Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[pinkchick]

Vicki~ That Regulator is a nice looking boy and he looks identical to the photos on both of those articles. I hope you have something exciting and rare going on with him.

 

[math ace]

Vicki~ That Regulator is a nice looking boy and he looks identical to the photos on both of those articles. I hope you have something exciting and rare going on with him.

I think he looks BETTER than the photos in the articles - Crisper color and fuller chest!
For what it is worth .... That is my OPINION!

 

[gilavina]

Vicki~ That Regulator is a nice looking boy and he looks identical to the photos on both of those articles. I hope you have something exciting and rare going on with him.

mornin' where's the stretching and yawning smiley?

can't wake my brain up this am.

i am hopeful that I might....only time will tell I suppose. I wouldn't say, but after re reading that article and remembering back on chicks I've hatched out...I think it might be possible. My only question is on the markings on the breast on my boy...kind of like half lacing... I wrote that guy in the UK and am hoping I will hear back!

 

[gilavina]

I think he looks BETTER than the photos in the articles - Crisper color and fuller chest!
For what it is worth .... That is my OPINION!

heehee....I need a blushing smiley! But I admit....I kind of thought the same thing and then kind of felt bad for thinking that

Mostly cause I'm not sure what I even have for 100% haha

 

[Arielle]

Hello all, I have been reading this thread for a few days trying to learn all I can. We are fairly new to chickens. We started our flock last summer with 10 cuckoo maran chicks. We ended up with 6 hens and 4 roosters. We lost half of both to a dog getting in the coop yard. But now our girls are laying our boys are very interested in them (we have them in a seperate pen for now). We had planned on just adding some buff orphingtons and some black australorps to the mix and calling it good. That was until I went to an auction last weekend. Then my hubby knew we were in trouble, lol. We bought a pair of blue splash marans with feather feet. They are my favorites. then we got a trio of Golden Salmon Marans that are just beautiful. Now even hubby is looking at all the different marans out there thinking where we could add pens, lol. My golden salmon girls are already laying eggs, I figured with the move they made and the night at the auction they might take a while to start laying. But nope we have been getting at least one egg a day from the two of them.

Now my question, has anyone had any luck letting a broody hen hatch marans? We are waiting for our first hen to go boody but I don't want to try to hatch my maran eggs that way if it would be better to find someone with an incubator to hatch them.

Thanks,
Cathie

Welcome!

I had 2 hens go broody last fall, a BO and BA. Both stayed on the nests doing their broody hen thing, getting off once a day for a stretch and a meal, then back on the nest and hatched out almost all the eggs. However, my marans were not laying yet so these were brown eggs and EE eggs. Marans

 

[Arielle]

Nice egg, SLick!!! How exciting! The first egg. Whooot!

 

[slick4591]

Congrats on the pretty egg Slick!!!! :yiipchick

Nice egg, SLick!!!  How exciting! The first egg. Whooot!

Thanks! I'm afraid I'm turning into a dark eggs s**t now. I want more, more I tell ya!

 

[gilavina]

Thanks! I'm afraid I'm turning into a dark eggs s**t now. I want more, more I tell ya!

haha....welcome to the dark side

 

[Arielle]

Oh you guys are a bad influence. I thought I was doing good with the new 6 coop breeding pen. We already have 5 large coops and several portable brooders. I'm not listening to how many you all have and might have to get more LOLOL. I also am not looking at any more breeds of birds even if they are all clucking my name. Oh but I forgot, I just put a deposit on some sebastopol goslings...is that a bad thing? Dang I really really want some peacocks too. Do you know how large of a pen you have to build for peacocks? Just huge..its gonna hog a lot of chicken breeding space lol.

Or do like a neighbor does with his peacocks--let them roam!! I only see them a couple times a year, 4 beautiful blue/green boys walking together down a drive and across the road. THey stop traffic. Just gorgeous!

 

[pinkchick]

Hello all, I have been reading this thread for a few days trying to learn all I can. We are fairly new to chickens. We started our flock last summer with 10 cuckoo maran chicks. We ended up with 6 hens and 4 roosters. We lost half of both to a dog getting in the coop yard. But now our girls are laying our boys are very interested in them (we have them in a seperate pen for now). We had planned on just adding some buff orphingtons and some black australorps to the mix and calling it good. That was until I went to an auction last weekend. Then my hubby knew we were in trouble, lol. We bought a pair of blue splash marans with feather feet. They are my favorites. then we got a trio of Golden Salmon Marans that are just beautiful. Now even hubby is looking at all the different marans out there thinking where we could add pens, lol. My golden salmon girls are already laying eggs, I figured with the move they made and the night at the auction they might take a while to start laying. But nope we have been getting at least one egg a day from the two of them.

Now my question, has anyone had any luck letting a broody hen hatch marans? We are waiting for our first hen to go boody but I don't want to try to hatch my maran eggs that way if it would be better to find someone with an incubator to hatch them.

Thanks,
Cathie

Hi! Welcome to the Marans thread! Last year was the year of the broodies for me with my Marans and a few girls from my other breeds....enough to make me crazy (admittedly a very short trip mind you, LOL!) and enough of them went broody I stopped counting. One who went broody 3 times last year, just got done raising chicks 2 short months ago, has recently gone broody again. In my opinion, Marans make wonderful mothers and incubators. Not to say that I haven't had a Marans hen that couldn't follow through, I have and she was the only one that I have had that didn't do such a great job, so if she goes broody again, I will probably try to discourage her from it if I can.