Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[flgardengirl]

Awww pinkchick those babies are sooo cute!! I love the shank feathering on #4.

Arrrggg!! I found that broody BCM on a bunch of eggs again yesterday. I locked her in her run and she ran around collecting all the eggs she could find from the other girls and rolled them underneath her and sat on them. I sure hate to seclude her from the others in this type of weather. They need to snuggle for warmth. Geez I just can't break this broody. Maybe I will have to put her in a dog carrier and put her inside for a while...somewhere dark. I know she will just keep laying eggs and trying to fight me for them..been through this with her before. She is a really good BCM momma too with her last two batches of chicks. Too bad I don't have any 'pure' eggs for her right now because no one is in 'breeding pens' everyone is running around wily nily for the winter lol.

 

[pinkchick]

Thanks Friends! I couldn't get them all loaded this morning and I think that I forgot to take a photo of 2 of them.

The bands are VetWrap.

Aces and Jan~ I can go over the sexing stuff later when I get home.
Not enough time this morning....gotta go finish tearing apart a parlor/sitting room out of a 115 year old house.....VERY SAD! I almost cried yesterday as we were taking out all of the beautiful dark wood custom built in's. OMG!

Bugs the tar out of me when folks let the houses drop off the historical registers so that they can gut them and don't have to open them up to the public twice a year!

LOL! Jan...my DH calls me the Chicken Whisperer too....had to name my blog chicken whispering....but never blog on it, always too busy over here at BYC.

 

[Hens and Roos]

cute babies Pink!

Have to giggle about the whispering part- we have 1 Lt Brown Bantam Leghorn chick that screams at the top of it's lungs even though it is with 27 other chicks- last night I looked at my kids and told them to find the noisy one and make sure it wasn't being hurt! DD found it, picked it up and it shut up and fell asleep in her hand- go figure. She ended up doing this 3 times before the chick settle down with the others and went to sleep.

 

[Debbi]

Cute babies! That first one has some odd coloring going on there, never seen legs that color. I love the pic of the pullet looking up!

20* warmer here to start the morning, and only a wee wind! Getting into the 50s today, 60s tomorrow and Friday!!

4 Silkie eggs go into lockdown tomorrow, 18 in the bator to hatch later this month.

 

[Hens and Roos]

Quote:
Go eggies!!!

 

[flgardengirl]

My silkies stopped laying as soon as I put them in the breeding pen grrr!! The only ones I have separated out into groups are the silkies and the keywest. I don't wanna hatch out any KW right now because I know those broody girls will do it all by themselves this spring and I already have way too may roos I have to cull.
I would hatch silkie eggs if they ever start laying again. One of my silkie girls that way laying the most (who I think is a blue partridge now instead of reg partridge) went into a very hard molt and looks like a pin cushion now with all those new feathers growing back out at once. I don't think the others have molted at all so its wierd..

 

[Debbi]

My Silkies started laying early , at 23 weeks! Out of 8 pullets, seems to be 5 at least laying. Laying like crazy! At least 4-5 eggs per day! Just ate one for breakfast, and was amazed at the size of the egg when cracked open! Nice big yolks. Two Marans and a Silkie make for a nice dish of scrambled eggs. Oh yes, my colors are all running together, seeing as how it's winter, and because all the Silkie folks told me they don't start laying until 7-8 months old! So much for that theory here!

Sure will be interesting to see what kind of colors I get.

 

[BarnGoddess01]

Quote:
Cute babies, Pink! Congratulations!! And thanks for the description on the horn coloured legs. I have an OE (Ameraucana/BCM cross) that has legs that colour. I had NO idea what colour to call them.

 

[erinnyes]

Hi! Can I ask you guys 2 questions?

I am new to chickens and have a brand new flock that I have not hatched any eggs from yet!

My first question is, I have a beautiful Wheaten Marans roo who I intend to keep, and 4 marans hens, 2 wheaten and 2 blue. The wheaten hens are lovely but the blues have some problems. One of them has the feathered legs but has a slight deformity on one of her toes (missing toenails). She also has eyes that are 2 different colors. I had already planned on not breeding this one but my other blue appears fine other than she does not have the feathered legs. How important is this characteristic to the breed? Is it acceptable to most breeders to have a few marans without the leg feathering? And my other concern, since I got both blues from the same seller, is that if they're related should the one that appears fine be bred at all? Clearly there are some issues in the line there and in my inexperience I might be overlooking some obvious faults anyway.

My other question is just for fun.

If I bred a wheaten marans roo and one of the blue hens, what color would the chicks end up being? And should those colors be crossed or are they problematic?

Thanks for reading!

 

[Keara]

Quote:
she'll be fine... I just had a silky broody hatch out chicks out in the shed just a week ago...... and I am in Vermont, much colder!

ohh I see no good eggs to hatch.... too bad!