Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[Raven1]

Thanks Debbie. They are chunkers huh I love the Splash but the Bill Jrs are beautys

 

[jlgoinggreen]

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LOL. Living on BYC doesn't help either.

My FBCM are on day 19 (and I can't seem to tear myself from the bator). And my Ameraucanas are due to hatch on the 20th of this month. Then I have a new batch of Ameraucanas coming next week and the enabler....I mean friend who is sending them to me has added a few of her BCMs.

And poor DH doesn't know that I am now looking at light brown egg layers too.

Of course these will not be for breeding. Only to add variety to my egg basket. At least that's what I keep telling myself.

so, you don't have much more waiting at all for some chickers!
I have a couple of projects going for a varied egg basket myself...I like having my laying pen for the ones that don't fit a certain program, but that I'm attached to. That way I can enjoy them and I have tons of fun collecting eggs of all colors.
I need to stop looking at other breeds of chickens for a while. I've got enough to keep me busy, but it sure is tempting

I'm curious.... what projects do you have going on and what breeds do you have? I'm also trying not to look at other breeds, but there are so many and soooo cute.

To be honest, when we moved from the farm I sold everything and I had a lot of different breeds (and mutts). This time around we live in a residential area and I have promised my husband I would only keep two breeds (Marans & Ameraucanas) to play with. I am now looking at some light brown egg layers (with some good chicken math I am sure I can convince him).

 

[pinkchick]

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Thanks for posting them Raven! Too CUTE!

I don't get too many of them that are all dark or with very little white on them but it has been my experience that the darker ones will mature to be darker adult birds and the females that are dark usually show little to no copper. Where both of the darker ones both from Gnarles and a BCM?

 

[jlgoinggreen]

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Nice! Not long now til your next hatch

I like the Orpingtons too, but I've got a big ol' soft spot for the wyandottes...alot of my childhood was spent helping my dad cull and work on his breeding program. Just seems natural that I'd go back to them since working with them is like second nature to me. Between those and my Marans I'll have my hands full for a while

Although, I could be persuaded to expand if some Lavendar Orps just happened to show up one day

Ohhhhhhhhhhh, I love those childhood memories too. For me it was with my Vava (grandmother) she always had chickens. Nothing special, just feed store dual purpose, but oh the memories.

Mine aren't really my memories per say since my grandparents were very old and sick by the time I was born. Mine are more like seeing how proud my mother is every time she looks at me with my animals. She is the oldest of 17 children and tells me that out of all my grandfather's 17 children and I've lost count as to how many grandchildren, I am the only one that would prefer to live in a farm and live a more sustainable lifestyle. My grandfather also LOVED chickens and you would always see him with a chicken in his arms or a shirt full of chicks he was helping keep warm. My mom loves telling me stories about my grandfather and his farm and I love hearing them.

 

[gilavina]

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Hearing about all these hatches people have going with your eggies is making me eggcited!! Some day that will be me

How are your eggs coming along in your incubator?

Last night I candled my 26 eggs that I set along with Math Ace, removed 12 clear and a couple quitters from that batch of eggs. Appears that even though I downsized Gnarles' flock size again, that he still has his favorite girls. The couple of girls that I am having problems with are also the 2 girls that are laying the lightest colored eggs in that coop, they have laid a light milky chocolate colored egg since they started laying. For everyone who has received eggs from me.....I did not include these girls' eggs in your boxes, just FYI.

The rest of my eggs all looked good but all I could see was veining.

CP's eggs~
I only candled the Marans eggs and the one Wellie egg that she sent. All look good, can only see veining in them with the exception of one of Smokey's (Blue Copper) eggs....I saw movement in that one!!

I am not candling the Wyandotte eggs...can't stand the thought of looking in to them and being heart broken if some of them are not good. I'm just going to wait and see what hatches with the Dotties.

