Tuesday, March 24, 2009

New chickens

In my search locally for Marans chickens, I came across some five week old Black Copper Marans chicks for sale.. Well, these are the current "it" variety because while the other colors of Marans lay dark eggs, the Black Copper ones lay the darkest brown eggs of all... I was also intrigued by the idea of the possibility of Blue Copper, since blue, being a dilute of black, can be paired with black.. I was guessing that since the seller mentioned only getting a few blues from this hatch, I thought they wouldn't be for sale, but he let me buy a pair of Blue Copper, as well as a pair of Black Copper, plus a little Splash Copper freebee (who was smaller than the others and harder to tell what gender it was).. At first I thought it was a pullet, but now I'm relatively sure its another rooster, which is just fine- he's very cool.. Splash is like a double blue genetically, so paired with black, the splash will throw all blue chicks. They are growing fast!



Well, before the week was over I had located a trio of Ameraucanas which included 2 gorgeous blue hens... they came with a rooster also, so now the chicken numbers are even- 4 hens, 4 roosters.. I think I either need more hens, or less roosters..... The rooster seems to have a very nice disposition.. I'll keep him for now because roosters are good guardians for hens and until the Marans get bigger, he's the only one here, but he'll probably be looking for new flock later on..
Here is the Ameraucana group still in their travel cage:




3 comments:

Michelle said...

Congratulations on the lovely new fowl!

Allena said...

I have a blue that you could have, she's old but she still lays. She is a good brood hen too.

I also have a few very beautiful Americana that have an interesting lacing on their feathers.

I love these chickens they are so beautiful. My latest chicken acquisition is Delawares and Black australorps. I like them both very much.

Crosswinds Farm said...

I am so jealous that you found some Blue Copper Marans! I can't seem to find any locally. I have Cuckoos Marans, but I love the blues.