Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[Arielle]

Eggs are under the broodies! Now I am no longer excited, but anxious! They better not mess up

Here's to hoping the broody does a good job and stays on the job!!

 

[ChickenExtreme]

Yes..... it is a DQ in the APA SOP. The accepted SOP for Marans is French (with feathered legs) and the English breed them without feathered legs. I hatch them pretty often with clean legs. I don't breed them as I am breeding to the SOP.

Thank You, I got a pair and then hen didn't have any feathers on her legs, plus she don't have copper, I'm not sure how old she is though. Not to sound silly but what does APA and SOP mean?

 

[laughingclown]

Thank You, I got a pair and then hen didn't have any feathers on her legs, plus she don't have copper, I'm not sure how old she is though. Not to sound silly but what does APA and SOP mean?

APA is American Poultry Association and SOP is Standards Of Perfection.

 

[laughingclown]

Ok 2 questions:

1. Can roosters get sunburn on their combs? My roos comb has a little purple discoloration on the back of it like sunburn or a lack of circulation. The rest of its fine. I have seen pictures of other roos and some of them have this same thing. Just curious.

2. A while back I brought up feather picking. The concensus was lake of protein. I had them on Dumor Grower/Finisher. Today I switched them back to Dumor Starter again. The protein was 15% vs. 24%. Do all of you think I made the right choice? My other chicks I had I feed them starter up till laying and I hardly had any feather pulling.

 

[Arielle]

Quote: WHen hens are over melanized, which means they have a extra gene that masks the neck coloring, the hen may have a black feathered neck but still have the genes for the reddish -brown hackle colors genetically.

It would take some test crosses to determine which she is. THat is look at the ofspring to see if the hackle coloring is revealed.

 

[mendocinosunris]

Ok 2 questions:

1. Can roosters get sunburn on their combs? My roos comb has a little purple discoloration on the back of it like sunburn or a lack of circulation. The rest of its fine. I have seen pictures of other roos and some of them have this same thing. Just curious.

2. A while back I brought up feather picking. The concensus was lake of protein. I had them on Dumor Grower/Finisher. Today I switched them back to Dumor Starter again. The protein was 15% vs. 24%. Do all of you think I made the right choice? My other chicks I had I feed them starter up till laying and I hardly had any feather pulling.

Is it hot where you are? I've heard that combs can turn purplish when the birds are overheated. I've never seen it happen myself...

Yeah, I think switching the feed is a good idea. Just watch em to make sure the picking eases off.

Keep in mind that I'm a permarookie & I know nothing

 

[laughingclown]

Well 4 days Into my Incubation. Hopefully I will have some little penguins running around soon.

 

[Arielle]

Quote: 15% protein is regarded as too low for growing poultry. 20-22% is far better. Let us know if the negative behaviors subside. 15% is layer level -- I have only found one company out of 3 that use 15% , the others are 16%. ( A lot depends on the amino acid profile.)

 

[laughingclown]

Well I know the Dumor Grower/Finisher was 15% as I looked on the nutrition label. I was like yeah...not working. I was going off the directions on the back of the bag. It showed when to move from the starter to finisher.

 

[Lotsapaints]

I use a turkey/game bird grower 22% also the starter 30% on all my chickens they do great on it as I tried the lower % ones and always had picking problems..adding hay helps too though if they can't run outside since I have alfalfa hay for my horses the chickens get some of the scraps most of the time it helps though some birds seem to loose tail feathers no matter what I do