Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[rsquared]

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NO KIDDING!!!! If you saw the line up of birds I have growing out in that pen...you would know why I was freaking out. There was a whole lot more to the story than I said...mostly cause I was really cold and just wanted to warm up and go to bed after such a long day. When I found that turd in there I had to run to the barn for the pitchfork and when I came back, he was going after birds...so I pinned him in the corner first and then got him good a few times, but he would keep wriggling loose from the tines and would go after my birds again...so I finally go to the point where I got him good and then wedged the end of the tines on the back of the building...and took off and got another pitch fork and proceeded to block him in the tiny corner and realized I had no idea how I was going to get him out. He was growling and biting the tines and doing everything he could to get loose...by that time I'd already been outside for about 20 min trying to get him out of there. I called my uncle because he was the only person that I could think of that would be home...and he lives 20 min away...but I was NOT going to be leaving that THING alone with my birds...NO WAY. I ended up being outside sitting on a cement block with the ends of the pitchforks braced against my foot for about an hour all together in 30 degree weather...I was so happy when it was all over.
I just checked all my birds over again and was pretty happy to see that all of them were ok...sigh...my whole line up of birchen boys are in there!

not to mention the lavender silver sussex, my blue copper girls and all the young birchen girls I'm growing out....man...talk about heart break if I lost any of those.

What impresses me is that you had the testicular fortitude to use whatever means neccessary to get rid of that possum and save your birds. Most women would be too squimish to do what you have done....IMO

Not true Mel, not true at all.....took care of a possum that was down inside my coop when I went to lock up at night.....grabbed the nearest thing handy....happened to be a 2x4 leftover......the rest I'll leave to your imagination

Not my birds, no way.

 

[Mountain Mel 22]

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What impresses me is that you had the testicular fortitude to use whatever means neccessary to get rid of that possum and save your birds. Most women would be too squimish to do what you have done....IMO

Not true Mel, not true at all.....took care of a possum that was down inside my coop when I went to lock up at night.....grabbed the nearest thing handy....happened to be a 2x4 leftover......the rest I'll leave to your imagination

Not my birds, no way.

Well, I'm surprised and happy to see that I seem to have mis-judged the tenacity of most of you ladies on BYC. I applaud you all for your willingness and ability to protect your stock at all costs. My hat is off to you, as I continue to learn about my friends here on BYC!

 

[BarnGoddess01]

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I don't know about that Mel.... I think protecting our birds is like protecting our children. These babies ( with or without feathers) depend on us to keep them safe.
I, personally, took out a pygmy rattler that I caught out near my pot belly pigs. The only thing I had laying around was about 1/2 of a 2 x 4 and I beat that rattler to a bloody pulp. Then I calmly found DH and asked to dispose of the body for me LOL....

I agree, math ace. The thought of taking on a possum makes me shiver, however, I too have done it, several time - defending my horses, no less, AND disposed of the body too!!! And I don't even have kids. The four leggeds and those with wings ARE my kids - so it IS kind of like a switch. Done the same thing with 'coons snooping around the coop. A shovel works great too!

Not a fan of critters harassing my family. Period. (Although I DO draw the line at actually touching the critters like Stoopid.

I'll stick to weapons like pitch forks and shovels - and best of all, neighbours with guns!

)

 

[pinkchick]

I will never tell the story of what happened to the one and only opossum that I caught in the Marans run since I started with chickens.

All I can say is that I don't like killing things, but will if necessary, just ask the opossum and that one nasty mean Black Copper rooster from last winter.

 

[pinkchick]

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Math~ This boy has fabulous color on his wing bow! WOW!! Now that's the color of copper I want on everything!

Those white hackle feathers I don't believe will molt out....I culled the rooster that I had from florida last year that was white just like this....matter of fact it is the same nasty BCM that I was referring to in the opossum post.

Cool that the wings finally colored up. My Bill was still getting copper color at a year and a half old too.

 

[pinkchick]

So remember all those cute little fuzzy butts that I hatched out on the 7th?


Wouldn'tcha know it...all but 6 are cockerels.

3 Barnevelder pullets, 2 Marans pullets and 1 Welsummer pullet.

Ohhhhh and I was so right about little "Stoo" the first little Blue Laced Barnie project chick to hatch...being male. Fact both of them are male.

 

[pinkchick]

Spitman~ thanks for posting more photos of him....he looks like a nice bird but is way overly red in the chest.
I am curious about his breast feathers....do you see shafting in them? Is the feather shaft of the feathers like a light yellowish gold and the rest of the feather red? Or are the feathers just red?
I think this bird, if he is absent of shafting is the perfect example of overly red and not shafting in the breast. I have noticed that many folks are not aware of the difference in the 2 (overly red and shafting) and thought this guy may be a good representative of the overly red. But if he has shafting in the feathers he is both and I would not use him to breed for Marans.

I can't really see them clearly in the photos and I know it's hard to get them...but I think they would both make really nice Olive Egger cockerels and boy howdy would ya look at the nice red vermillion color on their feet. Did they hatch from nice dark eggs?

 

[gilavina]

Mornin Kim!

Now I really wanna hear the possum story! haha
How many chicks did you hatch all together where you got so many cockerels?

 

[pinkchick]

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I said I would never tell the opossum story and I can't....it was a horrifying experience for me as it was the first thing I had ever dispatched. But.....the rest of his family must have been watching because I haven't seen or caught one around here since and it's been a couple years or more. That'll teach 'em.


22 chicks hatched total, I culled 2 Welsummers that did not absorb fully and were not doing well, 1 little blue copper died at 4 days old, so that left me with 19 chicks. All of Lil' Bill's kiddos are male, except 1 and 2 of the 3 Gnarles kiddos are male.

The little Splash is a male and is the only one that I think will be sticking around unless one of the little Black Coppers from Lil' Bill looks promising as he feathers out.

 

[gilavina]

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I said I would never tell the opossum story and I can't....it was a horrifying experience for me as it was the first thing I had ever dispatched. But.....the rest of his family must have been watching because I haven't seen or caught one around here since and it's been a couple years or more. That'll teach 'em.


22 chicks hatched total, I culled 2 Welsummers that did not absorb fully and were not doing well, 1 little blue copper died at 4 days old, so that left me with 19 chicks. All of Lil' Bill's kiddos are male, except 1 and 2 of the 3 Gnarles kiddos are male.

The little Splash is a male and is the only one that I think will be sticking around unless one of the little Black Coppers from Lil' Bill looks promising as he feathers out.

Eek...that sounds like a pretty crappy experience!

That's crazy how many boys you got! I hope that little splash boy fills out nicely for ya! I know you said you wanted one

I'm gonna work to get some more photos this next week if I can. I'll have to show you the coloring on two of my birchen boys chests...and some of the other goodies I've got goin...they are definitely not perfect, but they are a step forward for sure!