Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[gilavina]

it says unknown URL b/c the change to the new system and to report it....??....


Vicki - well...all have really nicely feathered legs, most down to the toenail, and some are going to be street sweepers!!

What are you looking for in color?

For size - you mean culling out the littlest ones? or just keeping the big hunks?
( I have pretty consistent size with 5 big hunks)

as for head shape - that's going to take a while LOL!!



Feel better - I'll work on those pics soon, just didn't want to bug you if you were too busy!
(wish I had today off - it was GORGEOUS!!)

I have several color varieties I'm working with and have different things I'm looking for with each one....the biggest on the cuckoos and the birchens is leg feathering. The birchens also need a size boost as they have always been smaller than the other. Its not just about keeping the biggest ones...its about the right combo. I'm always on the quest for the blues and so will keep ones that I think will help balance out my program....and let them grow out and then only pick just the best of those when they grow out.

you are right, some of them are street sweepers...I love that about this hatch...they are so uniform, no matter the color variety...that speaks volumes in what I held over this winter.

 

[Christie Rhae]

Advise needed for single matings........ Do you remove the roo every couple of days for a day or two to give the hen a break or do you put several additional hens in whose eggs you will not collect for hatching? Or, do you not worry about it and just leave the one roo and hen together for your designated breeding season?

Any of you using the Styrofoam incubators........What do you clean them with between hatching/before storage? Dust/hatching fluff in the fan, compressed air spray like used for computer fans?

I was just reading about this on the ameraucana breeders site. I think what some do is put them in for one day only a couple times a week. One poster said that the hens are usually squatting as soon as he opens the door and probably could take the roo out right away but leaves it in for a day anyway. Ok maybe I am paraphrasing too much... let me find the link...
here it is..
http://ameraucana.org/abcforum/index.php?a=topic&t=1754

 

[StrawberryHouseMouse]

Just put in a batch of 10 Black Copper eggs. My incubator usually has a very very VERY good percentage of hatch. So here's crossing my fingers and praying to the chicken god XD

 

[Cadeau]

Some day....!!

I need another year or two to get my flock consistent and learn more about how/what to cull before I can do it before they're @4mths old. Thus my stress with grow out pens!! (yikes)

Vicki - you've seen my birds.
Do you think I should sell as POL layers or as BCM?
I don't want to be just another goof out there, selling poor quality stock (though I don't have any DQs

)

You've been hugely helpful! Couldn't have gotten this far without you!
(feel better - you've been having a rough stretch!)


Getting excited to pick the right boy for my first go-round for breeding, especially the Jeane girls - they're laying a consistent 5.5-6 with two 7s in the past week (need to find out who that is!)


Donna - found it on your profile page!
I remember those houses - lovely!
Do you use the same setup for grow out?
Do you do the same as Vicki - in selling lots of chicks, pairs, and young culls?


I just need to learn faster....

 

[gilavina]

Some day....!!

I need another year or two to get my flock consistent and learn more about how/what to cull before I can do it before they're @4mths old. Thus my stress with grow out pens!! (yikes)

Vicki - you've seen my birds.
Do you think I should sell as POL layers or as BCM?
I don't want to be just another goof out there, selling poor quality stock (though I don't have any DQs

)

You've been hugely helpful! Couldn't have gotten this far without you!
(feel better - you've been having a rough stretch!)


Getting excited to pick the right boy for my first go-round for breeding, especially the Jeane girls - they're laying a consistent 5.5-6 with two 7s in the past week (need to find out who that is!)


Donna - found it on your profile page!
I remember those houses - lovely!
Do you use the same setup for grow out?
Do you do the same as Vicki - in selling lots of chicks, pairs, and young culls?


I just need to learn faster....

this is how I gauge how I sell...if i have hesitation in what I should sell them as because of those very reasons, I will just sell them as dark egg layers. I find it easier and it attracts more people who just want some dark eggs for their egg basket versus people just trying to make money quick without fair effort being given to the quality of breeding.

