Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[pinkchick]

Ayeupchuck~

Did you say that you and our geebsie are thinking of a road trip??????

I would love to see ya'll....let me know when you are thinking of coming up so that I am sure to be around.

 

[Mountain Mel]

Quote:
I will Debbi and I am sorry they are not doing their job....I think they all think they need some sort of mini vacation

........maybe I'll park the BBQ next to the coop with some select spices on the side so they can see that.

Occasionally, just for some excitement, I turn my Miniature Schnauzer loose inside the coop. She doesn't chase to hurt the birds but she bounces up & down & all around wanting to play with them. This drives Madison absolutely flippin' INSANE!

When I regain my composure and quit laughing, I call her out and life goes back to normal...other than Madisons' incessant crowing for the next hour!

 

[pinkchick]

Quote:
LOL! Not like you had anything better to do today, right?

It cracks me up how they don't miss anything. I swear mine spend their days plotting on how to get into my husbands garden--that place is locked down like Ft. Knox and yet every now and then one hen finds a weakness in his fortress and the party is on!

I've been meaning to ask you, how are your chicken saddles working?

Did you find some super cool fabric prints??

Pics are needed

Yeh right!

On the good side, seems like they ate all of the wheat seeds out of the straw! The saddles/aprons are doing well! Only one bad girl is going without, she is a crafty escape artist. May have to wait till she goes to roost as she always seems to evade me!

Only one problem I'm seeing with these. Seems the boys are leery of them, and I'm not seeing much if any breeding going on with the coated girls. The bad girl though, seems to have gone from "ugly girl" status, to the favorite!

She may be begging me for an apron before too long! They are also molting right now, and they are looking soooo shabby!

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/56168_yard_birds_5-7-11_007.jpg

I think they look very smart and chic in their little capes Debbi.

Me loves them! What chunkers they are! Love that!

 

[pinkchick]

Quote:
I will Debbi and I am sorry they are not doing their job....I think they all think they need some sort of mini vacation

........maybe I'll park the BBQ next to the coop with some select spices on the side so they can see that.

Occasionally, just for some excitement, I turn my Miniature Schnauzer loose inside the coop. She doesn't chase to hurt the birds but she bounces up & down & all around wanting to play with them. This drives Madison absolutely flippin' INSANE!

When I regain my composure and quit laughing, I call her out and life goes back to normal...other than Madisons' incessant crowing for the next hour!

Tippy!!!!! Such a little sweetie!

 

[flgardengirl]

Quote:
I got lighter egg color recently, just before the girls started to go broody!

nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

I already have 4 broody Game hens.

Ya know, every one of these birds is starting to hide eggs.

Say it isn't so!!!!!!!!!!!

I kid you not. These look nothing like Marans eggs. I did get enough dark ones to cover my swaps, but I wanted to add more extras. These aren't even milk chocolate! They're the color of Flan!

I think game hens must be the broodiest things ever! I have key west hens they have a lot of 'game' in them. So far every one of them has gone broody this spring and one has gone broody twice! Yesterday I found two that had nests with about a dozen and a half eggs in each. I stole all of them because I am so sick of the broodies. If they are gonna hatch chicks it will have to be with the eggs I want them to have muuhaha, not thier own. I have silkies and buff orp hens that are the same age as the kw hens are and none of them have gone broody yet. If ya want a broody get something with game in it LOL!

 

[flgardengirl]

Quote:
Yeh right!

On the good side, seems like they ate all of the wheat seeds out of the straw! The saddles/aprons are doing well! Only one bad girl is going without, she is a crafty escape artist. May have to wait till she goes to roost as she always seems to evade me!

Only one problem I'm seeing with these. Seems the boys are leery of them, and I'm not seeing much if any breeding going on with the coated girls. The bad girl though, seems to have gone from "ugly girl" status, to the favorite!

She may be begging me for an apron before too long! They are also molting right now, and they are looking soooo shabby!

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/56168_yard_birds_5-7-11_007.jpg

I think they look very smart and chic in their little capes Debbi.

Me loves them! What chunkers they are! Love that!

I like your little aprons. I need to make some more too. The last ones I made, I used light colors because I thought it would be better for summer but they are all stained to heck now. Chickens are worse than little kids at getting thier clothes dirty!

 

[Cadeau]

Math - it is #15678- Thanks!

Pink - thanks for the info - time to cut down on numbers!!
I don't need to keep any, but was wondering if any were WORTH keeping to see how they turn out!!

 

[pinkchick]

Quote:
Sib~ They are adorable! Love the blues!

Now to your question~
The way I see it there is no race to the finish line....heck I don't even think there is a finish line....well I guess there will be when the "perfect" bird is finally produced

and we fall over in exhaustion and utter praise to the guru who created it.

But anyway.....take your time and test breed these birds and see what they produce....you may find that the feather shanks are easier to correct than some of the other issues at hand when considering all things Marans and believe me we all have work to do with our birds...I think of it as job security, as long as I have Marans, I have something to work on...'cept I don't get paid.

(Stop me now....I'm on a roll this morning....it's the sun shining for the second day in a row...makes me all giddy and I loose all control.) My point is....don't sacrifice cosmetics for structure when first starting out....we work with what we have... even if it means baby steps.

 

[Debbi]

Took some quick pics of the chicks last night right before bedtime. They have not gotten the idea that since it's been so hot, that it's cool to roost on top of their little coop. Glad I didn't cave last night, they would've been blown away or drowned!

9 weeks tomorrow.

Notice how they segregate? Blues to the left, blacks to the right. They do this all the time.

 

[Zonoma]

Quote:
I will Debbi and I am sorry they are not doing their job....I think they all think they need some sort of mini vacation

........maybe I'll park the BBQ next to the coop with some select spices on the side so they can see that.

Occasionally, just for some excitement, I turn my Miniature Schnauzer loose inside the coop. She doesn't chase to hurt the birds but she bounces up & down & all around wanting to play with them. This drives Madison absolutely flippin' INSANE!

When I regain my composure and quit laughing, I call her out and life goes back to normal...other than Madisons' incessant crowing for the next hour!

I have two mini schnauzers. My oldest (Elsie) was fascinated by the chicks the first day I brought them home. I was holding a SLW and looked away from a single second and when I looked back, Elsie had her mouth placed carefully around the chick's neck with its head entirely in her mouth. She was staring at me with this "What!?" look and then removed her mouth like she had never intended to taste anything. The chick wasn't even worried.

It was hilarious and horrifying all at once- like watching a cartoon.

My smallest chick (a Dominique right now) regularly 'plays' with my youngest schnauzer. I think the dog (Sachi) is scared of the chick (Anne Marie)!