Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[geebs]

If I get to choose... straight blue... Awesome...thanks.

My Wyandottes are not giving an egg a day..One of the girls is laying a soft shell, not hatchable, so I am trying to get 6 in a row for shipping.. If "Beta" doesn't come back on line I will only have 6 to ship that will have a good shipping viability.. Where am I shipping to Pink?

Yes EGGS!!!! Are they platypusus or ???

I am guessing blue copper and blue.

 

[pinkchick]

Quote:
I will PM you the info on shipping, I have eggs shipped to my best friends house because she lives closer to town that I do and she is always home so they don't have to sit outside and wait for me to get them.

The eggs I put in from the Marans are/should be blue coppers but I suspect I will get a splash somewhere in the mix. Just threw a few in for testing from the project pen and the other few I tossed in from the breeding pen are from a solid blue pullet and a blue copper pullet, we will see what happens. Wish I had more to toss in from the breeding pen but it seems that they have slowed in laying .....

and they just started, not fair. Also not too excited with the current egg color coming from a couple of gals in the breeding pen, I think I am going to suffer through with some egg color loss and keep the two gals that aren't laying a super dark egg in the breeding pen(they are laying like a 5 on the egg chart) because they have super conformation, eye color and good shank feathering. Ya win some....ya lose some, ya know??????

 

[geebs]

Option b for the gals... SEll the layer to me!!!! that would work and I could deliver a dozen.. that would work really well... If I dont' have to ship... then I can do more eggies.. If I am collecting 1 a day that really limits for the ship factor.

 

[bikechick]

eOK gang here a few pictures of two cockerels I acquired last Friday. I would like to get into the Marans breeding thang, but if one or both are less than acceptable to work with they will go with my EE's to make Olive Eggers. I know one roo has too many comb points and lack of leg feathers. I am 100% newbie to the breed so I will not be offended to hear the truth(s). No standard knowledge to have my feelings hurt. So what do you all think? (the one roo w/ leg feathers is missing some tail feathers (?)

 

[pinkchick]

As I was getting eggs ready this morning for my egg customers I noticed some very round Marans eggs. Just for fun I thought that I would post a couple pics of them next to some BO and OE eggs. A couple of them are so round that they have stress cracks around the equatorial band. These eggs are from my project pen of blue coppers, blues and splash pen, the first photo makes them appear a shade darker than they really are, the second photo is more accurate on color.
Both photos were taken outside one with flash and one without.

 

[daegorn]

What is BO and OE?

thanks

 

[chasehope]

Buff Orpington and Olive egger

 

[ruth]

Quote:
I've also seen people use "OE" for Old English as in Old English Game Bird - depends on which thread you are reading.

 

[Wynette]

Pink - LOVE those nice round eggies!

Question for my Marans friends: how many of you cull with disposition being part of your reasoning? I had a conversation with someone very recently who had a super nice Marans cockerel that she gave away...once he began to breed, he got very aggressive. I'd mentioned to her that the few that I've had in the past that were very aggressive I freecycled - all of them found homes rather than stew pots (I was fine either way, and made sure to advertise them as aggressive) and, interestingly, all of the homes free ranged their birds all day long and had not had any trouble with them being aggressive after checking back in a few months. So, I am unsure if it's due to the fact that they were allowed much, much more free range time, OR, they just needed a change of scenery.

Anyway, this prompted us to discuss how many folks would keep a super nice roo in the breed pen if he was aggressive. Thoughts? The roo I'd be talking about keeping would be as close to perfect as could be...in every way other than disposition.

 

[ruth]

I don't know whether or not disposition/attitude/aggresiveness is something that is passed on or learned from but out of about 100 roos - I've only had one mean aggressive one and it was one of the nicest looking of the original BCM flock I bought. He was one of their offspring and still sort of young and I was warned that he was "mean". Well he got meaner and meaner. I couldn't go in the pen to get the waterer without him attacking me. He would attack anyone who got near that pen. We had a young high school girl working for us for the summer (last year) and I had to warn her not to go in that pen. DH couldn't do anything with him either. He got so bad we were kicking the breath out of him and he would still get up and attack you - and I mean full Ninja flogging, spurs, ride your back, jump on your face and claw your eyes out kind of stuff.

I tried all the things I've read here - carry him around, etc. etc. I carried him around all right - carried him upside down threatening to swing him against a tree if he didn't stop.

Okay, don't go all PETA on me.

Nothing worked.

So I turned him loose. Took him out of the pen thinking he would be better if out, totally free, with all the other non-breeder hens/roos running around here. Figured it was a protective of his pen kind of thing. Well....I was really, really wrong. At least when he was in the pen I knew where he was and could prepare myself (rake in hand). Once he was loose it was like a WAR every day with some enemy hiding in wait for me. He would hide under bushes, behind coops, barns - you never knew where he would be - but suddenly he's on me, trying to kill me. He would chase me all over the farm.

Finally, one day, I came in and told my husband "That roo has just volunteered to be Sunday dinner for the last time" - so.....we honored his final request.

I have a farm that is open for tours. No way, no how can I have an aggressive animal of any sort running around here. Plus, I have new grandbabies that will be learning to walk and explore the farm. I just won't risk a rooster with an attitude - not even in a pen because I saw how dangerous he could get.