Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[kathyinmo]

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No, not a carnation comb .... but certainly a horrible comb, and it even has a tiny little sprig, too! This boy has every fault you can imagine! I do want to keep him though, because he is a larger size, and I eat alot of chicken.

 

[undergroundchickens]

Hi, I just hatched two chicks from the Wade Jeane line of FBCM. One chick has leg/toe feathers and the others legs/toes are completely bare. Is that normal to get a chick without the feathering when someone is supposed to be breeding to the French standard of this breed?

 

[coq au vin]

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Yes, it happens.

 

[coq au vin]

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Good on ya!

I have a Marans pullet that would be the most cull-worthy thing out there if not for the fact that she's also the biggest of 42, most of which are older than she is. I'd like to set her up with a handsome Freedom Ranger some day. She also hatched from a No. 7 (in my guesstimation), not too shabby a place to start.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder of the dinner plate and the egg carton.

 

[kathyinmo]

I would much rather eat my own meat rather than store bought. I know mine are well fed, and don't have a bunch of meds and chemicals in them. Eggs and meat, just 2 of the benefits of this backyard hobby of mine.

I have yet to eat a Marans. I have heard that they are one of the better tasting chickens, though.

 

[halo]

Im hatching out my first marans right now, from my wheaten roo and cuckoo hens. Im using them as fertility checks, and he checks out just fine. Interestingly, the babies are sex linked; they are all black, but the baby boys have white spots on their heads. So I can separate them right away. Ill be interested to see if the girls stay solid black. The cuckoo hens are all clean legged, but these black baby girls all have feathers on their legs. Good boy!

The cuckoos are also really big and big bodied girls, which is the one thing my roo needs help on; but he's the only one I have, so he's all I have to work with right now. Im not working so much on egg color (which from the cuckoos is dark, but barely Marans dark; big eggs, tho) from this cross as seeing if I can get some size. So many different things to work on when working on Marans.

 

[snowbird]

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At the midwest shows they furnish pine shavings for the cages, and you can take a few along to ad to what is already there to build up the shavings. All the open shows are setup with wood bottoms and the collapsible cages, should not be a problem.

geebs, I almost forgot to say take a jug of water or a empty container to get water in for your birds, Most shows furnish scratch feed only for the birds, so suggest you take along a small container of your feed you use.

 

[Byrdj]

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Yes they are, but much less meat that the cornishx birds you see in the stores.

 

[pinkchick]

Thanks for the imput on the egg........I love the color of it and I think I am going to toss it in for giggles. I am addicted to those nice bright red ruby eggs. Considering it came from a project blue...I take it. You guys are the greatest!!!!!

to you all!

Don~

Thanks for sharing that great advise for people about to show. Invaluable info if you ask me.

Well folks I think I will be off for a couple of days as I went to get on line this morning from my computer and it tells me that I have a fatal error.........won't let me do anything.

Hijacked DH puter for a minute to let you all know. He is patiently waiting behind me to log off.

Jan~ I don't know yet about the show.......I would love to go, all will depend on DH and if I can sweet talk him into driving me......he is saying right now as I type "maaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyybbbbbbbeeeeeeee...............yah, I can drive you if I must." He is a keeper! So I guess we will be there. We can work out a meet up spot and time in a couple of days.

lol......DH is going outside right now to get the extra computer tower out of storage so I can use it and give his back....

Kathy~ I have a guy that looks just like him.

See ya all soon!

 

[criker99]

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So I keep telling my nubby that we are missing the boat on not processing our culls. He thinks I am nuts to even consider it and it will tarnish my feminine sensibilities forever and I will never eat chicken again. I used to help hang and cut deer, and even did one deer by myself, so I am not that sheltered,can this really be that much worse?

More specifically to marans, my next batch of shipped eggs arrived yesterday afternoon and will go in the incubator today ... When counting, do I start with today or tomorrow to determine lockdown? More specifically, what will lockdown day be?