Marans Thread for Posting Pics of Your Eggs, Chicks and Chickens

[Solsken Farm]

Thanks Greg. Hey, you may have clean legged Cuckoos, but several of your eggs that I hatched have feathered shanks.

 

[klf73]

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Thanks Greg! I will see if I can get enough pens to try this

 

[Solsken Farm]

NP, how are you feeling? I have been thinking about you and your doggie massacre.

Folks I just posted on the predator thread. We have something stealing our chooks. The first was an Ameraucana that went missing and I thought at first that I had given more away than I realized. (I had just given my vet a bunch of chickens a day or two before and figured I miscounted what I kept) Then a new layer that seemed to be wanting to go broody was missing and I hoped she had gone off to lay somewhere, but she still hasn't come back.

Now one of my cockerels from Jesse Bryant is gone! Just vanished! I don't understand it.

He was with his hatchmates in a pen that has no top on it, but 6 foot high chain link. There are no signs of any trauma anywhere. I am seriously bumming and can't figure out what the heck is going on.....

 

[onthespot]

sorry about your losses, but a six foot fence will barely stop any predators, just a few dogs, maybe, the rest will dig under, climb over, chew through. Possums and all those little carnivores will climb it like nothing, bears, well, that's a whole 'nother story, but birds of prey will just thank you for gathering them up in a nice little bunch for them, and it just goes on and on. If you can't afford to put a secure top on it, predation can be cut way down by planting some dense bushes for cover. At least they have a fighting chance to dodge and hide if there is a buffer zone.

 

[Solsken Farm]

Yes, I do realize that. I have hardware cloth around the bottoms. It isn't that I can't afford tops, but during the day, with the horses, goats and dogs around, we typically do not have daytime predators, and actually the one pen that the cockerel went missing from, is mostly covered, so birds of prey are not the source. Someone is usually home and we just aren't seeing anything near the coops or around the yard for that matter. The free rangers during the day have lots of cover. Everyone is locked away at night in a secure coop so it is only the daytime that seems to be the problem. I haven't heard anything. It is just bewildering. No traces of anything. Anyway, we'll figure it out..... I had hoped to be able to let these birds free range, but clearly they are going to have to be contained.

 

[drom]

You know, you can go to Radio Shack, or out here we have Fry's Electronics, and get a wireless camera that you can set up to work on your television and monitor the pen in question. Or set up IP cameras and set up the image on your PC. They are not that expensive and might solve the mystery. Besides, they are always really handy to have around for security as well. I bought one of the wireless ones at radio shack for foaling watch when my mare was ready to foal-they work great!

 

[Katy]

One of my Wheatens started laying last week....here are her eggs.

 

[drom]

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Wow, those are so pretty. They look huge in the picture and they have a very nice bloom to them.

 

[Solsken Farm]

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Thanks for the great tips, Drom. Mystery is solved for this little guy. I just found him, wedged behind the hay bales I put in the pen to help keep their coop warm, as banking and to block the wind from the pop door. He must have suffocated.

At least I know a pred didn't get into the pen, because that just made no sense.....Poor thing, I guess sometimes, you just can't prevent a loss. Here I thought the hay bales would be helpful.


Katy, those are lovely.

 

[karanleaf]

OOOhhh Pretty eggs

Very nice... I am sure hopingto some nice brown choclate eggs like that soon. Congrats again!!

Here are the eggs I got yesterday from my Duck Shed, I had one Duck that had been having a quacking fit for a while then I figured out why. All of these are duck eggs.

I accidently broke that big one this morning, it was too big for a carton so I had it in a cup, by the milk, and I bumped it out getting the milk. It was a double yolker, now it will be dog food. But at least I go a photo of it first. So I guess this duck will lay double yolkers once in a while.

Ouch!!!

Sorry about the lose of the chickens but as already said, cover is best protection. I would have the top covered can't be too careful, home or not, day or night it is very hard to tell which predators are having dinner. Best of luck which every way you go. I hope there are no more loses.

Update on Ms Cluck she is as of this morning trying to stand up on both legs and streach, she has been turning around in the carrier. And we do take her out so she gets to visit with us in the open.

Karan