I highly recommend you don’t shoot a hawk or eagle.
“shooting a hawk is a federal offense in the United States. All hawks, along with owls, eagles, and falcons, are protected under the
Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA).
Here are the key details regarding this federal law:
The Law: The MBTA...
Pullet shut doors work great. It was the biggest investment in my chickens so far, but well worth it.
https://chickendoors.com/product/standard-right-pullet-shut-door/?srsltid=AfmBOooqw-YeHT305Wx-p5iLpb0Yc4nqeQSuels2awdeqyWBd2dtEBFq
Ok good, that’s what would hope to get back crossing an olive egger to a Marans.
I did breed my f1 olive egger rooster back to the pure marans… and also to some pink, green, olive, and blue eggers. I should get a nice variety of greens/olives, and browns from all these birds come spring time...
The rooster is an olive egger. 1/2 BCM and 1/2 whiting true blue.
About 5 of those chicks in the roosting picture are backcrosses. The other 20 or so are from Easter egger hens. Unfortunately it looks like all but 1 or 2 of the backcrosses are pullets, the rest are cockerels.
Here’s one of the...
Have you back crossed the Marans?
I’m curious what the eggs will look like from the backcrossed pullets.
I have a few chicks from a backcross, but they won’t be laying until spring.
Here’s the rooster I used, and the second pic is some of his chicks
I always enjoy my marans eggs.
Anybody on here have backcrossed marans? I’d like to see what the 3/4 marans eggs look like.
I bred this 1/2 Black Copper Marans/ 1/2 whiting blue rooster back to the pure black copper Marans hens and have a few young birds out of them.
I got a massive drop of mulch and logs from them about a year ago. Must’ve been 25 yards. Mix of oak, elm, hackberry, juniper etc…. Some big logs. Enough mulch to completely cover my front and back yards and then some. Took me a couple days of back breaking work with a pitch fork and wheel...
My incubator is tough to nail down temp and humidity, but I try to keep it around 25-35%RH during the first part of incubation then try to set it around 50% during lockdown. Then when hatching starts it will spike into the 70s-80s.
Good luck on the hatch btw !
Chicks are doing good at about 4-1/2 weeks now. They’re getting used to the main flock, but still sleeping in the brooder.
There’s a good variety of traits in this cross. I’m interested to see how they mature. Hopefully I’ll get a few pullets with something like wild type pattern, pea combs...
I didn't think aracuanas had beards and muffs.
I've never heard of a pingle comb haha. is that what this is? He's half black copper marans and half whiting true blue.
No, I didn't get any Aracauna eggs. I decided the double tufted lethal gene and any potential issues with not having a tail are probably not beneficial traits for my flock.
Got 29 healthy babies moved out to the outdoor brooder.
Lots of diversity as far as colors, muffs, fibro, combs, and egg color genetics. Plenty of directions I could go in making selections.
If I could put all the traits together into one flock they would be a chipmunk patterned chicks for good...
thanks Wrath, 1 more hatched overnight to make it 29/31. Most of the chicks are olive egger and fibro Easter egger mixes and and about 6 of them are black copper maran backcrosses.
I’m happy to have some diverse patterns in the chicks, my flock only has 2 duckwing birds and the other 14 are...