Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[Cadeau]

Martha - how far south are you?
I'm dying to get my sugar snap peas started....but it's sooo wet. AND so wet - again!!

You have me curious about the new Marans breeder, too!
You'll have to fill us all in!

 

[gilavina]

Hey Katelyn! How's the chicks coming along and filing out?

 

[chicken curious]

here are some pictures so you can see the leg colors I was talking about...within normal?

I swear that one of the BCM chicks (~4 1/2 weeks old) has an almost greenish tint to the slate on her legs and tiny bits of copper coming in around her neck and a bit of mossiness on a few of the longest wing feathers...is there a chance this mossiness will molt out?


My Cuckoo Marans has pink legs and toes with a slate line on top plus lots of S&P feathers on her outer toe and shanks...too cute, but is pink normal for Cuckoos?

I'm really enjoying the Marans, they are some of my most friendly chicks. They totally know who 'butters their bread'!

 

[Cadeau]

Hiya Vicki!
How are you holding up with work, spring babies, and stormy weather?

Any baby goaties yet?
My pig finally burst and had 7 perfect piglets last night! 5 boys and 2 girls!


Chicks are coming along!

I kept 3 cockerels out of the bunch and have 6 or 7 girls - they're 2.5-3mths!
Then, I had a bumper crop - a 99+% hatch - FORTY SIX Marans

Needless to say - I'm done hatching for a while! haha



My F2 girls are coming along and starting to lay, along with the 3 OE (one of which is actually a BROWN egger...sigh)

I'm liking the purple band boy and have weeded his girls down to 9 (just gave him a young, blue cutie!)

Though the stinker spurred me yesterday when he thought I was hurting one of his girls....
(one of the girls had the new 4mth old cornered and I bent over to grab her. When I turned around, he was like "OH! Oops!"
Needless to say, he got to do chores tucked under my arm!

(He's normally a really sweet guy)

My blue band boy in with my mature girls is riding the feathers right off the girls - two have actually taken to flying out of their pen....poor girls. I need to take some pics of him - he just looks so....immature, next to the full grown hens....


Things for more single mating have been on hold the last month b/c my surgeries and "couch arrest" had my SO and my father taking care of all the farm chores for the chickens and horses...

 

[gilavina]

Hiya Vicki!
How are you holding up with work, spring babies, and stormy weather?


Chicks are coming along!

I kept 3 cockerels out of the bunch and have 6 or 7 girls - they're 2.5-3mths!
Then, I had a bumper crop - a 99+% hatch - FORTY SIX Marans

Needless to say - I'm done hatching for a while! haha



My F2 girls are coming along and starting to lay, along with the 3 OE (one of which is actually a BROWN egger...sigh)

I'm liking the purple band boy and have weeded his girls down to 9 (just gave him a young, blue cutie!)

Though the stinker spurred me yesterday when he thought I was hurting one of his girls....
(one of the girls had the new 4mth old cornered and I bent over to grab her. When I turned around, he was like "OH! Oops!"
Needless to say, he got to do chores tucked under my arm!

(He's normally a really sweet guy)

My blue band boy in with my mature girls is riding the feathers right off the girls - two have actually taken to flying out of their pen....poor girls. I need to take some pics of him - he just looks so....immature, next to the full grown hens....


Things for more single mating have been on hold the last month b/c my surgeries and "couch arrest" had my SO and my father taking care of all the farm chores for the chickens and horses...

I'm definitely tired. Hopefully tomorrow I'll sell my birds for good prices. I am so glad that I have the day off to get this done! I'll be doing another round of culling as well...so I think it will really help me out to get it done!

I have some girls that are getting rather bare in the back...so annoying! They look beautiful otherwise.....

I don't blame you for not doing the single mating stuff while you've been healing. Sounds like your birds are doing great tho... happy with the birds you have left?

 

[Cadeau]

I hope you get some rest with these new workers!!
and after your "kid watch" is over!!

I'm scheduled for foal watch in @ 2 weeks - SOOOOO excited to see this baby!!


yep! I was just happy to have someone feed and water my pens, while I was out!!
Didn't want to bother them with feeding/watering the little single pens...

I'm happy with the girls I kept from the F2 pen - have it down to a pretty homozygous bunch with a couple I'm waiting to see egg color and more adult build.

My adult pen is much more a bunch of different types, other than those pure bred girls.
Was waiting to see what single mating produces before culling them down (have 6 girls in there, I think?)

I'm thinking of culling my Bryant roo....but I'm waiting to see what he makes with my big framed girls (once they start laying - haha!)
I'm tired of his cranky pants - he's a plain jerk...

The only other one I'm not really sure about right now is the blue band roo....he's pretty, but needs to do a lot of filling out (and growing up!)


I need a chicken apron template for that blue band boy's girls....they're going to get sunburnt, if is ever sunny!! haha

 

[Debbi]

I hope you get some rest with these new workers!!
and after your "kid watch" is over!!

I'm scheduled for foal watch in @ 2 weeks - SOOOOO excited to see this baby!!


yep! I was just happy to have someone feed and water my pens, while I was out!!
Didn't want to bother them with feeding/watering the little single pens...

I'm happy with the girls I kept from the F2 pen - have it down to a pretty homozygous bunch with a couple I'm waiting to see egg color and more adult build.

My adult pen is much more a bunch of different types, other than those pure bred girls.
Was waiting to see what single mating produces before culling them down (have 6 girls in there, I think?)

I'm thinking of culling my Bryant roo....but I'm waiting to see what he makes with my big framed girls (once they start laying - haha!)
I'm tired of his cranky pants - he's a plain jerk...

The only other one I'm not really sure about right now is the blue band roo....he's pretty, but needs to do a lot of filling out (and growing up!)


I need a chicken apron template for that blue band boy's girls....they're going to get sunburnt, if is ever sunny!! haha

Hi Katelyn,

Bryant roo, huh?? Got any pics of him? Funny, that the one bird here that is supposed to be a Bryant roo, is Pip, and he is a jerk too! My girls are all getting bald and burned too, I hate it! The one Blue roo I kept back from another ill-fated hatch, is a real feather stripper.

 

[Debbi]

Today is day 21 for the SG and Silkies. So far, only 2 are pip & zip, and both are Silkie eggs. I sure hope at least one of the SG hatch! Got awakened by a new crow this morning. Yup, 4+ week old Silkie who is still in the house! That the youngest ever for a Silkie to start, and he must've been practicing, because it didn't sound like the usual cat-strangling noise most newbies produce!

 

[gilavina]

mornin Debbi! today's the great exodus for some of my birds, but the best part is that the weather is just gorgeous. So so so excited to be thinning down my flocks! There's gonna be lots of chicks and layer hens for people today!

 

[Debbi]

Mornin' Vicki

Good deal! Good feeling to get rid of the culls and extras. Now, we'll see how many more you bring home with you!