Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[math ace]

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I wished you had said something earlier. . . . I have spent the last 1 1/2 months battling fowl pox. . . .
It was my first time dealing with it. I ended up with a very expensive vet bill for the diagnosis of it

I lost 2 birds before that to the fowl pox - - one had the dry version and one had the wet version.
The one I took to the vet had BOTH.

The vet was all confused because they didn't believe mosquitos could be an issue at this time of year. . . .
I am guessing the mosquitos loved the heat from the brooder lamps during the cold weather

SINCE then I have vaccinated All the healthy birds from my two other flocks. Hopefully

I am so done with FOWL POX

I ordered extra vaccine for future hatches. . .

I recommend FIRST STATE VET to get your vaccine from . .. . IT is $10.50 for the ice packs and cooler for shipping and $8 a bottle for the vaccine. They sell the vaccine that is safe enough you can give it to 1 day old chicks

Then, follow up a few months later with the ADULT vaccine. One bottle does something like 1000 birds BUT you have to use it up within 2 hours - - you can not keep the leftovers.

I WILL VACCINATE FOR FOWL POX in the future. . . . This was just CRAZY !

 

[flgardengirl]

I didnt lose any birds to fowl pox. I had one ameraucana male that got the wet pox and was having a real hard time swallowing. I had to feed him wet soupy mash so he could eat. Poor guy. He fully recovered though. Most of them had a mild case. I put a few of the groups on antibiotics as a preventative during the outbreak and that seemed to help.

 

[math ace]

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I think this is the KEY to successful treatment. I put this group on preventative antibiotics too . . . Just as soon as the vet told me what I was dealing with. When they came down with it - - - - the symptoms were much more milder than the first 3 chickens.

It is MUCH EASIER to administer the vaccine to chicks than it is the older birds with tougher skin

We are taking photos next time.. . . The instructions don't come with pictures - - - just a verbal description of how to adminster it. IF you have never administer a vaccine in the wing a bird - - A REALLY GOOD PHOTO would be useful. We tried to google it and only got sketches that were almost useless.

 

[flgardengirl]

The one reason that I am thinking of starting to vaccinate is because I found out the property we live on used to be a egg farm and there was at one time 150,000 leghorns here. There was a total of 20 acres originally and I am not sure if ours actually had the birds on it since it has the original farmhouse. It could be the nieghbors property that had the coops on it lol. We only have 3.2 acres here. Anyhow, I heard that some diseases can live in the soil for years. Soooo.....

I am not squeamish about giving vaccinations, doing suture or anything. I'm an RN so kinda used to gross stuff lol.

 

[math ace]

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I candle at day 1 to make sure there are no hairline cracks
I candle at day 7 looking for developement.
Then I candle at day 13 or 14 for MORE developement.

I don't candle any more after this. . . If they were still growing at day 14 - -- into lockdown they will go!

 

[Hens and Roos]

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I candle at day 1 to make sure there are no hairline cracks
I candle at day 7 looking for developement.
Then I candle at day 13 or 14 for MORE developement.

I don't candle any more after this. . . If they were still growing at day 14 - -- into lockdown they will go!

Our last 2 batches were white and light brown eggs so it was easy to see what was going on-this time around we have the darker eggs so it has been a challenge even at day 10 but your information makes since, we'll have to try that on the next hatch.

 

[VillageChicken]

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X2! What's up with the light one's beak? At 16 weeks, they both have filling out to do in both body and feathering. Does the lighter one have white-based hackle feathers?

Thanks for the feedback. The beak just had mud on it, it's fine. There's no white in the hackle... yet, it's just shine. The lighter one actually acts more healthy than the dark. He's smaller, but he's feeling his oats already and ranges around, calls the girls to food etc. The dark one just kind of skulks around on his own, and isn't very nice to the girls when they come close while he's eating. Don't think the testosterone's flowing in the dark one quite so well. I had a bunch of birds processed a few weeks ago, they were between 17-19 weeks and I was surprised what big differences there were in the sizes of their "organs". Some of the males still had not hit puberty.

I'll post pics in another month or so. I don't think the light one had an eye injury. There's a hen that hatched with him with the same "dirty" eyes.

 

[pinkchick]

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Nope....never.

 

[pinkchick]

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To me she resembles that of a silver salmon somewhat...or Blue Silver Salmon and part Birchen. If you had a Silver Salmon cockerel you would be in business, but I would use the blue birchen over her and see what is produced. I wonder how long it will take to get to the lemon color. That is going to be quite the challenge.
She is pretty.....how many generations of this cross is she.....basically how much Marans is in there?

 

[gilavina]

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To me she resembles that of a silver salmon somewhat...or Blue Silver Salmon and part Birchen. If you had a Silver Salmon cockerel you would be in business, but I would use the blue birchen over her and see what is produced. I wonder how long it will take to get to the lemon color. That is going to be quite the challenge.
She is pretty.....how many generations of this cross is she.....basically how much Marans is in there?

Morning Kim,

I thought the same thing when that guy told me he was working on Lemon Blues...that it would take quite some time and was more challenge than I would want to take on. I agree that to me they are mostly somewhere in the duckwing or birchen range and my hunch was to try them with my blue birchen. My only struggle then would be to get feathers on their legs and my blue birchen is clean legged too... This guy didn't like the feather legs...but maybe I can get my hands on a silver or blue silver salmon cockerel by some miracle haha.

He said when I bought them that it was his third year working on the lemon blues, but I know he started from some silver duckwings and these were the ones that showed too much of the duckwing for his liking. They were just a couple months old when I got them, so they are either second or third generation depending on his breeding program's hatchings. I think they are really pretty too...but just have to figure out how to best use them...

I'm learning quickly...I have a few alternative ideas if I can't end up using them to throw birds i'm looking for...
think its worth it to be messing around with them?