Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[DMRippy]

One of the other bloodlines.

I love the copper and mahogany on him!
He keeps himself immaculate!

Too bad he's a grouchy thing...

He looks like you brushed his hair! LOL

 

[flgardengirl]

Really? The one I linked to is active everyday. Some really interesting and educational topics too. It is free, you don't have to join the club to post there. Bev Davis herself will even answer your question sometimes. I have not seen anything unpleasant yet.
Personally I have seen some unpleasantness on BYC not a few times.
Guess that is just people.
It only costs like $10 to join one of the clubs. I joined the ameraucana club and the marans club. I will renew next year. To each his own I guess, I was just trying to give the other poster some ideas to learn more about marans. It has worked for me.

Just saw this so will respond now: I was at Newnan, GA for the BCM APA approval/show and the Marans club table was right near the Marans tent. The members I met seemed really nice and invited me to join so I certainly could have if I wanted to. Dh and I bought a few mugs and some egg charts and some other stuff to support their cause and it was way more than $ 10.00 I have bought awesome stock from people who never even heard of any of the Marans clubs right here in lame 'ole Florida.
In fact,I know one older woman that I bought a super dark laying pullet from who has a whole flock of nice birds that lay 8 1/2 -9's on the Marans chart. Even her roosters look good.
She is an elderly woman who doesn't show, doesn't socialize or get on the computer much, doesn't often sell and obviously didn't need anyone to coach her. Sometimes things are just common sense. I have bought eggs from members of several different chicken clubs that turned out to be a joke so really, its just a toss up.

That $10 doesn't make you a better breeder, person, etc is just gives you a little more access to help, if you need it and possibly first hand news of when the shows etc are gonna be happening. I don't have that much time to show or go to shows unless they are 7 hrs or less because dh and/or I usually choose to take some 'on-call' time for our jobs. I had this past weekend planned out but ended up getting called in at the last minute. I don't know where all these sick people are coming from lately, LOL, but the all hospitals here are sure busy all of a sudden but I digress,
So, if you're gonna use it then join, if not then don't. DH and I each pay well into the triple digits on our Professional certifications, organizations, continuing education, and Professional licenses, either annually or bi-annually. So I am cutting down on stuff I don't really need to pay for or probably won't use.

Another thing is many of the internet based, forums, clubs, plant societies etc are going to free membership and or different levels of membership. Their websites get way more hits that way and it does help draw people in more to buy merchandise and up their memberships. I know a lot of the plant societies are using some of this income to print a quarterly journals and other interesting stuff.

 

[Cadeau]

haha - if only they ALL kept themselves so clean and pretty!

Most of mine are mud babies and LOVE to go out in the pig field!

Right now, they're in the woods in the mud puddles consuming masses of tadpoles

(very funny to watch, though b/c tadpoles are FAST!)

 

[flgardengirl]

haha you must have been reading my mind, because I just posted that you should post photos! I have been in birds a long time, but don't know nearly as much as I'd like. The silvers are something I've been working to get my start in. There is a gentleman in England that is working to establish a standard with the club over there for the Silvers and has been sharing his knowledge with me. I've ordered some of the Silvers from Cedar Creek to go with a boy I had come from my cuckoos that appears to be a silver. I'm planning to cull heavily and do lots of test mating to hopefully establish a healthy flock that reflects the marans standard to the best of my ability. I should be getting the chicks in about a week to week and a half. I can't wait. I've been wanting some since before I even bought my first marans and had assumed there were none in the states, but tracked these down and will take what I can to get my start!

x2 I would love to see pics of anyone's silver marans. I need to post some more pics of mine now as they are feathering in. The yellow one has much white/silver on his little wings with a little bit of grayish. The yellow and grey downed chick has more of a cuckoo but with a lot more white than the regular cuckoos I have that are also feathering in. One of the cuckoo patterned chicks that came from one of the 'silver' eggs has a whole line of white/silvering down his back but the rest of him looks cuckoo. The other just looks like normal cuckoo pattern. I had to remove some of their little leg bands this morning man they are growing fast!! I am starting to see some telling little red combs on some of them.
I am kinda glad that I hatched out the regular cuckoos along with the silver marans because it is letting me see the differences as they grow. Whether the silvers turn out correct or not, it is still interesting and I love projects!!

 

[flgardengirl]

Flgarden~

I'm very excited ............ one of our clients gave me a Yellow Brugmansia yesterday!!!!! I can't wait for it to bloom!!!!

She schooled me on how to care for it and what to do for it in our climate so that I can enjoy it next year. Looks like I will have to make space for yet one more plant in the house to over winter. I keep telling DH we should really put in a green house at one end of our home and it will be dual purpose as we can use it for passive solar heat too. He usually just gives me the rolling eye look.

