[Dave C]

Few years ago I had a bit of a Dark Egg obsession 
I bred Welsummers and Marans at the time and the best eggs were a Welsummer cockerel over a Cuckoo Marans hen ( also Sex linked)

I love Welsummers but the Marans I have now are better utility birds and they suit my meat bird project as well and with a bit of look will add in a dark ish egg,
So I'm doing one more batch of chicks and thinking of layers I'm doing the Sasso x Marans cross again (with a few IG eggs thrown in).
The cockerels from the last batch are looking really meaty but I only got 1 Pullet out, so not enough to really test the cross on egg size and laying.
The Sasso's have layed about every day since they were 18 weeks.
A nice big egg as well so together who knows.

[Dans]

Well one of our hens has gone broody so we've decided to do a little experiment.

Our cockerel is a Barnveldar cross (not sure what he was crossed with) and we have gone for 6 eggs under then hen. Two from our cuckoo maran hens, 2 from our cream legbar hens and 2 from our very odd hybrid hen who has maran in her and lays 83g eggs pretty consistantly.

We found the hybrid hen's brothers to be very tasty and have heard good things about the marans so we will see what a cross with our cockerel produces. We added the cream legbars to see what kind of eggs any females produce. Just a small experiment as we aren't set up to have lots of young birds around yet. Will let you all know how it goes.

Dans

[Charlie1234]

Well one of our hens has gone broody so we've decided to do a little experiment.

Our cockerel is a Barnveldar cross (not sure what he was crossed with) and we have gone for 6 eggs under then hen. Two from our cuckoo maran hens, 2 from our cream legbar hens and 2 from our very odd hybrid hen who has maran in her and lays 83g eggs pretty consistantly.

We found the hybrid hen's brothers to be very tasty and have heard good things about the marans so we will see what a cross with our cockerel produces. We added the cream legbars to see what kind of eggs any females produce. Just a small experiment as we aren't set up to have lots of young birds around yet. Will let you all know how it goes.

Dans

Some of these pot luck birds are great Dans,I have some Light sussex x Jersey giant x Columbian blacktails,they have just started laying and are very chunky looking but will need longer than commercial bred Cobbs etc to get big enough to eat but as Dave C says you can always eat your mistakes 

These are the L.S X J.G X CBT Pullets at 16 wks old,not loads of meat on them yet but at least i know they have had a good life from egg to table.

[Dave C]

Nice looking Pullets mate 

Faces look to be reddening up nicely
Are they for the table or kept sad layers ?

[Dave C]

Well one of our hens has gone broody so we've decided to do a little experiment.

Our cockerel is a Barnveldar cross (not sure what he was crossed with) and we have gone for 6 eggs under then hen. Two from our cuckoo maran hens, 2 from our cream legbar hens and 2 from our very odd hybrid hen who has maran in her and lays 83g eggs pretty consistantly.

We found the hybrid hen's brothers to be very tasty and have heard good things about the marans so we will see what a cross with our cockerel produces. We added the cream legbars to see what kind of eggs any females produce. Just a small experiment as we aren't set up to have lots of young birds around yet. Will let you all know how it goes.

Dans

Good project there Dans 

You should end up with some nice eggs from them crosses, should be dark brown and maybe even a green in there.

The chicks should be sex linked as well

[Charlie1234]

Nice looking Pullets mate 

Faces look to be reddening up nicely
Are they for the table or kept sad layers ?

Not sure yet Dave,1 of the brown ones has been laying daily for 3-4 days now,might keep them running with the speckledies for a while and see what they develop like but you know I can change my mind in the blink of an eye 

[Dave C]

Yeah we can all be like that mate 
Mrs C has to keep reminding me that I need less chickens not more 

That's a good age to be laying 
Did you get any cockerels from that cross?

[Dave C]

Anyone else use a Broody Coop ?

This is mine with another couple of Marans in it.





Also got 3 IG broody, but they getting some eggs to sit 

[Charlie1234]

Yeah we can all be like that mate 
Mrs C has to keep reminding me that I need less chickens not more 

That's a good age to be laying 
Did you get any cockerels from that cross?

No cockerels mate,just the pullets which out of 4 that hatched is pretty good going,also the 4 eggs that hatched with the r.i.r. i got 3 rir pullets + 1 l.s. cockerel.

[Dave C]

It seems to have been a Pullet year so far.

But last year, dam I had a lot of cockerels.
But it keeps the freezer full 

[macgro7]

My ridiculously expensive barbezieux eggs are developing well! Out of 13, 2 weren't fertile and 1 seems to have died. 10 developing well, God willing they will all hatch! 
Then I want to hatch some bresse and perhaps turkeys.
Got a new muscovy female and they keep mating all the time so we should have some muscovies this year too  the Drake i have is massive! Huge beast much heavier than my geese! I can hold a gander by wings with one hand but can't hold that drake. I have him for two years, since he was little. Was meant to eat him so many time over the winter but his way too nice so am keeping him from breeding for another season. Really wanted to cross him with a chocolate female to get cream and buff coloured offspring (he is Blue and white pied). He's so big the fox didn't want to bother with him - I saw him!

[Dave C]

Good fertility for a rare breed 
Good luck with them.

You could be onto something there mate.
Breed them that big that the fox is scared of them 

[macgro7]

Trust me I've seen that drake swallow frogs and mice lol
He would probably eat fox cubs (I hope).

[Charlie1234]

Mate of mine used to keep Rouen Ducks..never seen ducks that big before,i had some off him that weighed nearly 6kg and he never had any problems with foxes taking them either 

[Dave C]

How's everyone getting on ?

Here are my Sasso and Sasso x Marans at 6 weeks now.