Wheaten and Blue wheaten Marans Discussion Thread

[Debbi]

Hope you get your deer. I had thought about going this year too, but the thought of lugging it back to the house and hanging it by myself, kind of talked me out of it! Glad you didn't get that weather, that was something. My sis lives in Mass. and they were spared also. Sorry to hear about the old roo, but good to let him go in peace with his ladies. Hope the new boys pan out for you. Don't feel alone in the egg department. Six layers here, in the Marans, and I haven't had an egg in a month! Then again, I suspect I have an egg-sucking kitten that I have now found in the run with them, sooooo. The little turd can squeeze through the welded wire on the top of the run, and I found him curled up with some Silkies this morning! He will be finding a new home directly! Feed is too darned expensive any more for the cat to be eating better than me!

 

[berkeleysprings]

Silkee are the only ones laying. theye are littie champs

 

[Debbi]

Yeh, my Silkies are still laying and brooding too! The one gal insists on going broody, this is like her third set this year. She hides the eggs under the straw when I come out to gather eggs in the morning. I caught her doing it the other day, then she goes and lays in another part of the coop like, "go ahead, look under me, no eggs!" Glad I caught onto that trick! Sneaky little things, but if it weren't for the Silkies, I would have zero eggs to eat! My Marans usually pick up and lay better in the winter, so I am waiting for that to start. All of the girls here just got out of molt and their feathers are now back in, so it should not be long now....I hope! Did you get your deer??

 

[berkeleysprings]

i sold a few hens from this years hatch I tried to explain to them nicely that it takes 7 or 8 months for those to reach point of lay and that Wheaton shut down for a few months during the winter
I bet they are excited may want to get eggs already but I haven't gotten a single egg in over a month . feom 12 hens. its normal. I told them to run artificial lighting for an hour and a half in the a.m. they told me they run lighting 24 hours a day 7 days a week. big mistake. if u ask me more importantly wheaten marans are not Rhode Island Reds or Partridge Plymouth Rocks . I would gladly buy the 2 hens back. and no Debbie I'm sorry to say I miss the deer.lol it's surprisingly they did not come back the next day....

 

[Debbi]

I've never run heat or lights. I figure they should just be chickens, and do their thing in their own time. My first clutch of BCMs started laying at 5 months old, and in November. Miss Wheatie Pie is just 24 weeks old tomorrow, and so far not looking like she is near POL. That's ok, you told me that up front, and I am hoping for the darker eggs because of it. I can't remember the last time I had a Marans egg, it's been at least a month. I had attributed it to the cats, but I just collected 18 eggs from the Silkie pens! Went out early the other morning, and there was a kitten snuggled in amongst a pile of Silkies!

 

[Daloorashens]

The pens I have mine in now are pretty dark, so I just run lights to match the sunlight pretty closely, they come on about a 1/2 hr early in the morning and then shut off a 1/2 hr early at night so they can still see enough to roost....

Still think its funny your silkies are your best layers right now, who'da thunk, lol!

 

[berkeleysprings]

I would like to have a whole flock of silkies if they wouldn't go broody all the time. it back to the lighting conversation running lighting 24-7 would be torture
lol

 

[flgardengirl]

I really like little Miss Wheatie Pie! (Hi Debbie good to see you *waves*). My silkies just started up laying like mad as well. My lavs aren't laying yet but should be anytime now. All the others are going broody all over the place now that it has finally cooled off. We had a rough crazy summer, weatherwise lol.

 

[snowbird]

Just a thought but all my breeder pens inside have lights 24 hours a day. I have did it this way for 50 years and do not see a problem with it at all.

Does anyone have Wheaten females with good type combs and not all twisted up ? If we could only breed some better combed females and quit using the bad comb female we would see some Wheatens with good combs for a change. The female is what produces all the twisted up combs on our Wheatens.

I will only breed one Wheaten female and she has a junk comb but lays a really dark egg, and she is very typy and large. If I ever get any good comb females will cull all the bad combs from my birds.

 

[Debbi]

Hi Lynette!

Thank you, I'm loving miss Wheatie Pie! Love her coloring, and can't wait until she starts laying, she came from a very decently colored egg. The 3 chicklets, her and her two hatchmates, have just started to get out of the run. They are big enough now, and the hawk population seems to be waning some, so I left the gate to the run open today. Even Clyde came out, and he never leaves the run! He is the baby sitter though, and his chicks were outside, so there was his motivation. It's a wonder I didn't have roos fighting all day long, but I threw 2 Silkie roos outside too, and they will NOT tolerate the big boys going at each other! Talk about funny!! If 2 Marans roos get into it, the Silkie boys jump right in on top of them and attack. I guess the big boys are so taken aback, that they forget what they are fighting for!

I like to never got them back in tonight! They gave me a run for my money, but all three are so tame that I can herd them or pick them up and carry. I have had it with the broody Silkies, and have been pulling all eggs out every morning. I have one gal that fights me tooth and nail to keep that one darned egg, but after I take it she seems very grateful! Whoever said Silkies were poor layers never had any of these! They started laying at 5 months, and have not quit since, and only slowing down during molts!

Don, I hope my girl's comb stays as erect as it is right now. Time will tell, as she is just now 24 weeks. So far, it is very compact and erect, and no funny oddities with it! After all of my past comb problems, if they even hint like they are going to sprout funny things or flop, they are outta here! Now to find a Wheaten roo that is good enough in all aspects. A good man is hard to find in all species evidently!