Maran - breed chickens for meat and egg direction with a very unusual exterior.This unpretentious bird may be contained in the enclosure, and in the free-range.Breeding hens of this breed, among other things - quite a profitable business.To learn how to properly take care of the Marranos, read this article.
Exterior Features
Maran - breed chickens, bred in France in 1895, in the town of the same name.It is quite large and thus quite graceful bird.Their plumage can have a different color.In any case, most farmers find this breed is very beautiful.The original exterior - one of the main reasons for its extraordinary popularity.
The farms can divorce bird painting "silver cuckoo", "black and copper Maran", "golden cuckoo", wheat, white.The body of hens of this breed is high and horizontally.Since plumage Maranos contact with the skin is very tight, the extra fluff they have not formed.Pretty simple form comb with teeth 5-7 at the chickens can hang to one side.
Rooster Maran gaining weight up to 4 kg, chicken - to three.The plumage of different density, but because winter birds carry very well.The eyes of the females have an interesting red-orange color.A sign of the breed is considered as the presence of the pen on the thigh and on the outside claw.Legs Marranos in most cases are white.Sometimes they are covered with gray or dark spots.
«Easter" eggs
As you can see, the bird is very beautiful.But not only this distinguished Mara.Hens, which breed description was given above, among others, are also a lot of eggs.They have Marranos also unusual.The shell of a rich chocolate color.That is why in France the bird of this species called the "goose that lays the Easter eggs."The reasons for this phenomenon is quite simple.Passing through the oviduct hen egg covered with a layer of brown pigment.If wipe cloth shell, it will become a bit paler.
With regard to size, eggs Maranos quite large.Their weight can reach up to 100, the French believe that the eggs of hens of the breed never become infected with salmonella.The thing is they are very thick shell.If we talk about taste qualities, then eggs Maranos they are great.This is another reason for the popularity of the breed.
shell eggs can not only be dark brown, but also have lighter shades.In general, Mara - this is a very interesting and unusual chickens.Photos on this page, this fact is confirmed by a more than convincing.
Breeding Maranos
chicken eggs provide quite a lot - up to 200 units per year.Of course, only with proper maintenance and feeding.In the winter, to increase egg production, should ensure that poultry 10-11 hour light regime.The air temperature in the shed thus should not fall below 15 degrees Celsius.For hatching in spring, experts recommend to select only eggs that have just chocolate color.It is believed that one can receive individuals with pronounced traits of the breed.Some farmers leave the eggs under hens, others use the incubator.The fundamental importance of the method of breeding has.Although the second method is considered more convenient, but only because the use allows incubator leave a "free" chicken and thus receive slightly more eggs.However hen chickens will grow, of course, better.
eggshell Marranos, as mentioned above, is very thick and sturdy.Therefore, punching her chicks very difficult.To help them, in the last days before hatching in an incubator need to increase the humidity (75%).In this case, problems with access to the outside babies will not arise.
Feeding hatched chicks
As mentioned, Mara - breed chickens are not too whimsical.To bring up healthy strong tsyplyatok will be easy.First, they are given only boiled yolks and cottage cheese.With 3-4 days begin to teach and more roughage - finely crushed corn or millet groats.The first week the kids are fed 5-6 times a day, trying to give as much food as they can eat.Cutting eggs and cottage cheese spiked every two hours.Up to 3 days old chicks should be fed at night.On the sixth day in a diet administered crushed shell and grated shell or ash.After ten days of feeding frequency was reduced to 6 times, and later - to four.
How to feed the chickens grown
The diet polutoranedelnoy brood already, you can add finely chopped nettles, carrots, alfalfa and clover.Before feeding grass should be scalded with boiling water.With beets desirable to wait until the age of one month, as it is weak digestive system.You can also give the boiled potatoes, cooked meat and fish waste and crushed cake.
in drinking water 2-3 times a week is necessary to add potassium permanganate (quite a bit, to give a very pale pink).Be sure to put in the shed box of sand and fine gravel.Chickens peck them Marranos quite willingly, as solid particles contribute to a better food chafing.Beginning with the fourth month of a litter can be transferred to an adult diet.
Care chickens Maranos
So breed Marans Hens ... (description is provided at the beginning of the article) are usually output tsyplyatok usually dark in color.Caring for chicks of this breed - the procedure is also not too difficult.In the case of dilution in an incubator immediately after hatching tsyplyatok kept in a box with the laid waffle towel down.Feet at 2-3 -day children very weak.Textiles at the bottom will prevent them from slipping.On top of the box should be covered with metal bars, with inserted between its bars incandescent bulb.Its thickness can be varied depending on the room temperature.The main thing is that the baby was warm and they would not stray in heaps.The air temperature in the box in the first days should stay at 30 ° C.Then it was lowered to 2 ° C per day.
In weeks of age or later the little Marranos already can begin to teach to the street.To do this, they - right in the box - take out into the fresh air for a few hours a day.A week later, the chicks can be transferred to the barn, taking home only at night.It is desirable from time to time to let them run around the yard.In tsyplyatok months of age can be converted into a barn completely.Releasing them "for a walk" continue, but always under supervision.Some farmers just podsazhivayut grown chickens to some hen, which has its own brood.Free-range poultry can be converted into a two-three month old.
