Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[geebs]

stock up on the millet for the chooks... and you will always have eggs... Get some of those hot hands...In case of bator emergency or brooder emergency... You are at a much higher elevation. I am on the valley floor and quite sheltered... I am also on McClaren's prison grid so the power goes out for only a short time... This last time was the longest I have ever had... about an hour and 1/2 is all... but it was enough to kill 1/2 of my already hatched wet babies and ruin my hatch in the cold... I didn't have hot hands in the house.. DANG!!!! I will run to Wally world today and grab up some more...(it is an OHSET stapel)

 

[pinkchick]

DH says they expect weather front possibly Tuesday.

I have eggs that go into lockdown tomorrow....set for hatch Tuesday.

We shall see how they manage if they manage at all.....the day before last and part of the day before that, I fought temp spikes and once it went up to 104 degrees, don't know how long it was at 104, I found it like this after we came home, we had been gone for more than 8 hours that day.

 

[geebs]

It took over 50 calls from us just after Christmas... it was the repeated calls to 911 that got the job done... We (I can't give details as these men are dangerous.... really) didn't give up as they looked like they wouldn't make it through another night some of em... I rehabbed these animals once already and followed them after they were stolen out of our care...It is an aweful situation beyond what the news reported..that is the tip of the iceberg. Okay enuff thread jacking... my bad.

http://www.katu.com/news/local/112922109.html

I just want to say

Just bragging to my marans buddies... he he...

 

[pinkchick]

Jan, good for you! That stuff makes me soooooooooooooooo

 

[geebs]

Yep!!! There isn't a smiley for me here!!! It would be a very violent smiley!!!

I was saddened that the news cared more about visual shockery than the real story... I have someone going to do a long story on this... I am compiling evidence to hand over to the attorneys regarding the fact that these animals were not only starved but also stolen property... part of a confiscation from 2009 and awarded by the Humane Society to our care...

I would like to hand em like a pinata and beat em with a stick till the candy falls out!!!!

Hey how do I know if my wheatie is a boy or girl... hatched Jan 1

 

[marquisella]

Quote:
AS a retired 4H poultry educator, I feel I can respond to this.

Most local fairs don't have the finances to hire "real APA judges", so they are lucky to get anyone to judge. Usually it is someone who is known in the area for having poultry, so they get them to do it. Since blrws are new, and there is no standard, a lot of people have no idea what they are supposed to look like, so the judging is not good.

If the bird was the only blrw being show, then it didn't matter really what sex it was.

Entries have the sex on them, so it was the mistake of the exhibitor, but the judge should have know what the sex was, unless it was very young. But then back to it didn't really matter if it was the only blrw entered.

If this was a 4H show, ribbons are awarded on the worthiness of the animal using the Dutch system. So they give a lot of blue ribbons out, not just 1 for first place.

My own exerience with Marans at the NY State Fair 2 years ago was also a disappointment. My "flock" of Marans on exhibit, was DQ'd for haveing feathered legs...

You can imagine my surprise when I saw it on the card...obviously the APA judge had no idea what the standard should be. So mistakes happen.

There are breeders in the North East for both blrws & Marans, I have both and know several breeders as well.

If you want, I can look up some for you, let me know.

Sue

 

[geebs]

Here in Oregon they get the real deal for judges at the 4h fair.... It is really Ag out here.... They do use local ones though...Not a lot of them in the PNW... but they try to keep the travel to a minimum.

 

[crazyforchicks]

Quote:
I came into the coop yesterday and it was later in the day than I usually go out to gather eggs and there were 3 eggs in the nest but one was totally smashed, I dont really know if they cracked it or just a clumsy hen tromping it. My hens are in the coop 24/7 now because I live in wisconsin and there is 10inches of snow in there run.

I feed them layer mash, oyster shell in their feed and free choice. Plus all the table scraps I can get my hands on. I was cleaning the nest boxes last week and I accidentally dropped an egg on the floor and they were after it before I could get it off the floor. I hope I didnt give them a taste for eggs now.

 

[pinkchick]

So.......Mr. Don and I were discussing my little man yesterday. I had some questions so I shot these photos over to Don for his thoughts.

Thought that I would share them with ya'll so that if there is something (the variations of blue) to be learned from this that we can all watch it together.

Remember a couple of months ago I was hatching Delawares, Welsummers, Marans and Olive Eggers and I had that long power outage.......well the power outage has nothing to do with it just used it for a reminder......anyway, remember those VERY VERY light silvery "blue coppers" that I hatched out? Well I think that I may have jumped the gun and called them both blue coppers, when one of them (the male I posted pics of a week or so ago) I believe now could quite possibly be a splash that presents very blue , if that makes any sense. The other light blue that hatched was a female and I gave her away a few weeks ago so I don't know what she looks like now. But check out the hackles on the male that I thought was blue copper.

This is the photo I posted of him not too long ago. He had just a couple of copper feathers coming in on his neck, not noticeable in the photo though.

This is him, yesterday morning, please excuse his dumb pose, he's always watching what I'm doing and has to check stuff out. 2.5 mos. old.

Look closely at his hackles and notice the tips and ends of the hackles are looking very silvery light whiteish blue and the copper is sort of coming in a fleckish pattern like that of a splash.

Don't know if you can see this but I can see it on my monitor, let me know if ya can't and I will get a better photo. He'll love me for sure.
This is his saddles just starting to come in and they too are the lightest silvery whiteish with flecking of copper like that of a splash.

Birds like him are what intrigue me the most with the blue gene..we just never know how dark or how light it is going to be.

 

[geebs]

cross him on a black hen... and you will know for sure...