I'm happy to help when I can Katelyn. You are right that I've not been having an easy start to this year....kind of one thing after another and more stress than usual that keeps nagging at me. I have much on my mind...really questioning a lot of things and the direction I want to go with my life...one of those turning point things. Adding not feeling well onto it all and I'm worn out to be honest.

Don't worry about the speed you are learning, you are doing just fine! It is kind of like learning another language...you learn a bunch of parts and then one day all of a sudden all the parts you've learned kind of connect into one and you actually understand it...that's what's happening...just keep learning and filing things away and you'll be surprised where you will be a year from now

 

[DMRippy]

Some day....!!

I need another year or two to get my flock consistent and learn more about how/what to cull before I can do it before they're @4mths old. Thus my stress with grow out pens!! (yikes)

Vicki - you've seen my birds.
Do you think I should sell as POL layers or as BCM?
I don't want to be just another goof out there, selling poor quality stock (though I don't have any DQs

)

You've been hugely helpful! Couldn't have gotten this far without you!
(feel better - you've been having a rough stretch!)


Getting excited to pick the right boy for my first go-round for breeding, especially the Jeane girls - they're laying a consistent 5.5-6 with two 7s in the past week (need to find out who that is!)


Donna - found it on your profile page!
I remember those houses - lovely!
Do you use the same setup for grow out?
Do you do the same as Vicki - in selling lots of chicks, pairs, and young culls?


I just need to learn faster....

I have not even had chickens for a year, so I don't know what I am doing yet.

But that is kinda the plan with all these I am hatching now. I don't NEED all those chicks, but it is nice to have choices. My pens are made of pallets and I have 10 breeder pens and 4 larger pens that I may divide yet. So that would give me up to 18 pens. I use the grow out pens in my shop till I can move the pullets outside to a tractor and then to a pen. The roos.... I don't know what I am doing with them yet. The plan is a bachelor pen, but I don't have that yet. So far the extra roos have lived in the growout pens in my shop till they are used for breeding or sold for dinner. So far... no one has made it out alive

Kidding! Some I have sold for roosters in other flocks, but none have made it to my breeding pens yet. I have 2 that I am holding on to IDK why really. I could have sold one the other day, but explaining what a lav split EE was, was getting to hard so I am keeping him.

 

[DMRippy]

this is how I gauge how I sell...if i have hesitation in what I should sell them as because of those very reasons, I will just sell them as dark egg layers. I find it easier and it attracts more people who just want some dark eggs for their egg basket versus people just trying to make money quick without fair effort being given to the quality of breeding.

I'm happy to help when I can Katelyn. You are right that I've not been having an easy start to this year....kind of one thing after another and more stress than usual that keeps nagging at me. I have much on my mind...really questioning a lot of things and the direction I want to go with my life...one of those turning point things. Adding not feeling well onto it all and I'm worn out to be honest.

Don't worry about the speed you are learning, you are doing just fine! It is kind of like learning another language...you learn a bunch of parts and then one day all of a sudden all the parts you've learned kind of connect into one and you actually understand it...that's what's happening...just keep learning and filing things away and you'll be surprised where you will be a year from now

Listen to her! She is wise beyond her years....

 

[gilavina]

Listen to her! She is wise beyond her years....

you're too sweet Donna... sure don't feel like it somedays.

 

[DMRippy]

Baby pics anyone???

Pink these are your babies. The splash and the black with the funky feathers, I think are pullets and the blue a roo and HE is the only one with feathered legs.





Now that I see the feet, maybe the splash is a roo too.... we will see.




Ok these are mine that hatch before pink's by 3 days I think.

I think the blue is a roo and the black a pullet. The blue one has great feathered legs. These came out of Pink's roo and my pullets and some really dark eggs.






This is my feathered legged baby



This is Pink's baby



A sneak peek at the new bator. It is doing GREAT Loving it!

 

[stoopid]

OMG that bator is HUGE!
And beautiful.