Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[Ivywoods]

OMG! My free range chickens were "attacked" today by the biggest airborn predator ever. Cropdusters!

They were dusting the cornfield immediately east of the house. The plane would fly over just a few feet off the ground. The guineas were sounding their air raid alarms.

The chickens took cover and you couldn't see a single chicken anywhere out there! They were all hiding in the weeds, thinking their lives were at an end.

I hope I can find them later when the air raid is over.

It's really cool to watch those little planes swoop and dive over the cornfields.

Admittedly, it is a little unnerving when they fly just a few feet over the top of the house!

 

[Ivywoods]

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Now that IS good service!

I have a different problem now. Although my layers all learned to lay in my roll out nest, I have 3 very persistent hens that think they can go broody in the roll out nest box! It is a single compartment roll out nest that accommodates a number of hens, but these three BITTIES drive the others out. Since they are free range, they are now laying all over the durn place.

In the barn, in the shop, in the juvinile pen (they hop the fence then hop back out). I even found a fairly large nest hidden in the weeds. I guess one of these days when the weather cools off I'm going to have to enlarge their run, put a netting over it and confine them to the coop for a while so they re-learn their place in the world.

Dumb broodies. Going broody in a roll out nest is not working too well for them, but they keep trying!

 

[DMRippy]

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I don't know the answer to your question, but I follow another thread all about broody hens you may want to post your questions there they have lots of good info that might help you https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=6923272#p6923272

There may have been something wrong with the chicks and she knew something we can't see. And I don't think it is uncommon for them to return to the flock soon after the chicks are up and at it. But I have never hatched or had a broody so ask the experts on the thread!!!

 

[BarnGoddess01]

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We had an air show very nearby a couple of weekends ago. My ladies were NOT fans of the military jets.

 

[SanctusPullus]

Okay, thanks to you guys, I've sorted out which was the Cuckoo Marans and the Silver Laced Wyandotte.

Now, this is the odd one out so it must be the one - does this look familiar to anyone with Feather-Legged Cuckoo Marans? Checking pics around the web it looks more like a Wheaten (although the store only had Cuckoo Marans, feather-legged and standard, no Splashes or Wheatens or any other type).

 

[finsfan7920]

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It's a GREAT feeling, right? To see the fruits of your decisions...and know you're moving in the right direction. Sometimes, you have to "shoot from the hip" when you make decisions. When they move your flock forward, it's such a huge learning tool, and it DOES make you feel so awfully good about your birds!

I took a bit of a step backward over this past winter...I was so discouraged and felt like I was taking 1 step forward & 2 steps back. I'm finally back on track now, but just wanted to encourage everyone to keep going and not feel like throwing in the towel when (if!!) you take steps back occasionally like I did. Always remember with Marans that these birds are brand spankin' new to the APA (officially) and haven't even been in the U.S. long at all, so - we'll likely never know what all went into development of them, and because of that, it'll sometimes throw a monkey wrench into our breeding programs...but - they are SO SO worth it!

Kathyinmo - your little olive egger gal is looking so pretty! I'm glad you hung onto her! Yep - those Marans gals are givin' her the stinkeye for sure about cleaning her feet in their water!

Neat that they found good use of that metal thingy, whatever it is!

flowerchild - you've surely been bitten by the Marans bug! WELCOME!!!

brigitte - welcome to you, as well! I'm glad you found us!

finsfan - hello, and thanks for posting pics of your new gal! It's kind of hard to tell a ton from the pics, but she looks like a pretty gal. Has she begun laying yet? If so, how is egg color?

no eggs yet, hopefully soon!!

 

[AyeUpChuck]

Id say splash on that baby Sanctus

Also have a question for y'all! What sort of identifiers do y'all use for your chicks. Ie spirals, bands, toe punch?

I'm just curious as I've got some I got spirals for and I need to go to the next size but they're not cheap. Any recommendations, suppliers etc would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Keara]

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Math,

My experience so far is that hens are as individual as people. Some are good mothers, some ok, some bad. Some are good with eggs but bad with chicks, others do well when given day old chicks but wont sit on the eggs consistently.... you get the idea! Bantams in general are better mothers, but not always. My so called non broody types have been broody over and over this summer and it has been fun to watch but I am carefull about having them hatch eggs or raise chicks that I hold dear as I just never know what will happen.

Keara

 

[geebs]

colored zip ties from the dollar store.

 

[AyeUpChuck]

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Aren't they difficult to remove?