What should be shed for Marranos
course, Mara - breed hens for breeding requires special facilities.Shed the best build of timber or make a frame-panel.This bird chicken coop will be warmer in the winter.Its height should not exceed 1.8 m. This will also save more heat during the cold season.Indispensable element of any chicken coop is a ventilator or a small window.For the good of the bird needs some fresh air.
course, take a walk on the street like absolutely any chickens (photo Marranos, examine the ground in search of worms, can be seen above).Therefore, about the chicken coop should be required to equip the backyard patio.You can just put on the perimeter columns and obtyanut netting width of 1.5 meters.The chicken coop wall adjacent to the courtyard, doing a hole.In the summer he was kept open in winter closed warmed shields.And in the hen house and yard need to fill roosts.
Sex in the barn is better to make wooden or earthen.It allowed him to pour concrete.Top floors coop stretches chopped straw and hay or sawdust.If litter is very thick (up to 0.5 m), in the winter you can not even shed heat.The hay or sawdust in the case of developing different kinds of microorganisms.As a result, their ability to live in bedding temperature can rise to 30-35 degrees.
As nest
breeding laying hens as a business, as well as just to meet the needs of only his family - a procedure that requires a device in a barn nests, perches and feeders convenient design.How correctly to collect them and where to place?Jacks hang on perches in secluded places.Their bottom is required to lay hay.In five or six layers should fall on one socket.To chicken was more convenient to do the input of no less than 25x25 cm. Self socket must have a height of 35 cm, and the width and depth - 30 cm. In front of you need to build a shelf for takeoff.Roof jacks is usually made inclined (at 45 degrees).In this case, the chicken did not sit in it permanently and not stain litter droppings.
What should be perches
number and length of the perches calculated on the basis of what each chicken needs about 20 cm of space.For their manufacturing poles with a diameter of about 6 cm. Positioning perches should be on the opposite side of the window, at a height of 1.2 m. This is necessary to ensure a comfortable bird takeoff and shield her from drafts.
Feeding adult Maranos
hen, the contents of which - a procedure in any case is too complex for better egg production should be getting enough food.Marani for good development should be given concentrated feed and mash.For the preparation of the latter is equipped with just two tables.One - year - installed outside the barn next to the wall.The second - winter - inside it.Above the tables you can drive a nail for graters.
Like all chickens, Mara are omnivorous birds with short digestive tract.Two-thirds of their diet should be concentrated feed (grain, Crushed).Besides them, the chickens provide a lot of greens, food waste, meat and fish meal, as well as all sorts of supplements containing minerals.Of course, rock Maran, like any other, will develop well and carried only if the diet is quite varied.
feed these chickens are usually three times a day.In the morning give the grain, mixed with feed.Day - 3 hours - in a manger laying mash.Their composition can vary.Kneading do in a large basin.It can be poured at its bottom a little water and soak it in slices of white bread.Then add bran, shredded carrots, apples, potatoes, beets, zucchini, sliced cabbage and nettles, and so on. D. In the evening, feeders should again fill the grain.Giving should be enough to Marranos ate everything completely.
The mash or grain should be added to meat or fish meal.This will promote better egg production.Fishmeal can be replaced cooked fish.Costs such additives are generally cheaper.
Feeders
hen, the content of which in private households implies first of all the correct feeding, should receive food from containers convenient design.Do feeders are usually made of wood or tin.The second option is preferable, since in this case the container will be easier to clean and disinfect.Below you should definitely fill feet.Thus it is necessary to choose the length of them.It should be such that the feeding bowl itself is at the height of the back of a bird.In this case, the variation of feed is minimal.
Chickens Marranos (photo and description are on this page), as well as any other breed of bird, love to climb into the bowl with the feet.Therefore, on top of the container under the grain and mash mounted turntable.Such a device they do not allow it.Make a water meter of thick poles, attach it to the two vertical bars in such a way that it rotates around its axis.
as drinkers can serve pot, saucepan, a small bucket.In winter capacity digged into the litter.This will prevent water from freezing.
How to prepare feed for Marranos
breeding laying hens as a business, of course, requires a constant feed suppliers.In this case, the feed is purchased ready.However, at a dilution of Marranos just for yourself it easier and cheaper to prepare yourself.Often the purchase option is not very good quality and the acquisition of retail is quite expensive.Therefore, many farmers prefer to do it yourself: for four buckets of barley take a bucket of oats and wheat.You can add to the mix a little bit of peas.
Ash bath chickens
farmers engaged in cultivation of Marranos, are advised to be sure to put him in the chicken coop box with ash or sand.These chickens are very fond of "swim" in them.These "bath" is not only a bird deliver fun, but also will be useful in terms of the destruction of all sorts of parasites in the pen.
As you can see, the breed Maran really deserves the attention of our gardeners and farmers.These chickens are very good egg.Yes, and they grow fast enough.At the same taste as the quality of eggs and meat are just wonderful.
