Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[Christie Rhae]

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Thanks! I feel like I finally have a large enough group that maybe I will end up with a pair or two in the end that I can base my breeding plan on. It has been quite a journey. Took me almost a year and I am not there yet... edit: almost a year to even get some starter birds that is...

About feeding RAW.. of course there are fanatics in every field. Proponents of RAW say never ever ever feed regular dog food. I am nothing if not reasonable. This seems extreme. I think a little of both would be good. Actually even cooking the chicken is cool with me. Except they say raw chicken bones can be eaten by dogs and cooked ones cannot. I dunno... still researching that idea.

 

[Hens and Roos]

Vicki, maybe I misunderstood Hen's question? I didn't think she meant breeding the ones with the carnation or the wave? Hen's did you mean breeding the other siblings that had normal combs, or am I way off here? I sure would not breed anything expressing a carnation...OOOOOOOoooooooo NOOOOOOooooo!

We would cull the 2 boys with bad combs. Then once the other 2 boys and 2 girls whose combs appear normal looking at this point are mature, we would test mate them. Of course they could very well be carriers and produce carnation combs.

 

[Debbi]

We would cull the 2 boys with bad combs. Then once the other 2 boys and 2 girls whose combs appear normal looking at this point are mature, we would test mate them. Of course they could very well be carriers and produce carnation combs.

Hi Hens

Yes, that's what I thought you meant, I would have to try it. One bird maybe a carrier in each pair, or they all may be carriers, but the sibling to sibling matings will bring it out in a hurry if they are! Of course you could go futher and drive yourself crazy by swithcing the cockerels with the hens, and trying that combo too. For me, I think if they throw the Carnation, I will just pitch the whole danged lot of them!

 

[Arielle]

Thanks! I feel like I finally have a large enough group that maybe I will end up with a pair or two in the end that I can base my breeding plan on. It has been quite a journey. Took me almost a year and I am not there yet... edit: almost a year to even get some starter birds that is...

About feeding RAW.. of course there are fanatics in every field. Proponents of RAW say never ever ever feed regular dog food. I am nothing if not reasonable. This seems extreme. I think a little of both would be good. Actually even cooking the chicken is cool with me. Except they say raw chicken bones can be eaten by dogs and cooked ones cannot. I dunno... still researching that idea.

I don't feed chicken bones to the dogs, cooked or not. Maybe I'm just a little over cautious, but a vet bill is BIG. I pick the meat off the bones, for cats or dogs. Many people do feed raw and I understand the principle of fresh and undamaged vitamins; Raw fruits and vegies --100% in flavor oops FAVOR!

My 2 current boys(dogs) will only eat meat and breads--they don't know vegies are good for them!! I give them free range eggs in the summer when the yolks are very orange; I still cook the eggs though. I had another dog who ate everything, a black lab, ate tomatoes and peaches, stole everything right from the garden or trees.

 

[Debbi]

Aloha Christie

I used to feed the BARF diet (Bones and Raw Food) while my dogs were in training for shows, and with my male I have now. They all looked the best they ever did! I did try to remove that one, thin bone in the legs before feeding, but given raw, it is much suppler and doesn't seem to bother them. Still, I just felt better removing it. This diet got far too expensive to feed these days! But now when the breeding starts, and I know what to cull for earlier on, I may start up again. Of course there won't be enough of the chickens here for a steady diet alone, so I feed the regular kibble too. So far, I can't bring myself to kill mine either, that's why all the roos are going elsewhere today. I'm getting soft in my old age...plus the fact I hated processing chickens those many years ago.

 

[Hens and Roos]

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I hear you on this, right now I am having the great debate with myself on this- with some imput from DH. Trying to decide if I should scrap the whole group- 4 to freezer camp and the 2 pullets out the door as dark egg layers and then focus on my group of cuckoos- have about 12 eggs sitting on the counter that could easily go into the incubator I'm guessing that I also have the copper gene running in this group as 1 cockeral is a blue copper and the 1 back cockeral that was culled also looked to be starting to show some copper. Was really hoping to end up with just the soild colors blue, black and splash :/ I find it interesting that the blue/black copper are so abundent and yet the solid BBS are hard to find- seems that in develpoing the BBS copper birds that the solid BBS birds would have been needed....maybe I'm not understaning it right!

 

[Arielle]

Debbi, It does feel like I value life more the older I get!! And the culling is that much harder. I figure if my dogs get all my leftovers from my kids my dogs will be eating better than most people do in the US. I also don't have to cook unless I want to, as my kids know to help themselves to the apples, and carrots, etc, and chick the cores and not eaten to the animals.

Working on the culling part--part of owning birds. Just easier when I can take them to the slaughter house and pick it up dressed for dinner. LOL

 

[gilavina]

mornin' slow start in the brain so far....nothing that another few hours sleep wouldn't cure....oh well, can't have everything I suppose haha

 

[gilavina]

Quote:
I would guess you are probably right, but the hard part is that I'm sure the solid BBS got polluted with copper. Seems as tho perhaps they weren't kept clearly marked, or something and now finding the solid BBS is like trying to hunt for a needle in a haystack. I've been looking for 2 years and ordered many eggs and have yet to have a solid boy...I got two girls that have come out solid and when test mated with some wyandottes, the offspring still have no copper, but think these girls are gonna get merged into the birchen project since I have no roo

 

[Hens and Roos]

I would guess you are probably right, but the hard part is that I'm sure the solid BBS got polluted with copper. Seems as tho perhaps they weren't kept clearly marked, or something and now finding the solid BBS is like trying to hunt for a needle in a haystack. I've been looking for 2 years and ordered many eggs and have yet to have a solid boy...I got two girls that have come out solid and when test mated with some wyandottes, the offspring still have no copper, but think these girls are gonna get merged into the birchen project since I have no roo

I guess it probably only takes a generation or 2 to mix things up if careful records and marking of birds isn't done. 2 of the cockerals from this group are solid blue in appearance, 1 has the wave in the comb and the other 1 looks to have a straight comb. So if one was to test to see if they had copper or were true blues would you mate them to another chicken breed - say for example I could use an Andalusian hen- hatch out some eggs and see if copper pops out? I'm guessing that I won't want to use one of the splashes from that hatch as she could be a copper carrier and that won't tell me for sure?