Heck, I told him I bet I could make it more than dual purpose...in the winter I could probably brood some Marans chicks in there as well and move one of my brooders out of his shop and give him his space back...you know I still get the rolling eyes look.

Congratulations on your new brugmansia. If you decide you like it and want some cuttings of other varieties for postage, I can send you a priority box of them in the fall when I cut mine back. I can't even tell you how many I send out every year lol. I have doubles of about every color lol and lots and lots of different single varieties as well. Mine are blooming all over the property now and it smells awesome outside at night now!! They absolutely LOVE composted chicken manure and my flowers get way larger than when I planted them in cow manure for some reason.
I add a few shovels of chicken poop to each hole I plant in. My free ranging chickens go into the greenhouse and sneak and lay eggs in the corner, when I have brugs with seedpods that I don't want to freeze, overwintering in there. They eat up my little green treefrogs and native lizards (grrr) but no problems thus far of them eating the poisonous brugs.

 

[Bangarang64]

flgardengirl,
Do you have any Wheaten Marans down here in Florida? Do you sell them and if so, where are you located?

 

[flgardengirl]

I do have some wheatens but am not really doing anything with them right now so none for sale yet. I lost some of my wheaten hens last fall to a predator attack so have fixed the run and coop and am working on getting my own wheaten flock back into good standing. I had a few extra cockerals but sold all but the two I am keeping. I can't think of anyone else in Fl that has wheatens for sale right now but there are probably some that do. Bargain (byc name) in GA does have wheatens for sale from time to time so may be that would be close enough if you are in N. FL. I haven't seen her birds in person but I believe she has a website.
Randy (berkleysprings) here on byc has very nice wheatens ( you can see them on the wheaten thread) https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/426622/wheaten-and-blue-wheaten-marans-discussion-thread . They would have to be shipped but if I was gonna get some new stock I would probably get them from him or some like his.

 

[desertmarcy]

Are these pullets laying yet? If not, you can't be sure of the egg color they will lay. I would wait till they lay before making culling decisions with pullets.
ETA: I would of course cull for gross deformities or DQ early on though.

No, they are not laying yet--still way too young, 2-3 months. I've been culling for color at this point. Culling as in selling for egg layers, not breeders. But I will cull as in butcher before long because I just can't afford to keep so many "hoping" someone will buy them. I've just made the decision this morning to finally butcher my 5 Cuckoo Marans hens--I've had several people tell me they want Cuckoo Marans, but NOBODY ever comes out to buy them, and I can only wait so long! I need that pen now. Sorry, now I feel like I am venting

Fortunately I haven't had to deal with the lack of leg/foot feathers as all my chicks have feathered feet. And I haven't seen any bad DQ combs, either, at least on the black coppers. But I have quite a few that have mossy feathers, and quite a few that are solid black, just like 4 out of 5 of my hens. I'm keeping back any that aren't mossy and that have copper hackle feathers--so far I have about 10-12 like that and twice that many that are mossy or solid black. I would think out of a dozen pullets, at least half should have decent egg color.

 

[flgardengirl]

No, they are not laying yet--still way too young, 2-3 months. I've been culling for color at this point. Culling as in selling for egg layers, not breeders. But I will cull as in butcher before long because I just can't afford to keep so many "hoping" someone will buy them. I've just made the decision this morning to finally butcher my 5 Cuckoo Marans hens--I've had several people tell me they want Cuckoo Marans, but NOBODY ever comes out to buy them, and I can only wait so long! I need that pen now. Sorry, now I feel like I am venting

Fortunately I haven't had to deal with the lack of leg/foot feathers as all my chicks have feathered feet. And I haven't seen any bad DQ combs, either, at least on the black coppers. But I have quite a few that have mossy feathers, and quite a few that are solid black, just like 4 out of 5 of my hens. I'm keeping back any that aren't mossy and that have copper hackle feathers--so far I have about 10-12 like that and twice that many that are mossy or solid black. I would think out of a dozen pullets, at least half should have decent egg color.

Its okay we all gotta do what we gotta do. I culled several very nice BCM roos last fall that came from very dark eggs. They weren't completely perfect but certainly something to work with. It was a shame but a lot of folks don't really know what they are and just don't want roos. Sometimes its more economical to just butcher your birds than to sell them for nothing especially if you paid a lot to feed them and do the math lol. If you have organic bird meat...that is pretty darn expensive nowdays so definitely a consideration. I am going to try pressure canning some of our chicken and muscovy meat this summer when I go through a major cull again.

 

[Cotton42]

Hi,
Can someone please help me with my 8 week blue copper? Is it a boy or girl?
Thanks!

Gosh, I hope that's not a roo, 'cause that's almost exactly what my 6 week old blues look like! I was hoping for at least one pullet in the bunch. Sigh.