Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[Debbi]

Pink,

I would be happy with the back and tail set of any of those you posted! Mine is either a combo of too long and low tail set, or just maybe not grown into their backs yet? Mine look like canoes compared to yours!

Severe weather coming into the area for the next day or so. May not be here for a couple of days! Lord, please don't take out the coop and new garage!

See ya all later!

 

[pinkchick]

Quote:
Debbi~ Wish you the best with the storm!

Be safe my friend!

 

[geebs]

Prayers for Debbi from Oregon... We are to have some weather also... I pray out computers don't go out!!! Mine won't ... I am on a grid that HAS to run... so I have a substation attached... I will be here since I won't be outside!!!

 

[Chicken from the hood]

Thank you Hens and Roos, Debbi and pinkchick.

It's really funny with some of the positions they do while they are dust bathing

Sometimes it's really freaky because it looks like there dying

 

[cook_kaka_ook]

Hello Marans experts. I've just collected the eggs from the coop just minutes ago and one of my BCmarans ladies laid another egg with a hole as shown in the pics. This the second time it has happened. I'm wondering if any of you had a hen laying an egg with this flaw.
Here are a couple of pics.

 

[Ivywoods]

What the heck? I've never seen anything like that before. Looks like you shot it with a .22 or something.

 

[coq au vin]

Are you sure another chicken didn't peck it? I have somebody that occasionally pecks one and leaves it just like that. She doesn't devour it, just pecks it like that. When I find out who it is...it's gonna be free on craigslist.

 

[Ivywoods]

Quote:
Thats nothing...How would you like to be a chick at my house?

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/46277_026.jpg

Oh, my! Those chickens must feel like they are living in an Alfred Hitchock movie!

Anyone ever remember the TV series called "The Twilight Zone."

That was the first thing I thought of when I saw that image. I'm sure you chickies think that is a SICK way of entertaining your kitty.

Kinda like goldfish in a bowl, eh?

 

[pinkchick]

Quote:
Hi Cook!

Let me guess that little hole seems like it just wasn't really developed at all, huh? You know how an ember or match will burn a nice hole right through polyester or something like that, does the hole sort of resemble that but looks like what melted dropped through the hole to almost land on the membrane of the egg? Did any of that make sense?

I have got eggs like that.

I posted this article once before in another thread hoping that it would be discussed and thought that it had merit. Maybe this time.
Borrowed from Wikipedia.


"The default color of vertebrate eggs is the white of the calcium carbonate from which the shells are made, but some birds, mainly passerines, produce colored eggs. The pigments biliverdin and its zinc chelate give a green or blue ground color, and protoporphyrin produces reds and browns as a ground color or as spotting.

Non-passerines typically have white eggs, except in some ground-nesting groups such as the Charadriiformes, sandgrouse and nightjars, where camouflage is necessary, and some parasitic cuckoos which have to match the passerine host's egg. Most passerines, in contrast, lay colored eggs, even if there is no need of cryptic colors.

However, a recent study suggests that the protoporphyrin markings on passerine eggs actually act to reduce brittleness by acting as a solid state lubricant. If there is insufficient calcium available in the local soil, the egg shell may be thin, especially in a circle around the broad end. Protoporphyrin speckling compensates for this, and increases inversely to the amount of calcium in the soil.

For the same reason, later eggs in a clutch are more spotted than early ones as the female's store of calcium is depleted.

The color of individual eggs is also genetically influenced, and appears to be inherited through the mother only, suggesting that the gene responsible for pigmentation is on the sex determining W chromosome (female birds are WZ, males ZZ).

It used to be thought that color was applied to the shell immediately before laying, but this research shows that coloration is an integral part of the development of the shell, with the same protein responsible for depositing calcium carbonate, or protoporphyrins when there is a lack of that mineral.

In species such as the Common Guillemot, which nest in large groups, each female's eggs have very different markings, making it easier for females to identify their own eggs on the crowded cliff ledges on which they breed."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egg_(biolog…

 

[Dixiedoodle]

I was amazed at how heavy my two Marans girls are! I have BO, BR, RIR and Ameraucanas.. I pick them up, hold them all... Yesterday, I picked up my BCM girls that are 20weeks old and they are HEAVY... They don't look fat or even chubby...but it is misgiving. Is this normal?