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

[60ACRES]

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...so how do you know if you have a dwarf chicken or just a really small chicken? I guess if it dies, it was a dwarf?

 

[Germaine_11.20]

I think time tells that answer. My chick is not just really small. There is obviously something wrong with it in size. A small chicken would grow at a lesser rate, but this chick has not developed at all. I think it is just about the same size as a week ago.

 

[ThePolishPrincess]

I posted on this thread a few months ago, because I was wondering when my Marans girl will start laying. I'm happy to announce that she laid her first egg as of this morning and is now sleeping off her hard work.

It wasn't very dark, but I'd still consider it some shade of chocolate...

 

[kathyinmo]

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Well, congratulations! How old is she? Exciting, isn't it? ! ! !

 

[berkeleysprings]

i wouldnt worry about the first few eggs color untill they learn how and there paint department working

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[keithallen1965]

Here are our latest hatch. Blue's, Blue Coppers, Blue Wheaten the rest are still in the hatcher.

Here are a few eggs from today The Marans are a combination of the above birds These are all from hens that just started laying not very dark yet, they are all about 26-28 wks old.

Keith
Olive Farms
Marans and others
Angora Goats

 

[kathyinmo]

Keith,
I love your pictures! So festive! Make a Christmas card out of them!

 

[verycherry]

Quote:
...so how do you know if you have a dwarf chicken or just a really small chicken? I guess if it dies, it was a dwarf?

No, not because it died. All of them developed soooo slowly. When a bird in the same bunch from the same hen as one of the dwarfs was nearly at full size, about 5 months or so, this one chick was about the size of a 4 or 5 week old and just looked different. My daughter says she thinks the heads a little large for the body. They also seem to feather out slower and don't have many feathers on their heads. The 3 dwarfs I've had were all from this same blue female too, so I don't think it was an illness or a nutritional deficiancy of any kind, especially since most the other chicks from that hen were normal, and chicks from my other hens were all normal as well.

Rustyswoman
I think time tells that answer. My chick is not just really small. There is obviously something wrong with it in size. A small chicken would grow at a lesser rate, but this chick has not developed at all. I think it is just about the same size as a week ago.

Yes, it almost seems like they aren't growing at all, but they will eventually get a little bigger and fill out somewhat......and you'll get attached because you're more careful with them and tend to pay more attention to them. A few people on one of the Silkie groups said that their dwarfs lived, and I remember one saying that theirs even layed eggs.​

 

[verycherry]

I believe my Wheaten Marans hatch is finished. I have the original 3 fat healthy chicks that I mentioned yesterday, those hatched the 16th, and one more that wasn't coming out of the egg even though I could hear a faint peep, so I finally opened the egg a little at the top and found that the chick was deformed. It has a short curved beak and it's neck looks swollen. I went ahead and got it the rest of the way out this morning, it wasn't bleeding and was ready, but it's not doing anything but laying there barely breathing. I don't think it's legs are right either. Poor thing, it looks odd. I laid it back in the incubator because I had to come into town to bring the kids to school, but I don't think it will be living when I get back home, and I really hope it's not, because I think it's basicly a vegetable.

No signs of life from the rest of the eggs, but that's shipped eggs for you. It's a shame because they're such pretty dark eggs.

If I can trust the wing sexing on these 3, it looks like I have 2 female and 1 male. I should now in a few weeks since these are Wheaten.

I know most of your have heard of wing sexing, but if not, they explain it and show a close up of the feathers about 2/3 of the way through in this video on YouTube ......although I hate this video and the way most commercial hatcheries are run.

Wing sexing does NOT work on all breeds though.

 

[pinkchick]

Cherry~ Congrats on the 3 chicks! Sorry about the rest of the hatch. Are you going to try again?