Aww...I'm glad I'm not the only one that holds off candling things because I can't handle the heartache of it. I've gotten better, but I feel like some days I can handle the blow better than others. Tonight I'll be candling those two batches of shipped eggs I put in last week...BCMs and Colored Dorkings. This time around I put them in the hatching tray for a few days so they could remain still and then moved them up to the turners once I needed the hatcher for this set of chicks to hatch. I'm really hoping to see some good results. I'm going to go ahead and suck it up and candle them all because I am trying to see how doing things this way works and whether its better than going straight to the turners.

Sounds like you are going to have some exciting possibilities in this next hatch! I do think its funny how roosters will pick their favorites and it just seems like once they've made up their mind, that's it. What do you plan to do with the girls he isn't covering? Will a move to another pen be necessary? Or do you know any tricks I don't?

 

[gilavina]

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Hahah...those are darling! I love the second pic where the fuzzy butt is just there...hanging out!

 

[Raven1]

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Thanks for posting them Raven! Too CUTE!

I don't get too many of them that are all dark or with very little white on them but it has been my experience that the darker ones will mature to be darker adult birds and the females that are dark usually show little to no copper. Where both of the darker ones both from Gnarles and a BCM?

I don't know yet we did a snatch and grab and watched the humidty as I still have more in the hatcher but they have done nothing

yet
I will look when I give up and can read the eggs

 

[gilavina]

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Mathace, I really like the look of that pullet you have....she's beautiful!

 

[Lotsapaints]

Big evacuations going on here cleared out Availa Beach and Cayucos worried about Port San Luis and cleared most of the town I'm hoping it turns out like a drill.....I too hope there are no other earthquakes close what a morning woken up by the radio going crazy telling people to get out....

 

[gilavina]

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so, you don't have much more waiting at all for some chickers!
I have a couple of projects going for a varied egg basket myself...I like having my laying pen for the ones that don't fit a certain program, but that I'm attached to. That way I can enjoy them and I have tons of fun collecting eggs of all colors.
I need to stop looking at other breeds of chickens for a while. I've got enough to keep me busy, but it sure is tempting

I'm curious.... what projects do you have going on and what breeds do you have? I'm also trying not to look at other breeds, but there are so many and soooo cute.

To be honest, when we moved from the farm I sold everything and I had a lot of different breeds (and mutts). This time around we live in a residential area and I have promised my husband I would only keep two breeds (Marans & Ameraucanas) to play with. I am now looking at some light brown egg layers (with some good chicken math I am sure I can convince him).

Haha....uh oh...you want me to actually admit to myself how crazy I am and list all my projects?

haha...just kidding. I don't mind. I also handle my parents stock, my dad is legally blind so I do all the work with him to decide what to keep, how to pair them up and etc. For my dad's stock there are wyandotte bantams in BBS and White, a couple of Seramas, and a trio of Old English. My mom always has a fresh supply of new pullets from my culls for her flock of layers.

For my stock in the bantam I have Columbian Wyandottes and White Cornish. I will keep the wyandottes, but am working also on creating some columbian bantam cornish. Its a fun experiment.

In Large fowl I have Coronation/Light Sussex, Marans in BBS, blue and black birchen, cuckoo, BCM, and I am slowly working my way toward silver blue duckwing...it will be a while...but I'm ok with the wait. I also am going to be starting an olive egger project with a few of the girls that don't pan out for my Marans breeding programs. I also have those mixed Wyandottes coming from Paul's poultry middle of next week. Those I will split with my mom for her flock of layers. I will be keeping the Silver Pencileds and depending upon what else is in the mix, maybe another color? Luckily there is plenty of pen space for my projects. Oh, and I have dorkings coming up to hatch in a couple of weeks. Most everything I have is a project at the moment, I like to work with difficult things to see what I can do to try and improve them.

I have a pretty good network developing of people that want my culls for their laying pens or for their kids for 4H and I have a fresh supply of chicken for the year as well...once I start heading towards fall, I do the hard task of selecting only a few of each that best represent the breeds I'm working with and only winter them over for the next breeding season.