Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[cluckcluck42]

Ok, strange question, but one of my 6 week old Wheaten Maran roos has weird feathers. Some of them are sticking out at odd angles. It almost looks like a weird kind of frizzling. Is this something anyone else is familiar with? I will try to take pics later.

 

[Illia]

VERY nice eggs people.

Still trying to find time to get some photos and upload them of my own eggs lately. . . . I just feel a great need to improve them though. They're just as dark as the original eggs I got my stock from, and I'm hoping Wynette's cockerel I hatched will help, but so far the pullets from Wynette are really ranging. One lays a nice dark egg, another lays a really fascinating matte-finished orange egg. I'm betting I'm looking at two completely different breedings here.

Wynette, I recall you saying a couple eggs you got me were pure Bev Davis, and a couple were from Presley/Jeanne hens, yes?

 

[pinkchick]

Quote:
Thank you! Yah those are from the project pen of copper blue and splash that I am working on. I wish I was getting egg color from the breeding pen like that, so for now as I am working on conformation in the breeding pen, I will sacrifice a bit of egg color. A great BYC'er once said to me......"build the barn first, paint it later."

 

[Illia]

Quote:
Frizzy like this?

 

[cluckcluck42]

Quote:
Frizzy like this?

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2086/4508881117_d1b9242eaf_o.jpg

Yeah I think so! He's got all his feathers except for a few on his head though. Its a normal thing then?

 

[VioletBlueIvy]

Quote:
I think so, but if a blue bird wont produce a black bird than how do you get 25% Black from BlueXBlue? I must be missing something.....
And, is silver what produces the Birchen and gold what produces BCM? Or are there gold birchen and silver BCM's that I havent heard of? How does the silver express in a bcm? Am I even making sense?LOL!

Hi

You have to breed two blue birds together to get black, blue and splash chicks.

Yes, you need both parents carring silver to get a birchen and two parents carrying gold to get a black copper. A gold birchen is called a black copper.

Bev

Ok! I do get it!
Thank you very much!
You mentioned that sometimes it's hard to tell a Black from a very dark Blue. How do you tell?

 

[math ace]

Quote:
Bev,

Do you mean the fish meal Like I use in my garden ? ? Like the fish meal I buy in the garden section at home depot ? ?

Stinky REALLY stinky stuff ? ? ??

If so, how much do you use say on 10 hens ? ?
Do you just mix it up in their crumbles ? ?

FISH MEAL - - REALLY ? ? Does it make their eggs taste - - - well - - FISHY ? ?

 

[math ace]

Quote:
ROAD TRIP TIME - - - Who wants to catch a ride with me to Pink's house? She has to sleep sometime and I am not above borrowing the hen laying those FANTASTIC eggs for a little while. I here the roo's loving is good for several weeks. We could hatch a couple dozen of eggs FOR SURE and then return the little girl . . . . .

 

[Organics North]

Quote:
Bev,

Do you mean the fish meal Like I use in my garden ? ? Like the fish meal I buy in the garden section at home depot ? ?

Stinky REALLY stinky stuff ? ? ??

If so, how much do you use say on 10 hens ? ?
Do you just mix it up in their crumbles ? ?

FISH MEAL - - REALLY ? ? Does it make their eggs taste - - - well - - FISHY ? ?

Get feed grade fish meal.. But most likely yes like the stuff you put in the garden..

OK to go from 17% Protein to 20.9% protein you would feed the birds one part fish meal for every 10 parts of your 17% protein feed.
Fish meal is 60% protein so::
10x17=170
1x60= 60
Total =230
Divided by 11 equals 20.9% Protein.

Sprinkle the fish meal on damp feed or on some treats.

No less than 10% fish meal will not make your eggs fishy.

You could do the same thing with soybean meal which is 34%P Just add 2 parts of that for every 10 parts of your regular feed to be in the low 20 percent range of protein..

Pink thanks for the note:

ON

 

[pinkchick]

Quote:
ROAD TRIP TIME - - - Who wants to catch a ride with me to Pink's house? She has to sleep sometime and I am not above borrowing the hen laying those FANTASTIC eggs for a little while. I here the roo's loving is good for several weeks. We could hatch a couple dozen of eggs FOR SURE and then return the little girl . . . . .

Hold onto your horses Math............ready for this.........DH said that he was up for a road trip and asked me when and where that big poultry show in Georgia is at that I always talk about......lol....my ears perked up and he had my full attention. The rest of that evening I asked him over and over if he was serious and he kept saying he was and told me to work out the details but to be sure it's by way of Texas and Oklahoma so he can see his daughters and grandkids. Now what's funny is I am the one being a little hestitant about traveling across country in February and who do I find to take care of my birdies for 2 weeks and where I live if we had a winter storm that included snow.......the sitter may not be able to make it in or out. When it snows at my house....we usually can't get out of our driveway. We live 18 miles east of Mt. St. Helen's up in the foothills.....beautiful but can be very dangerous when snowing. I have some homework ahead of me if I want to take him up on his offer. Got any ideas?