I want a very small flock--maybe a trio, but don't know which would be better, Welsumers or Black Copper Marans? Can anyone give me a general comparison? I want PET chickens that produce eggs and don't have the space for both breeds. The small flock would have a small part of the yard when I am home, and not necessarily have to interact with my 4-pound terriers. (But if the chickens are aggressive enough to teach manners to canines, so much the better.)
Welsumer versus Maran - Small Egg Laying Flock Wanted
I just got a Marans and think she is great. Very sweet and low key. She loves to sit in my lap while I feed her. I'm sure Catscan will pipe in with a more detailed comparison as she has both (I got my Marans from her). Good luck!
Myrrh
Awwww, thank you ... what a sweet hen you have; I can just see her. That's what I want - a pet chicken first, eggs will come or not. But I sure do miss having chickens around. I live 3.5 miles from the heart of downtown Houston in a 1930s neighborhood and I can hear roosters crowing. Ya gotta just love that .... so glad I moved here.
Hi glitterik! I have only had Marans and Welsummers for about six months, so my opinion is based on a combination of experience and research.
Welsummers are generally considered low-key mellow birds--and mine have certainly been that. TamaraFaye has one of mine and can give you her opinion on his personality.
Marans, on the other hand, are more variable. Every book says to check the strain you get--they are generally not considered "cuddly", that is they don't like to be handled, although they are not noisy or flighty.
The Marans Myrrh has came from a flock that was "friendly and gentle". My other Marans pullet is similar--although as a chick she hated to be held, now she comes up and talks to me.
If you are not concerned about very dark eggs, Orpingtons are the most people-oriented breed I know. They actually seem to prefer people to other chickens and will climb on your lap, talk to you and be very cuddly. I think Cochins and Brahmas may be as well--although I've never had them.
Let us know what you decide on!
This message was edited Jun 30, 2008 6:08 PM
Brahmas are like dogs, very personable, very sweet. Gentle giants : )
pardon ME, but BUCKEYES are the most personable egg layers that I KNOW OF!
that said, between th etwo you have it narrowed down to... keep in mind that marans of any type tend to be very broody starting at 2 years of age, and stay that way. a broody hen may not be as friendly, she may be cranky, hormonal, etc...
now, i am about to order some welsummer hens, so ask me again in about a year!
btw, where do you plan to get your hens? i highly recommend www.xtremegamebirds.com if you just want to buy a few started pullets... you will have to call them direct for that...
for chicks Ideal is great and less expensive, but pretty much sold out. xtreme could do a custom hatch for you, ask fro Suzanne or John Hayes, they are in Elgin...
on the other hand, i have some lovely bantam brahmas that wish i would spend more time with them. they don't take up much space, and when the gate is open, i can't even SHOO them out, they are so content, and freidnly with each other and the other breeds. so i bet Pathcouli is right, and if you went with the bantam size, you could have MORE!
tf
OK, just read today where of all the dark egg layers, the welsummer is the most reliable with the largest egg...
http://www.ithaca.edu/staff/jhenderson/chooks/chooks.html#w
That's cool! I currently have a year old Marans hen who lays pretty dark eggs. Then after reading Photographer's posts about the Welsummers, I ordered a pullet from Ideal. She's only about 8 weeks though, so not sure on the eggs yet.
if it turns out you don't like her, well then, i have a roo for her!
hmmm, didn't think to check with ideal on pullets.... skip the baby chick part....
I must be tired too 'cause I'm typing unclear. It makes sense in my head though : ) I meant i ordered a baby chick from them whom is now around 8 weeks. Not this last batch I just received but the one prior. Sorry for the confusion.
rotfl, copper black marans eggs r THE largest eggs i have ever gotten shipped in or seen from a chicken. this year i got in cuckoo marans, copper black marans, road island reds and welsummers among many other breeds and hatched from all 4 breeds and others. the coppers were easily double the size of the others, the next biggest were the RIR not to far behind. i can't say on reliable layers for those 3 breeds cuz mine r youngsters yet.
i used to raise RIR's and they have huge eggs closest to the coppers in size but RIR's lay 300+ eggs a year per hen and as far as i know lays the most and next closest i know of is a commet or golden sexlink for reliable ;aying. i can't remember the # of eggs per hen for them now but it is close not far behind the RIR.
i have had my silkie girl's sit on their eggs just 2 of them on 31 eggs at once to hatch(and cover all of them) and their eggs r medium sized probably, omg u should have seen them on my copper eggs they could sit on no more than 3 eggs each they were so HUGE!! i had to make special nest boxes for them to even keep them in the nests because they were so tall on the sides in the nest they could not sit on them right, it was a hoot to see and watch them broodies hatch!!
