornery, and so lucky Twizzler got to live in the big hens pen and spike got sent to jail. He has been on his own now for a little while, I don't know if his disposition will improve I haven't tried very hard i have to admit. Well yesterday i felt sorry for him being alone and decided to let him free range instead of the girls. Well he spent the whole day trying to get into the hens pen, and then wouldn't go home even after dark. I ended up scooping him off the hens pen wall with a rake and popping him back through his own doorway on the end of it.. He just kind of looked offended and gave me the evil eye... I realized the time has come when i really need to pick the best of the two and let one go. I have more boys coming up to age and it may be that one of them will be better than either of these two but I can't see keeping both of them now.. from my uneducated eye I see the following: Spike has the looks, nice feathering and a nice tail etc; but he has some color problems and not sure if he is too mean. He is not all that large but very broad. Twizzer is a sweetie pie but has very poor feathering on legs and crazy tail issues. and one toe is curled slightly back (maybe from the incubator though i'm not sure). I like his color better though, and he is a big boy.. and also quite beefy Please can you help me to decide who has to go... (you have seen these guys before but pics were not good) Spike 1 (it looks like brown on his legs but it's just the camera, I checked again after i saw the pic) Spike 2 Twizzler 1 Twizzler 2 I don't have a rooster person to take them away so im not sure at this point where the loser will go but i'm working on it...

The very best advice I can give you...is always keep a backup rooster...I have learned this the hard way. A couple times lol.

 

[Runawaylobster]

The very best advice I can give you...is always keep a backup rooster...I have learned this the hard way. A couple times lol.

I'm sure that makes them both happy then, i won't have to decide until everyone grows up enough, remember i have 7 more bcm's growing up, but so far I don't see a good contender amongst them, this is why i'm anxious to start weeding out.. ..... Maybe i'll give spike a test drive to see if he is still mean to the hens..... that would be quite a deciding factor regardless of anything else..

 

[gilavina]

Vicki, I use the brooders pictured in my profile I believe. They are 24"x48" with the GQF auto heaters. I have nine of those for the Babys and then I transfer them to floor brooder rooms that are 8'x10' until they go outside at about six weeks.
I try and stay away from the brooders with wire floors as I like mine to eat a little crap so the cocci stays away.

I'll have to go look. I also do the same as you whenever possible Don about the Cocci. I think in all the years (over 30), there's only been two cases of Cocci that I can remember, and both those years were exceptionally wet.

 

[flgardengirl]

I'll have to go look. I also do the same as you whenever possible Don about the Cocci. I think in all the years (over 30), there's only been two cases of Cocci that I can remember, and both those years were exceptionally wet.

We get cocci here on exceptionally wet years. Our place used to be part of a egg laying production farm. I was told they had 150,000 white leghorns here 50 years ago. Of course I didn't find this out until after we were moved in lol. It was a big place and they actual facility wasn't on our yard because ours has the main old farmhouse still on it (with only about 4 acres). So about 10 acres down from us was where the birds were actually housed but there is water runoff etc. So if there is anything that they can catch from the soil here...they will. Only the hardiest birds have survived which is a good thing anyways lol.

My grandmother is 95 and has raised chickens her whole life and still does. She is my Go To Person in all chicken and garden matters LOL! She says they always threw in a handful of dirt from the chicken yard with all their baby chicks that they raised (if the broodies weren't raising them). She says they never get cocci if they are exposed to the soil right away. Notice broody raised babies never seem to get cocci... I have never seen it here with the broodies raising them. I tried the dirt method with this last batch of chicks and so far so good.

 

[flgardengirl]

The very best advice I can give you...is always keep a backup rooster...I have learned this the hard way. A couple times lol.

I would keep your best two but only use your best one until you can replace for a better roo. Does Spike always hold his wings in the straight downward position? Also his hackles look a little on the light side. You want a more balanced copper. Both of them need better shank feathering from what I can see from the photo..
The second roo has a little bit of mahogany to his saddle feathers. I don't like his tail at all. If you have a girl with a really long back and pinched tail but set at a good angle, it might work.
Try and breed for more balance coppering. If your girls run on the dark side you may be able to use the lighter hackled roo but if his wing is like that all the time I am not sure I would use him. You could test mate each of your best roos and see what pops up.

 

[Runawaylobster]

I would keep your best two but only use your best one until you can replace for a better roo. Does Spike always hold his wings in the straight downward position? Also his hackles look a little on the light side. You want a more balanced copper. Both of them need better shank feathering from what I can see from the photo..
The second roo has a little bit of mahogany to his saddle feathers. I don't like his tail at all. If you have a girl with a really long back and pinched tail but set at a good angle, it might work.
Try and breed for more balance coppering. If your girls run on the dark side you may be able to use the lighter hackled roo but if his wing is like that all the time I am not sure I would use him. You could test mate each of your best roos and see what pops up.

thank you for the feedback, im not sure about spike's wings it may be just his suspicious evil eye position i will have to go and look some more. I have more choices in roos than in pullets actually. of the black coppers, I hatched 4 eggs and got 2 and 2, then i purchased 10 chicks, 7 turned out to be boys, one pullet never grew at all and died and then of the remaining two one is completely black so far, and the other has lacing on the breast, but maybe they will improve... they are still only 3 months. I know i am going to get some lighter eggs if I cross the two groups but hopefully I will be able to recover that down the road. I read your post about the cocci, i thought you were in key west but must be wong. I had a problem with cocci last summer but it was really really wet and hot. we had torrential rain for days and then daily steam baths to follow it. In one storm i had to go out and rescue the chickens when the coop flooded and they were floating around like little ducks in it. I gave them Corid and it worked really well. There are alot of doves in the lychee trees and i think maybe they are carriers..

 

[gilavina]

thank you for the feedback, im not sure about spike's wings it may be just his suspicious evil eye position i will have to go and look some more. I have more choices in roos than in pullets actually. of the black coppers, I hatched 4 eggs and got 2 and 2, then i purchased 10 chicks, 7 turned out to be boys, one pullet never grew at all and died and then of the remaining two one is completely black so far, and the other has lacing on the breast, but maybe they will improve... they are still only 3 months. I know i am going to get some lighter eggs if I cross the two groups but hopefully I will be able to recover that down the road. I read your post about the cocci, i thought you were in key west but must be wong. I had a problem with cocci last summer but it was really really wet and hot. we had torrential rain for days and then daily steam baths to follow it. In one storm i had to go out and rescue the chickens when the coop flooded and they were floating around like little ducks in it. I gave them Corid and it worked really well. There are alot of doves in the lychee trees and i think maybe they are carriers..

Coccidiosis is not a germ spread disease, but rather lives in the ground and comes from the natural oocsyts that live in poultry intestinal tracts. When they get out of balance within the poultry, it causes them to get sick, the bonus is that once they have it, they develop an immunity to it.

 

[flgardengirl]

Yep cocci is supposed to be species specific. There are many different types of cocci that affect chickens. They will be immune to the specific type of cocci they are exposed to, however, move them to someone else's place etc. and there might be a different type of cocci there that they are not immune to. I like corid best. It works on all the different kinds of cocci by preventing the use of vit. B/ thiamine by the cocci. Sulmet does not work on all the different strains of cocci and definitely does not work on the kind we have here.

No I'm not in Key West . I just keep KW chickens lol. Best broodies, foragers, and layers I've ever had. Too bad their eggs aren't a little bigger but they pretty much lay all yr long to make up for it.