Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[DMRippy]

Yesterday while we were working on the new bator, 1 of the cuckoos was purring for a lack of a better word. She was shaking like she was cold too. Anyway another pullet was standing over here to comfort her and keep her warm I though. The purr-er kept nuzzling the other pullet. She ended up laying an egg. But I taught that was so sweet. I think that girl would make a good mommy!

 

[Arielle]

Thanks BarnGOddess, this is exactly the kind of facts I was looking for.

I have anecdotal info from reliable sources but not scientific study. Using the 2 together I can make reasonable decisions on the marans that went into the breeding pen on Sunday.

The AVERAGE is 14 days; the longest time is 32 days. ( PInk waits 6 weeks with good reason). WHen the influence of the first male is lost in 10 days, this might be useful if the roosters used are of the same breed , so a few chicks of wrong parentage is acceptable.

Otherwise it's about 6 days before collecting fertile eggs from the new rooster.

Somebody asked a few pages back about a university website with guidelines about the duration of fertility. I just found the following:

From Genetics of the Fowl, F.B. Hutt (1949)

“After single matings that yielded fertile eggs, the average time elapsing before laying of the first fertile eggs was found to be 57.1 hours by Curtis and Lambert and 66 hours by Nicolaides. Fronda’s record of getting a fertile egg in 20 hours stood for 8 years but was finally wrested away from him by Nicolaides, who, in 68 trials, got one fertile egg 19.5 hours after mating. Since the earliest fertile egg obtained by Van Drimmelen (1945) after putting semen directly in the abdominal cavity came through 19 hours later, and since it take 26 minutes for spermatozoa to traverse the oviduct (Mimura, 1939), no one is likely to lower by more than 4 minutes this record for natural matings now held by Nicolaides. More important, perhaps, is the3 fact that fertility for a whole pen of females is likely to be sufficiently established by 6 or 7 days to warrant saving the eggs for hatching. With old males and with young ones not adequately exposed to light [12 hours was defined earlier in the chapter] a longer time may be necessary.

After removal of the male, the average duration of fertility was found to be 10.7 days by Curtis and Lambert, 14.8 days by Nicolaides. The high records here are 29 and 32 days recorded by Nicolaides and Crew, respectively. In practice, poultrymen recognize that, a week after removal of the male, fertility is declining so rapidly that only special circumstances warrant saving eggs longer than 12 or 14 days.

It is important to know how soon after one male is replaced by another the influence of the first will be lost so that all or most of the fertile eggs can be attributed to the second sire. This has a special significance for breeders who are testing two or three consecutive series of cockerels in the same pens in one breeding season, as it is desirable to reduce to a minimum the number of eggs that must be discarded between series because paternity of chicks hatched from them would be in doubt. It was found by Crew (1926) and by Warren and Kilpatrick (1929) that in such cases the influence of the first male is lost in 7 to 10 days and frequently in as little as 3 to 5 days. Furthermore, once the second male’s sperm begin to fertilize eggs of any one hen, few of them, if any, are subsequently fertilized by the first male. However, there is apparently some variation among males in persistence of their spermatozoa in competition with those of a replacing sire. Altogether, it seems clear that 7 to 10 days are ample as an interim when one male replaces another.” [With A.I. the time lost is much less than with pen matings.]

 

[stoopid]

Isn't it just the coolest thing that all this knowledge is out there from 100 years ago, and still stands true today?
I am always looking for the old books in the used bookstores, and on e-bay.
Hopefully most "normal" people aren't concerned with these topics, so the books may go for cheap!!

Hi guys!

 

[Hens and Roos]

Isn't it just the coolest thing that all this knowledge is out there from 100 years ago, and still stands true today?
I am always looking for the old books in the used bookstores, and on e-bay.
Hopefully most "normal" people aren't concerned with these topics, so the books may go for cheap!!

Hi guys!

Good luck on the search for books, I have looked from time to time and they are hard to find.

 

[gilavina]

Isn't it just the coolest thing that all this knowledge is out there from 100 years ago, and still stands true today?
I am always looking for the old books in the used bookstores, and on e-bay.
Hopefully most "normal" people aren't concerned with these topics, so the books may go for cheap!!

Hi guys!

I think depending upon what kind of books you are looking for...you might be surprised. There is definitely a market for older livestock related books. My dad has a couple in his collection that would cost several hundred to replace.

 

[gilavina]

I'm starting to get really excited... (not that I wasn't before

). 8 days til hatching time!

 

[BarnGoddess01]

Quote:

I find the old textbook type books are as rare as hen's teeth

and VERY expensive when you can find them. Even the paperback reprint of Genetics of the Fowl wasn't inexpensive.

 

[Debbi]

I'm starting to get really excited... (not that I wasn't before

). 8 days til hatching time!

Ok, which ones are these?? Foggy brain this morning...

Keep your fingers crossed for me, I may have my new camera tonight!

Winter is making a mean come-back this weekend. Down to the teens with wind chills below ZERO!!! Not looking forward to that, we have been so spoiled this winter...

 

[desertmarcy]

Hi, does anybody on this group recognize either of these photos as theirs?

 

[desertmarcy]

Well I'm not sure why my message didn't come through, so I will try again. Does anybody on this group recognize either of these photos as theirs?