Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[Debbi]

Debbi~ Congrats! Hope more pop out for you. What's Olivia's egg doing?

Nothing so far, but that egg was in the fridge for probably 2 1/2-3 weeks! I didn't really expect it to hatch, but it was so pretty, well you know...

 

[Debbi]

Put the two in the brooder, and it was lights out. Hatching is such hard work. I thought I just saw another egg rock in the bator, but by now my eyes are buggy from staring at them, so it may be just me!

And now I see what might possibly be two more pips! Hard to tell yet with the yellow chick dander now on most of the eggs, but I will stay hopeful! Got to get out of this house before I go crazy!

 

[gilavina]

Vicki~ Cute chicklets that you got from Anna! What leg feathering, WOW!

Got an egg from that suppose to be Silver (but is copper) Black Birchen pullet yesterday that rivals the egg color of my Black Copper pullets egg. I marked it as a test egg and put it in the 'bator this morning along with all the rest of the eggs I set.

So......since she is copper and not silver.....and has good egg color......what should I do with her????

She has light leg feathering....good, but not as heavily feathered as desired.....good temperment, slight high tail set (definitely not squirrel, but not so high she would be DQ'd). She is on the small side of the scale....very petite and dainty...not at all like the C-130 sized girls that I breed.

Will go out right now and snap a current photo of her.

I'd like to see her. My instinct still tells me she would be best as a layer. Gold girls can't be worked with in a birchen project if you are going for silver because they control the offspring from a roo if they have gold in them. I think even if you use a roo with two copies of silver, you'll be headed for a really long haul and very little good results.
I'm not 100% what she would do with coppers other than muddy the waters. I'd say she would be worth working with if she was just stellar in every other way minus the gold color, but I guess I just am wondering if she would add much to your programs? Don't worry, I ask myself these same questions all the time. Probably quite a bit harsher on my culling here than most would guess.

 

[pinkchick]

That suppose to be Silver Black Birchen pullet. Can't see the copper in her neck very well in these photos. Goober McGoo behind her.




Goober coming in with the wing dance. Sorry for the sideways photo. Maybe he's not the only one around here that lives up to his name. LOL!

 

[gilavina]

That suppose to be Silver Black Birchen pullet. Can't see the copper in her neck very well in these photos. Goober McGoo behind her.




Goober coming in with the wing dance. Sorry for the sideways photo. Maybe he's not the only one around here that lives up to his name. LOL!

haha too funny. They are looking pretty...just wish she had come in silver for you! So that means those eggies better cook real good and get to developing for ya!

 

[Jenn1399]

Our new Marans chicks spent their first night outside last night. They are 4 weeks old today & the lows last night were 75 - they did great! Their initial distress calls of "bring me back to the garage!" didn't last too long!!

So, I need help with sexing the black copper marans. I think the first three are boys, but, it is so hard to tell! Opinions please!!! I need to get rid of the Roos while they are still young enough to easily find them a home.

I just have girls for their eggs (well, and for the chicken enjoyment) but I am interested to know what traits my birds have that are/aren't 'correct' for the breed.

Are the feathered legs toes any indication of sex? The ones i think are bays seem to have much more feathering on their legs & outside toes.

CHICK 1 - are his white fluffies underneath normal/ok?




-


Chick 2 again


chick 3



CHICK 4



CHICK 5



We also have 5 Wheaten marans chicks
I am pretty confident that we have 4 girls & 1 rooster. You can really see the black/darker color to tell the rooster apart!
On the girls, when you spread out their wings a bit you can really see this grey color show (is this called blue?) is this normal? Are these not Wheaten marans with this grey color in their wings?



& we also have 1 chick that is supposed to be an Americauna... I know she might not be, but she is the most tame, mellow & sweet bird!!!


