Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[Debbi]

Used to be if I fell or got thrown from a horse, or knocked over by a cow, it was no biggy! These days, I know all too well how much it will hurt, so I just take it slower and steadier. I always have 4 extra feet that travel in front of me and around me with my boy Otho, I am never alone! Have to watch him like I would a puppy, albeit, a 10 year old puppy! Wish I had a pinch of his energy! My friend and I were talking about the crazy stuff we used to do as kids, and wondered what the heck were we thinking back then??? It's a wonder we both made it this long!

I was just trying to think of the last time I fell. It was about 2 years ago. I had just gotten a blade for my tractor, and the connecting bolt needed tightening. It was rusted on pretty good, and I sprayed some lube on it, then put all my weight against it and POP, it went free! I literally did a backwards sommersault, and ended up flat on my back! I took a quick inventory in my head, then started laughing like a mad man!

Otho came running over, like, "Mom, why are you on the ground, what's up, what's so funny???" Luckily, I was on the grass, but even so, got bruised up pretty good. Remember being a kid and throwing your body around all summer???

No more, I'm afraid!

 

[pinkchick]

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WOW! You have been busy! All this starting over and having to cull so heavily sure can take a toll, but I do think you will really be glad you did down the road! I've been thinking non stop about the babers coming! I am also getting some BCMs and BLRW from sue and think that's what I'm going to limit myself to this year for outside stock since I'm seeing such good progress in my hatches from this last year that I think maybe....once I get these chicks in...I will be in good position to close my flock

I really hope that you get to feeling better!! That sounds like a nasty tumble you took! And I hope the dentist will be able to help you get some relief!

You know what I'm gonna say next! I would love to see a pic of the splash boy!!

Thanks Vicki! I am glad to hear that you are feeling better as well.
Yes culled hard and I think that my decision to keep Bill Sr, Lil Bill and G2 was a good move. Sure glad that Don suggested holding on to G2 (he is the product of Gnarles and a female that had a teensy bit of Bill blood in her) he is looking good, much darker than LB and still has less copper but is still coloring up, it is just taking him alot longer to do it. I doubt that he will ever get as much color as LB, but here's hoping. If only the Florida girls that are in with him would start laying, then I could get some of their eggs in the incubator for testing G2 for the stupid comb issues.
SLACKERS!!!!


BTW: I have less than 40 mature birds and only 22 chicks....it's been a very very long time since I had so few birds. I now have 2 empty coops and a laying flock with out a rooster, Bill is going to take over the layer flock for a while....he loves being able to come and go as he pleases and the layer flock is never penned up and he loves the pasture, it has been awhile since Mr. Bill has spread his wings.

 

[gilavina]

Quote:
WOW! You have been busy! All this starting over and having to cull so heavily sure can take a toll, but I do think you will really be glad you did down the road! I've been thinking non stop about the babers coming! I am also getting some BCMs and BLRW from sue and think that's what I'm going to limit myself to this year for outside stock since I'm seeing such good progress in my hatches from this last year that I think maybe....once I get these chicks in...I will be in good position to close my flock

I really hope that you get to feeling better!! That sounds like a nasty tumble you took! And I hope the dentist will be able to help you get some relief!

You know what I'm gonna say next! I would love to see a pic of the splash boy!!

Thanks Vicki! I am glad to hear that you are feeling better as well.
Yes culled hard and I think that my decision to keep Bill Sr, Lil Bill and G2 was a good move. Sure glad that Don suggested holding on to G2 (he is the product of Gnarles and a female that had a teensy bit of Bill blood in her) he is looking good, much darker than LB and still has less copper but is still coloring up, it is just taking him alot longer to do it. I doubt that he will ever get as much color as LB, but here's hoping. If only the Florida girls that are in with him would start laying, then I could get some of their eggs in the incubator for testing G2 for the stupid comb issues.
SLACKERS!!!!


BTW: I have less than 40 mature birds and only 22 chicks....it's been a very very long time since I had so few birds. I now have 2 empty coops and a laying flock with out a rooster, Bill is going to take over the layer flock for a while....he loves being able to come and go as he pleases and the layer flock is never penned up and he loves the pasture, it has been awhile since Mr. Bill has spread his wings.

I bet Bill will love that! I love watching the boys as much as I do the girls with the freerangers! You mean you are down the 40 adults and 22 chicks in all your color varieties and breeds? I'm workin on getting thinned down some more now that some of mine are growing quite a bit, but there's no way I'm gonna get down that far I don't think!

 

[pinkchick]

Donna~ It is a varies in pretty shades of blue and purple.

I am not looking forward to all of the looks I am going to get today when I am out and about, especially when I show up to my clients house to work. But hey....stuff happens.

Debbi~ Been doing the salt water rinses 4x day since Friday and it helps but not enough, we will see what the dentist has to say today.
Oh and the sound of silence is kinda eerie.

Vicki~ I will get photos of the little Splash boy for you.

 

[Debbi]

Kim, What are you getting from Tom??

 

[pinkchick]

Vicki~ Yes I am down to less than 40 and that is all of my breeds combined. Crazy huh? 21 Marans chicks (7 are silvers the rest are Blue, black splash coppers), 1 blue laced barnie project boy, 2 BLRW' hens, 13 Marans hens, 3 Marans roosters, 11 gals in the layer flocks, 5 Barnevelder females and 1 Barnie roo. If I can count right that is only 35 adult birds. Not going to breed Welsummers anymore (except for filling up the layer flock) and not going to breed Delawares. Going to focus on my Blue laced Barnie project, my regular Barnies and of course my beloved Marans.

 

[pinkchick]

Quote:
Silver Black Birchens.

 

[gilavina]

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to me it sounds like you are set to be focused for this year's hatching!

 

[gilavina]

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Silver Black Birchens.

Yipee!! Me too! Ready to work on the project together Kim?

 

[gilavina]

OK....so I need some votes on something. And yes...you can make fun of me if you like, I already know its coming!

I was talking with my uncle the other night when he told me about the hatcher how I don't think my auto turner is at 100%in my sportsman, so we agreed that testing it would be the way to go. One problem tho...is that we didn't think about the matter of how much the eggs would weigh on the shelves, so he called me back to see if I could just run a batch of eggs through a whole cycle and if I had any that would be good to put in the incubator. So....this is where I need votes. I know he is right...that I really should test the incubator out to make sure its good to go for hatching season, but don't have my breeding pens set up. So, I pulled out the darkest eggs I've collected over the last few days and can pretty well make guesses about where they come from after gathering them from pens everyday, but there are several boys that could be the poppas....so, should I throw caution into the wind and set these to see what I get for kicks while testing out the incubator, or should I wait til I have eggs I do want to test for sure and just try the incubator out then and hope it doesn't throw off the first set of test matings?

here's the eggs I have now