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

[drom]

Quote:
Wow Tina-is that your first BC egg??!! Or is that a Cuckoo? That is a beautiful egg. Your EE egg looks a lot on the blue side to me. Very pretty!

 

[Birch Run Farm]

A coupla pics:

Eggs, you can see the marans eggs compared to real araucana and three black giant eggs. I hope the marans increase in size, they have just begun laying. Anyone know why sometimes there is half color on the shell? A few of the marans eggs are pretty dark but more of a dark brick red than brown. Comments anyone?

Some of the cuckoo girls with Ranger, my BG cockerel.

Another view

 

[drom]

Quote:
Those are pretty hens. They look so cute cruising around in the snow there. You know, I think Onthespot probably has a theory on that because I think she had an early egg that was unevenly painted like that. Maybe it has to do with the egg being stalled in the ovaduct for a bit so that part of it is coated quickly and part of it is not.

 

[tfpets]

Quote:
Wow Tina-is that your first BC egg??!! Or is that a Cuckoo? That is a beautiful egg. Your EE egg looks a lot on the blue side to me. Very pretty!

Hey Drom! Thanks! I was so thrilled! The Dark Brown egg is from one of my Cuckoo Marans from Wendy Jackson in Sacramento....her lines are Kelly Cratty and Ione McCormick, I think they're mixed...one of mine lays a consistently DARK egg, the other is lighter but still very nice! They just started laying this month.

The EE egg is really a pretty blue...I have several young EE's, so I dont know who did it!! I'm gonna check and see if anyone has a more flushed comb tonight, but I dont want to have Tuft come out of the coop looking for me...its cold, and if she hears me, she runs around til I pick her up. Silly Araucana.

Tina/tfpets

 

[hcammack]

tfpets and birch run they sound great that egg color is fantastic ! I love the blue eggs to my whole goal is to have a colored egg basket. I have a post about it here looks like allot of people of this post are going for the same thing my whole flock is aimed towards diverse egg colors blue, green, dark brown, speckled, brown, and white.

Henry

 

[klf73]

Quote:
Wow Tina-is that your first BC egg??!! Or is that a Cuckoo? That is a beautiful egg. Your EE egg looks a lot on the blue side to me. Very pretty!

Hey Drom! Thanks! I was so thrilled! The Dark Brown egg is from one of my Cuckoo Marans from Wendy Jackson in Sacramento....her lines are Kelly Cratty and Ione McCormick, I think they're mixed...one of mine lays a consistently DARK egg, the other is lighter but still very nice! They just started laying this month.

The EE egg is really a pretty blue...I have several young EE's, so I dont know who did it!! I'm gonna check and see if anyone has a more flushed comb tonight, but I dont want to have Tuft come out of the coop looking for me...its cold, and if she hears me, she runs around til I pick her up. Silly Araucana.

Tina/tfpets

OMG, I have an araucana like that! "He" is too old to be inside but since the weather turned so bad I haven't put the 8/9 weekers out yet

. Every time I open up the brooder to feed them I have the one araucana that comes out to hang with me. He just hangs out and then goes back every now and then until I put him away, and he has done this since he was little. I don't need any more roos, but I think he is a keeper

.
Does anyone have any blue birchen?? I hatched some eggs from mergmet a while back and only hatched 2 blues, I had posted pics a while back. Well, there is a blue pullet and the blue cockeral now has a very light color coming through and she had mentioned the possibility of birchen. I am curious what he will grow out to look like, he looks awesome so far.

Also, I had asked about the wavy comb issue. Has anyone had any that grow out straight after they mature?

Thanks!

 

[onthespot]

Yes, I have had combs get straighter as they got older. One roo had one with a general slight lean and curve to the left, as if the outer rim was a tad too small. Eventually it stood straigt up. The hens changed a LOT over time. When they were younger thiers was floppy looking, and after they got fowl pox, they looked really limp and sorry looking color, sort of mauveish pink, paler to the scalp. Now they are bright red and standing up, with only slight curves. In fact, their names were after their combs. Tipsy, because hers tipped to the left, ZigZag because hers collaped in a zig zag pattern, and The Finger, well, one of her comb points headed in a different direction from the others. There were five points and the middle one pointed left. Now I can barely tell Tipsy from The Finger because their combs are pretty straight. Zig Zag I gave away because she laid too light of an egg for my taste. She went with Lightning to a new home, because I was sick of him trying to flog me about every third day. David is going to try to raise some chicks from them and see if he can get a few dark layers that way.

 

[tfpets]

Quote:
OT here, but Yes, Tuft is pretty special too, one of two surviving Araucana from my last hatch, if you recall I got 40 eggs from Gary....she's double tufted and rumpless, a beautiful Blue....Rumpy, the other, is rumpless but not tufted, a solid Black....
My Brooder is actually outside in a shed/coop and I keep it open to the rest of the coop now, so they can come and go at will....so she hops in and out and comes to find me. I hang out in the shed with the chickens that live in there in the evenings alot, especially during storms...its neat...I can play with the babies and big birds together, and my chickens think I'm a pretty cozy roost. I keep a chair in there and stay often. They're used to me.
I would love to see a pic of the little one you think may be Birchen. I have some accidental roosters here that I have to rehome that could pass for Birchen, but think the real thing is Beautiful!

One of the prettiest birds I've ever seen is Birch Run Farms Araucana Picasso - if she still has a pic of him, you should see that bird!! I dont know what color pattern that is, but man, that pretty! I have an Easter Egger I named after him!

Now, As to Marans, I think alot of us here are interested in the pretty eggs, that is what attracted me to the Marans in the first place. My interest in promoting and breeding grew from what I learned of them after I found out about their history, etc....But I do NOT want become a rip off....I love these eggs and this breed! I havent taken any money for the Cuckoo Marans eggs I have sent to anyone yet....and people have offered. I just sent 31 eggs to NY for shipping. There were 12 Cuckoo Marans included. For 18 bucks, it was worth the risk to them...Maybe none will hatch...I hope they ALL do! What fun!
Tina

 

[ruth]

I too got my Marans for the diversity of egg color. I already had every color imaginable and I have been making gift baskets of eggs to give to friends and everyone loved the blue and green eggs. Most had never seen them before. So I started searching for other egg colors and came across pictures of Marans eggs. I had been trying to find BC Marans for several months before I saw Mr. Jesse's thread advertising same. I jumped on it and was one of the first to order. I had absolutely NO IDEA they would eventually start selling for the high prices they do. That kind of put a damper on my plans for eating the eggs. So....being the entrepreneur that I am and needing to pay for the farm and ever growing chicken population, breeder pens, housing, food, etc. - if there are people (on Eggbid) who insist on paying $500 for a dozen BC Marans chicks I will be more than happy to sell them some. I'm sure the fad will die down soon because now there are so many of us who have the chicks but when I first started researching I couldn't find anyone who had them that didn't have a year or more waiting list.

I too give away my chicks, ducks and eggs and will continue to do so. But if there are fanatics/crazies out there who want to bid several hundred dollars for BC Marans chicks or eggs, who am I to deprive them? Besides, it will help offset my expensive hobby. As soon as the fad dies down, I can go back to eating/giving away these beautiful eggs which is the whole reason I got them in the first place.

 

[hcammack]

I have a few more up to date picture of my Marans that I found but I will get some better ones tomorrow.

Blue Copper girl

Black Copper Girl

The Cuckoo Hens (still not laying I am going to put light in the coop so they might again)

More higher quality picture tomorrow!

Henry