Thanks for your input

 

[Flowerbh]

ok, I'm a newbee. So, all you people who hatch eggs...what do you do with all of the chicks??? I'm fascinated with all the cute chicks and want to hatch some, but what do you do with them all?? And when I read about you culling them, does that mean you sell them, give them away or kill them? Do you eat all these birds? I have 9 pullets (one iffy) and I would love to have more. I think it would be fun to hatch some chicks, but don't want too many. Where do you take them? I don't want a roo so are there people out there who will take baby roos? I think I have gone crazy staying awake at night thinking about more chickens! Everytime I go by an open area of grass, I think how much my chickens would love to play there. Every time I see an old little shack, I think about how I could make that into a cute coop! My husband now thinks I love my chickens more than him just because my girls got some nice warm oatmeal the other morning and he got a freezer waffle! hahaha. Are you all like this too? Anyway, let me know what you do with all the chicks you hatch! Thanks!

 

[Lotsapaints]

Go chickies I hope Debbi gets more to hatch some of mine take a long time too. I finally have some pictures of my juvies who still look ragged.They hatched right after Easter and I promise to try and get more of my black copper chicks from Sue who are filling out so nice. I too need to start going thru my grow out pens looking for early culls....My birchens are slow to feather so I'm going through them picking the faster feathering ones I hatched plenty so I could work on that and I get a weird one in the hatches of birchens that just stay small and really don't grow or feather out I normally don't let them grow out but I kept one to see if they would ever catch up I'll get a picture of that one for all to see.

I love the color of this splash guy

this is really what they think about posing...I had to put the hay twine on them so my Jack Russell"s didn't have a snack attack

here's a pullet

this one is younger

the other side

someday my husband will make up the fronts to these pens I have all the waterers but we want to have the fronts made with an angle iron frame so they can have a door and then you can lift the whole front up for easy cleaning I've been tying to get them finished before the end of July as the local show is the first week of October right now I have a few in big stalls but they need to be cage trained. I only have a few that I can/will show (all Blue Coppers) then I should have some Partridge Rocks. I am going to learn how to get them all conditioned I really know nothing just been learning as I go. Walt had a clinic this spring that was a lot of help. To me the hardest part is raising enough good birds to have one to show picking breeders isn't easier but getting a SOP bird is like a needle in a haystack with Marans.

 

[Cadeau]

Vicki - that sale is next Sun!
We're taking the birds over Sat afternoon, so they can settle into the cages.

Soooo - tell me more about FEELING them.

I'm always worried that, if I pick all the beefy kids, they will all be BOYS!!

Sooo - feel their rib cage under the wings and across the front - ?? -

How to hold them!! I'll go out and try right away!!

 

[Cadeau]

Go chickies I hope Debbi gets more to hatch some of mine take a long time too. I finally have some pictures of my juvies who still look ragged.They hatched right after Easter and I promise to try and get more of my black copper chicks from Sue who are filling out so nice. I too need to start going thru my grow out pens looking for early culls....My birchens are slow to feather so I'm going through them picking the faster feathering ones I hatched plenty so I could work on that and I get a weird one in the hatches of birchens that just stay small and really don't grow or feather out I normally don't let them grow out but I kept one to see if they would ever catch up I'll get a picture of that one for all to see.

I love the color of this splash guy

this is really what they think about posing...I had to put the hay twine on them so my Jack Russell"s didn't have a snack attack

here's a pullet

this one is younger

the other side

someday my husband will make up the fronts to these pens I have all the waterers but we want to have the fronts made with an angle iron frame so they can have a door and then you can lift the whole front up for easy cleaning I've been tying to get them finished before the end of July as the local show is the first week of October right now I have a few in big stalls but they need to be cage trained. I only have a few that I can/will show (all Blue Coppers) then I should have some Partridge Rocks. I am going to learn how to get them all conditioned I really know nothing just been learning as I go. Walt had a clinic this spring that was a lot of help. To me the hardest part is raising enough good birds to have one to show picking breeders isn't easier but getting a SOP bird is like a needle in a haystack with Marans.

haha - I love the hay strings!!!

That one boy has a HUGE comb for one so young!! (and I have a roo with a rather large comb, but it wasn't THAT big that early!!)