Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[AyeUpChuck]

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haha...one of my brother's lives in Louisiana and has told me about tree rats. I hate them. Squirrels - I can deal with those.

Those are squirrels! jk well maybe not...... I'm from LA and the tree rats are nothing compared to the nutria! Those things are awful!!!!

 

[gilavina]

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haha...one of my brother's lives in Louisiana and has told me about tree rats. I hate them. Squirrels - I can deal with those.

Those are squirrels! jk well maybe not...... I'm from LA and the tree rats are nothing compared to the nutria! Those things are awful!!!!

now that is something I've never heard of...what the heck are nutria?

(asked with much trepidation...not sure I want to know the answer haha)

 

[DMRippy]

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Those are squirrels! jk well maybe not...... I'm from LA and the tree rats are nothing compared to the nutria! Those things are awful!!!!

now that is something I've never heard of...what the heck are nutria?

(asked with much trepidation...not sure I want to know the answer haha)

The biggest RATS you ever saw! Big as a beaver I think! Saw them on Billy the Exterminator. I had beavers in our yard, but I would not want to have those things!!

 

[gilavina]

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now that is something I've never heard of...what the heck are nutria?

(asked with much trepidation...not sure I want to know the answer haha)

The biggest RATS you ever saw! Big as a beaver I think! Saw them on Billy the Exterminator. I had beavers in our yard, but I would not want to have those things!!

Ummmm....think i just crawled out of my skin and then threw up a little...did I mention I hate rodents? I looked up a pic of one of those against better judgement...not the smartest idea right before going to bed...those things are disgusting!

 

[berkeleysprings]

you all were haveing a perfectly nice conversation till i jumped in with the tree rats lol sorry you all ! and woo hoo its friday

 

[gilavina]

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haha no worries...im far enough away from LA i dont have to deal with them haha....

 

[pinkchick]

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She is very pretty! I am sorry about the cat accident and the loss of your other Marans....it's always a huge bummer to loose birds. Big Bear.....BEAUTIFUL AREA....I am very jealous!

 

[pinkchick]

Nutria are NASTY NASTY NASTY......just before dark a person can stand on a fairly busy street here in my town and watch them slink across the grass to slither into the nasty sloughs of town where they live. When I was young probably about 12 years old...I was feeding and doing chores out in the barn by myself and of course it was dark.....but one of those NASTY things decided that it was going to come up to the barn from the creek and just stand in the riding arena and stare. I was scared $*@&%#!! to say the least and I couldn't scare it away. I bolted up the hayloft ladder where I sat and screamed for me mommy for what had to be about 20 minutes I swear, but mom says to this day that she made it to the barn by the 3rd scream. Apparently my mom scared the nasty thing when she opened the gate because it turned it's slinky slow moving huge body and left. NASTY!!!! I have never thought kindly of Nutria since then.

Vicki~ I am very sorry about the loss of your hen.

Cute duckies that both you and flgarden have....I thought about ducks but I just don't have a hankering for them. Are they hard to keep? Do they eat everything in sight like the chooks do?

Nicalandia~ Very cute......how in the world is it Chocolate?

 

[Debbi]

Good morning all

Sad days are ahead for me. My almost 14 year old German Shepherd female, had only what I can guess was a major stroke yesterday. She has lost a lot of her sight, and almost the total use of her hind end. I think her kidneys are starting to shut down too, although once I got her outside this morning, she pooed, I may have missed the peeing. I have to use a makeshift sling to get her out the door, but her dignity won't let her potty with that on her. She doesn't seem to be in pain, and is resting now on a huge pallet of blankets in the living room by the front door. I'm afraid the end is near. She's been my best girl for a long time, and it's going to hit hard when she passes on. Will call the vet today to see if he can give me anything to bring on the end if it comes to that. Used to be they could, but these days may be a different story. The vet is almost 40 miles from me, and there is no way I can take her in to them. She is still eating and drinking, and just gave me a look to make sure I'm still here and she's not missing anything. It's going to be a sad few days, I think...

Cute duckies Vicki! Love that color. Brown/chocolate Cuckoos??? Man, another color for the Marans folks to worry over.

Good thing I'm not into Cuckoos.

Still miserabley hot here today. Rain showers may be coming in tomorrow!

We desperately need some rain!

Randy ~ Tree rats??

My friend was just talking about squirrel dumplings yesterday. She ate a lot of them as a kid. I've only eaten squirrel once. Not bad, but if I had my drothers, I'd prefer rabbit. Or woodchuck...who I still can't catch! Luckily, he is eating the weeds down around the chicken run. If that's all he wants here, and won't undermine my wellhouse again, then he can stay. They seem to LOVE cocklebur plants!

 

[flgardengirl]

I remember nutria from LA! I think I saw a show that they were eroding the coastline and the national guard goes out and uses them for target practice lol. We have tree rats here in FL too. Mostly south FL, I haven't seen any here except squirrels but I have seen some HUGE rats when we first moved in here in the outbuildings. We have cats so the rats are long gone now. Maybe the large snakes around here have eaten them as well.
Galavina I could always find a nice big tree rat for you and mail it

No I don't have lavender muscovies but if I find one I am gonna buy one! I've seen some blues and chocolate ones around here at the swaps. I only have black and white muscovies right now.
I recently read tha muscovies are from South America and the name musco comes from the word mosquito, and they are known for eating tons of mosquitos. So I started watching them and let some baby mosquitos hatch out in thier wading pool. Sure enough, they get in there and scoop them up by the billfull and eat them.
I had been making sure their pools are clean and new water but I wanted to see if they would eat mosquitos and they do! Now if I make a bigger earth pond sometime I know I will have mosquito control lol.

I use one duck egg in place of 2 medium eggs in recipes otherwise no changes. It really makes the cakes rise up!