Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[math ace]

I have red and sweet yellow onions growing now. I planted them late but its okay they will do fine lol. I also have the large green tomatillos the purple tomatillos and lots of tomatoes going. I need to try and grow garlic since we use it soooo much around here lol. I've got some bell peppers in the ground and a whole bunch of hot peppers ready to go into the ground. I am trying some more new varieties this year. My dh likes peppers that burn all the way through haha. I got my summer squash and some cucumbers going last week. We will see if the pickle worms get them this year. I am pretty nervous about bugs in the garden this year since we didn't really freeze that much they probably didn't either grrrr. I also just potted up over 50 baby cacao seedlings. More work than I thought it was gonna be. Some more are sprouting too.

Hey Neighbor,

My green tomatilos have yellow blossoms on them! Man, I am so excited! I have never grown tomatillos before....ANY ADIVCE? Do I stake them like an indeterminate or cage them like a determinate? Do I prune them? I've done some searches, but am still not sure what to do with them!

 

[gilavina]

I'm finding it hard to get caught up right now.... Back a few days ago, a comment was made about growing onions during the winter in Florida...
This is what mine are looking like right now...



The chickens pretty much leave the onions alone. HOWEVER, the collards are an entirely different story.

Yahoo! Those look great! I just planted another couple hundred onions again today after work. They are not to the stage where they bulb yet, but most all of them are 1/2 to 1 inch in diameter...so should give me a really great jump on the season here. I'll have probably another couple hundred to plant tomorrow and should be just about done then. I also have some leeks I'll be planting! I'm loving this early spring, but didn't enjoy the 91 degrees this early! haha

 

[Keara]

You all are making me sad with the gardening talk. Spring has come early here in the north country, but I am not gardening this year. I will be away next month on "the trip of a lifetime" to Greece. It will be very fun but I will miss Vermont's short planing season. I wonder what sorts of chickens I will see in Greece?
But on the plus side I meet my house/chicken/cat/horse sitter yesterday, and she agreed to incubate eggs for me too! I really found a good one this time!

-Keara

 

[math ace]

You all are making me sad with the gardening talk. Spring has come early here in the north country, but I am not gardening this year. I will be away next month on "the trip of a lifetime" to Greece. It will be very fun but I will miss Vermont's short planing season. I wonder what sorts of chickens I will see in Greece?
But on the plus side I meet my house/chicken/cat/horse sitter yesterday, and she agreed to incubate eggs for me too! I really found a good one this time!

-Keara

Garden Or trip of life time..... I think I would choose trip of life time too!

HOUSE SITTER willing to incubate eggs .... WOW.... I need one of those !

Keara, I hope you plan on sharing some pics from Greece, even if you don't find any chickens to take pics off....

 

[slick4591]

We have had our onions in the ground about a month now and they are just now starting to show signs of growth.

I too would put a lot of things on hold in order to take that trip. All the better you have a great house sitter.

 

[Debbi]

Wow Keara, have fun in Greece!! Congrats on the pet sitter too, she sounds like a good one!

 

[gilavina]

mornin Debbi! Haven't been on much last few days while anyone else was on...been either working or getting stuff done outside. Did you get those wheaten eggs set then? They are beautiful!
Is it supposed to get hot down your way today too? 90's again today....its so crazy to be this warm!

 

[samouw]

Ok...I managed to get a few shots of the wild bunch. Yes..that's their collective name for now

The first two shots are in the sun coming through one of the windows in the barn. This is the girl with the most birchen coloring so far, although most of them have some level of color coming in.



check out those street sweepers! And on a birchen no less!


Here is that girl's coloring from above without the sunlight changing it. Not bad eh?



Here's a few random shots of the girls in the little area they get to go hide in at night to sleep. They are doing better with people, but it will take some more work for sure before they are easy to get nicer pics of them. I really like the stocky body type on the girl second from the right that is behind the other two...she is the shyest of them all, of course.... grr




look at all that suspicion! haha...they really are sweet...just not been around people a whole lot. I'll keep workin with them, until then, these are the best i could get. Anyone wanna venture guesses on age? They still make baby chick noises and from the looks of them I think they might end up being pretty big.

Beautiful chicks!

But...can someone explain what "birchen" is? TIA

 

[Hens and Roos]

Yay!!! I am finally a marans OWNER!!! I got Black copper, blue copper, blue, and splash!
I love my chubby chicks! LOL
Black coppers:


Blue coppers:

Splash:

Chubby blue:

Splash:

cute babies! Congrats!

 

[Debbi]

mornin Debbi! Haven't been on much last few days while anyone else was on...been either working or getting stuff done outside. Did you get those wheaten eggs set then? They are beautiful!
Is it supposed to get hot down your way today too? 90's again today....its so crazy to be this warm!

Mornin' Vicki! Yes, it's been hot here, and again today getting to 90*!!! Had to mow the yard yet again yesterday, that makes for 3 times in March. I can't remember ever doing that? Got the weed whacker out and reclaimed some more land yesterday too. Today I hope to do some more, then cut down a bunch of small trees if I can get my chain saw going. Then onto the garden, never did get to it yesterday. Now, with all that said, I hope my energy and body hold out to get it all done!