Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[gilavina]

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Thanks for posting more photos.
Normally Splash birds have the "Splash" effect all over them and not just in the hackle, back and saddle area. Him being what appears to me as completely white on the rest of his body leaves me wondering, I have not seen that before on a Splash bird. Hopefully more folks come by and give their opinions.

That color patterning on the splash boys happens quite often in my dad's wyandotte bantams...I think it is just the differences in a certain bloodline...Most of my splash birds in the Marans have more bold patterning with whole feathers of blue or black mixed throughout the whole body...but its really kind of like how blues can be several shades...same with splash with how much color it has...I've even had a couple of splash birds over the years that look completely white but if you look closer have smaller darker feathers hiding in amongst the white. Just one of those things

 

[pinkchick]

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PVA glue?!?!?!?! No way! Nasty!

No kidding....people were talking about the fact that the flock blocks are so hard and couldn't figure out why...well...ding, ding, ding!! Not for me.

Any thoughts on the Molasses? I've never given anything to them with molasses in it, so don't know if there are good or bad points to it.

Just so people know what PVA is....it stands for Polyvinyl Acetate and just for a visual, I use it for all projects in home remodeling that calls for glue and yes it is the same glue we used as kids in school......and no I didn't not partake in eating any of it. YUCK!!!!

Anyway, I am not sure about molasses, how much does it call for? And what kind of molasses is it calling for? And doesn't molasses turn into sugar? So would the sugar content be too high for the chooks? Just asking...I really have no clue.

 

[gilavina]

Quote:
No kidding....people were talking about the fact that the flock blocks are so hard and couldn't figure out why...well...ding, ding, ding!! Not for me.

Any thoughts on the Molasses? I've never given anything to them with molasses in it, so don't know if there are good or bad points to it.

HOLY CRAP! I buy (USED TO!!) Flock Blocks for my gals every winter & have recommended them to hundreds of peeps!

Molasses has laxative effects, but I would think that using just a small amount would be fine. If you would post your "final" recipe when you're there, I would love to see it!

thanks....I was wondering about the laxitive effects.. I am not going to be making a giant flock block like what they make commercially, instead I am going to be using different sized pans for the different size pens I have so everyone can have a treat...so I will just make up a giant batch and bake each accordingly to the size of pan (ie - muffin pan, mini loaf pans, bread pan, etc...) So, considering how big of a batch I'll have to make for all my birds, I was thinking of like a 1/3 cup molasses and the rest would be in powdered grains...like cornmeal, layer, wheat germ etc with water as the rest of the binder. I didn't think that small amount of Molasses mixed through a big batch would give the laxitive effect at that point. Or do you think I'm off base. I will for sure share my recipe once I get amounts and ingredients all nailed down. I love experiments!

 

[gilavina]

Quote:
No kidding....people were talking about the fact that the flock blocks are so hard and couldn't figure out why...well...ding, ding, ding!! Not for me.

Any thoughts on the Molasses? I've never given anything to them with molasses in it, so don't know if there are good or bad points to it.

Just so people know what PVA is....it stands for Polyvinyl Acetate and just for a visual, I use it for all projects in home remodeling that calls for glue and yes it is the same glue we used as kids in school......and no I didn't not partake in eating any of it. YUCK!!!!

Anyway, I am not sure about molasses, how much does it call for? And what kind of molasses is it calling for? And doesn't molasses turn into sugar? So would the sugar content be too high for the chooks? Just asking...I really have no clue.

I just posted a reply to Wynette about the molasses bit. I'd love to see what you think. I'm merging a few different recipes and also adding in my own ingredients that I think will be better for my birds. There are quite a few recipes that recommend whatever is on hand, but I want a more standardized recipe that I can mix up in a flash and then have a batch for now kind of thing, and all the extras I can ziploc and freeze til the next treat time. I'll just set it out for a bit to thaw and then its treat time for the chickers. My goal is to only need to do a handful of baking times through the winter.

 

[Peach2u]

Quote:
Thanks for posting more photos.
Normally Splash birds have the "Splash" effect all over them and not just in the hackle, back and saddle area. Him being what appears to me as completely white on the rest of his body leaves me wondering, I have not seen that before on a Splash bird. Hopefully more folks come by and give their opinions.

That color patterning on the splash boys happens quite often in my dad's wyandotte bantams...I think it is just the differences in a certain bloodline...Most of my splash birds in the Marans have more bold patterning with whole feathers of blue or black mixed throughout the whole body...but its really kind of like how blues can be several shades...same with splash with how much color it has...I've even had a couple of splash birds over the years that look completely white but if you look closer have smaller darker feathers hiding in amongst the white. Just one of those things

His hatch mates had a lot more color all over as a baby he was almost all white with a few grey spots on some feathers. Now that he is feathers out he has cream color in his hackle and saddle feather and grey spots on his tail sadddle and hackles. The rest is bleach light

Poor guy had to keep him locked up for a month or so the bully EE's didn't like him and was beating him up. Now he keeps the girls in line.

 

[flgardengirl]

Recently our feed store was out of our regular chicken feed so I bought a different brand. I opened the bag when I got home and it had a kinda sweet smell to it. THe chickens sure did love it too. The next day I started noticing all of them had sort of burnt orange colored poop. Not diarhhea or anything but a little looser than normal and orange LOL. I got to wondering what the heck was in that food and looked at the label and it said it has molasses in it. No wonder it smelled so sweet. I am not sure if this is what made their poop orange or if it was some other ingredient. When I put the chickens back on thier regular feed they looked at me like, "what's this crap"? "We want our molasses food back!!" LOL

 

[gilavina]

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haha silly birds. this is good info and why i asked....to see if there were drawbacks....i am still not certain if i will try it or just use the grain based powders....ill play and let ya all know what i end up with.

how's the classes goin Lenette?

 

[Dylan6]

Hello, I am new to byc and raising chickens I am planning on reciving my chicks next spring but before I order my chicks I have a question. Should I have more than 1 breed or just one?

 

[Ivywoods]

Hi Folks!

Sorry for being "absent" for so long. I've just been SO BUSY! Today will be no different. I just got home last night from a week long "sister's week." We had a great time! Part of what we did was go to the poultry show in Sedalia, MO. I showed a couple bantam black cochins, one of which got a second place under both judges.

I was happy with that. It was my first APA show. I learned a lot, including, "Don't wait until they release the birds to take pictures." Everyone disappeared like a bunch of chickens when a hawk flies over!

There were NO marans there.

Many more bantams were entered, and the competition was pretty good for some of them. Several master exhibitors, and judges who entered their own birds (but were not judging at the time.) After looking things over, I wished that I had entered a couple of my BCM pullets. I think I have a couple pretty nice ones. It would have been interesting to see what the judges would have had to say. Maybe I can get them in show condition for some of the spring shows.

I did buy a trio of silver duckwing old english. They are gorgeous. Later that day, I was happy to learn that the breeder I bought them from got BEST OF SHOW for one of his other silver duckwing OE!

Right now we still have some major molting going on. I think I should go into the feather pillow business. All of my leghorns are molting, and hubby didn't get as many eggs while I was gone as we usually do. Do you suppose the girls missed me?

Today I plan to do some MAJOR re-arranging in the barn. Pens and cages are coming down and everything will be cleaned out and pens and cages replaced in a (hopefully) much more organized fashion. I hope to get pens lined up in there so that I will have separate breeder pens for all the ones I want to keep. It sure would have been nice to get my new barn done this past year, but that just wasn't in the cards. I've GOT to make it happen this coming year!

 

[Ivywoods]

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It totally depends on your set up and what you can handle. Also, just what are your goals with your chickens?