Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[flgardengirl]

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I agree. Mine are laying nice big dark eggs. I have one girl (Sedona) who is a little mossy but not too terribly bad. The other 4 are not mossy at all. One is a little over melanized but you know I got roos for that LOL! These girls are really getting to be a nice size too. Still have some growing to do though.

 

[geebs]

Uh... pictures... I showed you mine....now it is your turn.

 

[flgardengirl]

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You should get bayhorsebonnie bcms. I got most all girls from that hatch. I hope my hens from her all throw mostly pullets too.

Why get from bayhorsebonnie, when I can get from you neighbor ? ? ?

Honestly, I am closer to you than Mel is to PINK.. . . .

Once I get my breeding pens going you can

I am also hatching some silver blue and black birchen eggs....If they come out to be nice birds.. you can get some of those blue birchen eggs you like, once they are old enough lol.

 

[geebs]

About those pictures.... Do I HAVE TO YELL!!! LOL

Ya get em from Flgardengirl, math.. that's good.

 

[gilavina]

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Most of us are at the work in progress stage. . . .

I can not even work on the barn . . . . I am doing a great job of providing the food for the fried chicken picnic after the barn building, but an absolutely lousy job of building a barn or even finding a barn. . .. . I am blinded my the red combs and wattles that keep popping up every time I open the brooder cage.

I NEVER thought this would be my main trouble - - - producing a female chick.

We all feel your frustration

ONE step at a time. . . Pick something you can accomplish, do that and then move on to the next improvement.

At least here, you have some wonderful resources to get help from. On other threads, there is little collaborating. Marans breeders seem to be really to share their knowledge and help others learn from their mistakes. EDUCATION is big on this thread. OTHER threads want you to join their CLUBS to get information. I am soooooo glad it is OPEN here.

Thanks for the encouragement. After I read through this thread from the beginning I really realized how much work there really is to do on the Marans. I could see the obvious faults on mine and I wondered if I was the only one...so its been very good for me to read this. And I agree...there really is a lot of collaborating and openness on here. I've read through quite a few other threads and its just not the same as here.

I had planned my breeding pens for this season during the end of last year and have tweaked a few things as a result of some of what I read here and at the same time had a lot of confirmation my instincts were pretty good on what I needed to do to give me the best chances for improving my line.

I did have a question for you about producing mostly males...I was wondering what kind of incubator you use? and if you have ever callibrated or tested your temps to see how accurate they are? The reason I ask is that when temps in an incubator are high the results usually are more males. The other sign is if your eggs are hatching early at all. You might already know all of this, but I thought I would throw it out there in case.
And I'll keep my fingers crossed that your spring hatches will be filled to overflowing with pullets!

 

[flgardengirl]

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I will have to get some recent ones probably Sunday, cuz tomorrow I'm going fishing

LOL! The last pics I took of them they were tiny!

 

[gilavina]

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Hahaha....exactly who are you yelling at?

 

[math ace]

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I have only the black and blue copper marans. I prefer the black copper. So, I was trying to hatch a heavy concentration of her eggs.

So far the only accurate way I have of sexing mine is waiting until they are 2 - 4 weeks old and watch for the pink combs and wattles.

The feather sexing worked for the person that I got my hens from as week old chicks. . . . FROM ALL THESE ROOS that I am hatching - - - I will be selecting a slow feathering roo and seeing in six months if I can produce some feather sexed chicks.

Let's see 6 months from now . . . one hatch per month . . . 7 - 10 roos per hatch Ummmm
That will be 35 - 60 roos! Each roo has to be fed for 2 to 4 weeks before being identified.

WOW - - - sure wish I could feather sex these babies!
Yes, this is the decision that I have made today!

There are others out there - - - Pink with the Davis line and Geebs ( I forgot which line she has - - but it is not Davis) - - - who can feather sex their babies with pretty good accuracy.

 

[geebs]

Okay... Let me see if I get this straight... are you setting me up to accept small fish PiX???... Saying that your chicken pictures are small so that later you can have an excuse to stretch the truth about fish size.. "Oh ya... the picture makes the fish look small?!!!" (cuz that's what I would do)

here is a tiny one we caught...the big one got away!!! LOL

 

[flgardengirl]

Is that a steelhead?