Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[pinkchick]

Math~

All of my roos live with their girls 24-7 (with the exception of the freezer pen...no girls allowed in there) I have never had any issues with the boys being too hard on them or leaving any "battle scars" due to spurs. The only problem I had once was 2 girls that were complete floozies, they became the favorites and were alwasy bare backed. I removed them to a pen by themselves for about 2 mos. and before I knew it they had all of their feathers back. Upon putting them back with a roo, I think they forgot about being easy and the roo forgot about them being the fav's, all has been well. But I will say I can tell who gets rooster attention more by the feathers on the backs of the girls' heads from the boys grabbing them with their beaks whilst in the act. When I see bald or near bald spots I cycle the girls out for a while and give them a break.

 

[Debbi]

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So Berkley are you saying that if there are enough hens around then it is not necessary to remove the spurs ? ?

Mornin' Lisa! I would think it would depend on the situation in question. How many girls he has, how much room he has, does he have favorites, does he have competition, etc. ? My Fuglee has 3 girls, he definately has a favorite, I don't recall ever seeing him breed one of them. With 5 cockerels in there, he is off and chasing the girls right out of the box in the morning! Seems like he is only interested in breeding in the morning too.

 

[flgardengirl]

0o0o its snowing outside here in FL...just tiny tiny flakes here at my place. Okay back to the Marans News Chanel LOL.

 

[pinkchick]

Quote:
So Berkley are you saying that if there are enough hens around then it is not necessary to remove the spurs ? ?

Mornin' Lisa! I would think it would depend on the situation in question. How many girls he has, how much room he has, does he have favorites, does he have competition, etc. ? My Fuglee has 3 girls, he definately has a favorite, I don't recall ever seeing him breed one of them. With 5 cockerels in there, he is off and chasing the girls right out of the box in the morning! Seems like he is only interested in breeding in the morning too.

Agreed Debbi! I notice more bald spots on the girls heads in the pens where I keep very small numbers of birds. The pens that have between 5-7 girls and one roo show more rooster wear than in the big pens where I have more females than the boys need. I have recently added a few girls from the laying flock to the smaller pens to divert some of the boys' attention, seems to be helping as I have seen less dirty foot prints on some of the girls backs.

 

[math ace]

Quote:
So cOOL RIGHT ? ??

AND back to the marans

Debbie, my guy is with 13 hens. I do plan on removing the 4 smaller breeds hens from him.
That will leave him with 9 hens.

He mates with eveyone, but the small girls are the ones that end up with combs damaged.

 

[Debbi]

Quote:
So cOOL RIGHT ? ??

AND back to the marans

Debbie, my guy is with 13 hens. I do plan on removing the 4 smaller breeds hens from him.
That will leave him with 9 hens.

He mates with eveyone, but the small girls are the ones that end up with combs damaged.

Maybe they need bonnets to keep their combs intact? I can see it now..

Guess your boy needs a better hold for the smaller hens, can you seperate them out for a bit like Pink did?

 

[Debbi]

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Do folks down there freak out when they see snow?? I always thought it was funny when it rained in So. CA, people seemed to go nuts, and forget how to drive. There'd be accidents everywhere from people not slowing down on oil soaked roads!

 

[math ace]

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Yep, that is the plan!

I was concerned about the spurs, because my friend had her roo with appropriate sized hens ( no lite weights) !
I don't want to see my girls get hurt because I didn't do something that I should of . .. . .

 

[flgardengirl]

Quote:

Do folks down there freak out when they see snow?? I always thought it was funny when it rained in So. CA, people seemed to go nuts, and forget how to drive. There'd be accidents everywhere from people not slowing down on oil soaked roads!

I don't know I've only lived here almost 3 yrs now lol. I heard the last time it snowed was 1989 and the freeway was shut down, they got more then. Math Ace has lived here longer

This stuff is melting as it hits our clothes lol, pretty much has stopped now.
It snowed one time when I lived in Phx and there were wrecks all over the freeway. They can't even drive when it rains there LOL! Come to think of it niether can some of the people around here and they should be able to drive in the rain in FL.

 

[VillageChicken]

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Hmmm, I did the dry hatch this time and can't say I'm impressed. Ended up bumping up the humidity towards the end of lockdown, but may have been too late. Still have 8 eggs in there with no signs of life. Today is day 25, so they've got two more days to make their debut. Next hatch I will try a moderated dry hatch.

The little one I rescued is peeping her head off this morning, and is up and moving around, albeit slowly!

Yeah, in the winter you have to watch the humidity. I started a dry hatch at the end of November, and the humidity was off the scale too dry - like below the 0 on the hygrometer, so I put a small bowl of water in there to keep it at least 25%. Still one of my chicks developed fully, absorbed the yolk and was then too big to pip. It was perfectly formed and mature but after absorbing the yolk had no room to move.

It's always a compromise, especially with eggs of mixed sizes and breeds.