Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[StevenW.]

I haven't been following this thread as much as I use to but I did get these in the mail today.

 

[Lotsapaints]

hummm must be the year of the broody so far I've had 9 (New Hampshires are the best at being broody) with a couple of Black Coppers only being setters not mothers so far 3 of them are very good mamas and they never ate my fingers

so what ways do you all use to break them? My friend is trying to sell eating eggs and she's let a bunch go broody (she thought it was a good thing for more eggs...) I was over at her house last night for our chicken club meeting and was hearing stuff that I've never done like locking them up in the dark without food and water for up to 3 days

...she has a wire bottom cage I suggested that she put them in there one or two hens at a time with food and water for a day or 2 until they were over the broody behavior that's always worked for me and I've given them chicks which worked to get them off the nest too but she doesn't want any chicks to raise. Right now she has more customers than she has eggs

 

[flgardengirl]

That's great ducklover. Do you have a broody or are you going to use an incubator? Are they black copper eggs or another kind?

Last evening when I went to shut up my large coop, none of the hens or roo was in there like they usually are at twilight. They were still all hanging out in the run.
So I look in there and there is this huge black snake with a bunch of egg lumps laying across the floor. It was at least 6 feet. Scared the crap out of me because I wasn't expecting that! I went to get my son so he could get it out for me since it wasn't poisonous but when we got back it was already slithering out and went down around the coop and out a crack in the corner of the fencing. Last night I kept dreaming of bad stuff happening to the chooks. I was dreaming about a raccoon grabbing babies through wire etc. then I woke up to loud thunder and rain LOL!

 

[Debbi]

Quote:
Hang in there Mama! The chicks have to spread their wings and fly off. Just proves you did your job well. We are scattered all over the country. My sis is in Mass., daughter in TX, son in CO., and me in MO. Look on the bright side; if you didn't raise them properly, they would be lying on the couch, watching the boob-tube, in their underwear, drinking beer, in their 40s, with their kids!!

 

[StevenW.]

Quote:
I was going to use a broody but when I keep seperateing them they magically end up not being broody. Black Copper. When I get a incubator I can trust I'll get into the other colors. I really would like to work on the Blue Birchen and Black Tailed Buff but it might be a while till I find an incubator I can trust.

 

[flgardengirl]

Quote:
Maybe putting them in the dark but I would never leave a hen with no food and/or water, first I've heard of that. I usually just keep taking thier eggs or remove the hen from the coop and put her in a carrier with food and water. I don't leave it dark though. Once they are away from thier eggs for a few days they usually forget about it for awhile. They will still try and go broody in another month or so or maybe even sooner, but I just do the same thing. I have been taking eggs away from the key west hens and my olive egger for the last few months lol.

 

[flgardengirl]

Quote:
Hang in there Mama! The chicks have to spread their wings and fly off. Just proves you did your job well. We are scattered all over the country. My sis is in Mass., daughter in TX, son in CO., and me in MO. Look on the bright side; if you didn't raise them properly, they would be lying on the couch, watching the boob-tube, in their underwear, drinking beer, in their 40s, with their kids!!

Yep it is depressing when they go off to college even if they are in the same state and go off far away. Just having them move out of the house is traumatic but it is exciting for them. Congratulations you did a great job with them. Like Debbi said lots of kids never even make it out of high school nowdays. Where is your daughter going to school in AZ?

 

[Debbi]

Oh Lawdy!!!

I don't mind snakes, when I see them first, but HATE being surprised like that! I had a huge black snake in my old hen house years ago. He would nest in the nest box, UNDER THE HEN, and eat the eggs that came out. That was the very last time I stuck my hand under a hen without picking her up or shooing her off the nest first!! I reached under her and grabbed the snake thinking it was an egg. Needless to say, neither him or me was real happy about that! So far, so good here. My barn cats are death on snakes of all kinds, and I haven't seen a live snake here for years. They drag up dead ones on the front porch every now and then, but make short order out of it. The chooks did kill one in the back yard about a month ago, forgot him. Two hens killed it, and ate it!

 

[flgardengirl]

Oh man I can't imagine reaching under a hen and grabbing a snake!! The girls usually go after the smaller snakes but this one was just huge lol. They were sitting outside whining. The roo I have in there with them is a little phx so he's not much help but he kicks the huge Marans roos butts ..you should see his spurs LOL. I guess he never figured on a snake. We had a similar large black snake we had to relocate last year about this time in one of the other pens.

I wish I had a barn!! I have a large outbuilding with electricity to it but dh claimed that for his workshop but isn't even using it lol. He just stores stuff in there and cuts all his boards on the tablesaw he drug out in the yard and uses his pickup truck tailgate for a sawhorse (true redneck style LOL).

 

[Lotsapaints]

I thought it a bit over the top without food or water...it is cool where she lives (by the coast) in a beautiful canyon.....I had one of mine insist on setting in the roll out box silly girl but when I gave her a few chicks she was outta there what a proud mama she's turned into. Silly me I gave the 2 New Hampshire girls eggs but didn't write the day down soon they should hatch though. I love watching the hens with their chicks they call them over for treats and show them how to get bugs my little Blue Coppers just run all over the coop hopping up and over everything they are very active.