Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[Christie Rhae]

Bizarro pullet egg from my blue copper marans today. This is probably egg #9? None of the others were speckled like this. Interesting.

I just got my marans egg chart. I think the speckles could be a 9. lol
Actually it looks very similar to the #4 egg in my chart, speckles and all.
I would be thrilled if I found that in a nest box!

Edit... ok I am a dork. Did you mean that it is her 9th egg? lol sorry. You know what they say about "a little knowledge".

 

[qball53]

I believe the standard was recently set and it calls for lightly feathered. I happen to prefer no feathers on the legs and wish we would have followed the English example. However I can live with the light feathering. I live in the Houston area where it is often wet and muddy and that does not bode well for feathered legs!!!

 

[flgardengirl]

I do like the heavier feathered shanks and outer toe but you are correct the standard does call for lightly feathered. I don't know why some keep saying they need to be heavily feathered. Maybe just preference....
http://marans.org/sop.html

 

[gilavina]

Evenin everyone

 

[flgardengirl]

Hi vicki ! How has everyone been doing? We culled 11 rooster yesterday! Took us most of the afternoon. Some were Marans but most were Key West roos. I forgot to lock up my turkey hens and they came over and started making thier crying sound again like last time we culled LOL. Sassy (the bl birchen girl) was with them but she wasn't traumatized at all... turns out she is a little evil cannibal

I was skinning the roos out and sassy jumped up on the table and tried to help herself !!

 

[gilavina]

Hi vicki ! How has everyone been doing? We culled 11 rooster yesterday! Took us most of the afternoon. Some were Marans but most were Key West roos. I forgot to lock up my turkey hens and they came over and started making thier crying sound again like last time we culled LOL. Sassy (the bl birchen girl) was with them but she wasn't traumatized at all... turns out she is a little evil cannibal

I was skinning the roos out and sassy jumped up on the table and tried to help herself !!

haha Sassy the Savage! I think that should be her new name! I think it would probably get to me a bit if I had turkeys wailing if I was trying to process birds. Bet it helps quite a bit to have numbers down some more. I know I always feel better when I am reducing my numbers to better handle the season.

Everything's alright here...just trying to get myself organized. I feel behind on everything lately!

 

[flgardengirl]

Haha that's a good name for her. I had to lock up those turkeys. I don't really think turkeys are all that dumb like you always hear. They seem to be able to express empathy and actually seem a little smarter than the chickens about some stuff. It does feel good in a way to have some done. I really need to do about 11 more LOL! I felt kinda bad yesterday, I'm not really a farmer mentality I guess, when it comes to culling chickens..even the roos. I can dress them out but don't wanna kill them. I let dh do that and I won't look either, when he 'does the deed'. I make him cut off the heads and the feet before I 'deal' with them. It would be different if they weren't MY roosters lol. I'm a wuss.

p.s Don't tell dh but I secretly let 2 of the Key West roos out of the 'holding pen' when he wasn't looking HAHA. One was a little crele dude and he gave me the saddest look. He is so pretty. Another was a spangled guy so I let him have a pass too. DH didn't even notice lol.

 

[gilavina]

Haha that's a good name for her. I had to lock up those turkeys. I don't really think turkeys are all that dumb like you always hear. They seem to be able to express empathy and actually seem a little smarter than the chickens about some stuff. It does feel good in a way to have some done. I really need to do about 11 more LOL! I felt kinda bad yesterday, I'm not really a farmer mentality I guess, when it comes to culling chickens..even the roos. I can dress them out but don't wanna kill them. I let dh do that and I won't look either, when he 'does the deed'. I make him cut off the heads and the feet before I 'deal' with them. It would be different if they weren't MY roosters lol. I'm a wuss.

p.s Don't tell dh but I secretly let 2 of the Key West roos out of the 'holding pen' when he wasn't looking HAHA. One was a little crele dude and he gave me the saddest look. He is so pretty. Another was a spangled guy so I let him have a pass too. DH didn't even notice lol.

I think what you are feeling about culling is normal. I have those feelings, but am able to tell myself why it is that I do things this way. I don't know if it every goes away completely as I'm an empathetic person.

You know, I watched the most amazing hour documentary about this writer guy that found a clutch of wild turkey eggs and documented his life with them. He took to role of the parent and some of the things he found out about them was just fantastic. By the time they were a few months old he was able to identify 30 separate calls and communicate with them using them. It was really fascinating how intelligent they are and how much they know by instinct. I wish I knew what the name of it was to tell you to watch it. I just happened to catch it because I couldn't sleep one night. I bet if you were to do some looking around on the PBS website you might be able to find it.

 

[gilavina]

I think what you are feeling about culling is normal. I have those feelings, but am able to tell myself why it is that I do things this way. I don't know if it every goes away completely as I'm an empathetic person.

You know, I watched the most amazing hour documentary about this writer guy that found a clutch of wild turkey eggs and documented his life with them. He took to role of the parent and some of the things he found out about them was just fantastic. By the time they were a few months old he was able to identify 30 separate calls and communicate with them using them. It was really fascinating how intelligent they are and how much they know by instinct. I wish I knew what the name of it was to tell you to watch it. I just happened to catch it because I couldn't sleep one night. I bet if you were to do some looking around on the PBS website you might be able to find it.

ok...I found it. Its called My life as a Turkey by Joe Hutto. you can watch it here.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/my-life-as-a-turkey/full-episode/7378/

I highly recommend it! You'll have to tell me what you thought of it!

 

[gilavina]

Haha that's a good name for her. I had to lock up those turkeys. I don't really think turkeys are all that dumb like you always hear. They seem to be able to express empathy and actually seem a little smarter than the chickens about some stuff. It does feel good in a way to have some done. I really need to do about 11 more LOL! I felt kinda bad yesterday, I'm not really a farmer mentality I guess, when it comes to culling chickens..even the roos. I can dress them out but don't wanna kill them. I let dh do that and I won't look either, when he 'does the deed'. I make him cut off the heads and the feet before I 'deal' with them. It would be different if they weren't MY roosters lol. I'm a wuss.

p.s Don't tell dh but I secretly let 2 of the Key West roos out of the 'holding pen' when he wasn't looking HAHA. One was a little crele dude and he gave me the saddest look. He is so pretty. Another was a spangled guy so I let him have a pass too. DH didn't even notice lol.

haha I didn't catch your little P.S. confession til just now! You are too funny! I wonder if he knew, but didn't mind?