silkie
You may find that the differences between chicken breeds to often be simply what you perceive or how you have treated the particular bird(s). My Marans hens were mellow. My Marans roos were rambunctious .... sounds like typical poultry. I've preferred the Welsumer breed because the breeding has been a single color trait plus the Welsumer is reputed to lay an Extra Large egg vs the Large to Medium for Marans. There no denying both breeds lay dark brown eggs. I noticed my Marans eggs when scrubbed under water with a a brush would lose color. I think my Welsumers do too but I don't seem to have to scrub them as much. A new Marans color has appeared most every year for the past several. It doesn't require much genetics background to understand that new colors come from different breeds of poultry that are not dark brown egg layers. The Cuckoo Marans birds are gonna provide the darkest brown eggs of the various Marans colors one can buy. I have still yet to hear anyone claim the APA has recognized the Cuckoo Marans as a breed. I have been hoping for 6 six years it would happen before much longer. With so many folks loving the Marans and carefully maintaining quality ... one would hope they'd get the APA recognition. At one point I had 10 Marans roos ... they were a handful to keep happy and peaceful. I had to cull too many of them. It was not enjoyable. If one wants a Black-Copper Marans .... why not make it less of a gamble and get Welsumers ... that is what they are ..... BBR roos with Salmon colored hens. They are one and the same. I'd never heard of the Black Copper color till the new Marans surfaced in Ontario, Canada. Both Marans and Welsumer breeds are big and beautiful. I've read that Welsumers are great broody mothers .... I can say I have seen no evidence of that in almost 5 years with close to 10 hens. My take is you'll be happy whatever you choose.
i suppose i should have been more clear, where the welsummer is rleiable. marans go broody more, which means less eggs...
wow sillkiechick, glad to see you stop by, know you have been swamped with hatching out chicks. gotta go for now, dmail or call ya later, K?
tf
i'm always here somewhere,lol i've just been posting on other forums lately. yep, still hatching, i just hatched my first white sultan baby but the rest of the crew didn't make it so i got to find more eggs to give it a flock.
as for marans here is some info on them that may help to know more about them.
http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/CGK/Marans/Marans.html
If you are looking for large, ex-large, jumbo, super and ex-super eggs, the BAs lay them. Some of mine are so large they don't fit into standard jumbo cartons. I can only put six in a carton staggering them to fit and still have trouble closing the carton.
GG
BTW, they never laid pullet eggs. Just started with large.
Hey Granny, YOUR BAs lay them--you should sell hatching eggs!
i have a BA roo who needs a home...
Sorry, TF, I have probably 7 young BA roos. Only one has started crowing. They are 3 months old this weekend. Told DH it's about time to let the teenagers run with the adults. Told him to open it up on Monday.
Catscan, I don't know about selling hatching eggs. I can't keep up with the demand for EATING eggs now. I am going to have to enlarge my flock in the spring again. The adults I have now are last years hens so they will be culled in the spring and new ones to take their place. But, I have only about 25 or 26 young hens. Not enough!! Need about 45 to 50.
GG
Aren't they suppose to lay well for two years, Granny? So maybe you could overlap one generation until you build up your numbers.
Catscan, these are last years, so they are in their second year. They have laid okay since last summer. That means that they will be culled next year.
GG
Oh, Granny, I just hate to think of all that wonderful BA jumbo egg laying potential going to waste. Most sources say BAs lay medium sized eggs--and I am a jumbo egg fiend. Couldn't you hatch out just a few to keep the bloodline going? Or send eggs out for others to hatch. I don't know if there is a guarentee you will get such nice egg-layers again.
Does anyone else get jumbo eggs from their BA's?
Catscan, I hatched out 21 BAs this spring. Those are the ones I am talking about. One of the young roos went after DH tonite, so he will not be making it to total adulthood. Our grown roos are a RIR who is probably sterile (he is 4) and 2 BAs who are 2. Since the ones I hatched out are BAs, I might be keeping 2 roos from those, but am not certain at this point. I also have 9 young roos that Ideal sent with my keets in May, and they are a gold color, so might be Buffs. Will have to wait and see. Since they are only 6 wks old, we still don't know what they are.
I met a lady today that had ordered 50 straight run Buffs, and might be talking to her about trading a BA roo for a Buff roo. We liked the size of the Buffs so would like to have a flock of them. Or at least Buff/whatever. The BAs are on the scrawny size and we really want a meatier bird that lays well. We fell for the idea that the BAs were good layers. Have found out that they aren't much better than other breeds.
GG
But the eggs are so big! LOL!
scrawny bird, big eggs, poor layers, bad temperament.... not exactly you normal Black Australorp...
Ya think, TF? I am thinking that too. I don't know, tho. The blurb in McM did say the hens at maturity weighed about 5 lbs. That really isn't large. I am thinking that the ones we hatched are going to be larger. Who knows what is happening there. I am not going to worry about it. Come spring, I will probably order 50 pullet chicks from Ideal and maybe I will get what I want. Size-wise, I got another "ooh-ah" egg yesterday. It was almost 3 inches long.
GG
egad! bet that was a lot of cackling in the henhouse...
Yep!!!
GG
Excellent advice; thank you all. I will start out with 2 or three hens (definitely 1 of each) and see where it goes from there. I cut down banana trees this weekend to reclaim a portion of my yard to make room for chickens ... and made 2 round compost bins out of hardware cloth with the ends stapled to fence pickets, so I feel ready to tackle a hen yard and pen! How hard can it be? (Famous last words, right?) I like the idea of a little house plus little yard attached, for when they can't roam free. I think I can draw what I want and then figure out what I need. Just so long as I don't have to do any fancy sawing.
I found a local source for hens but of course due to scorching weather nothing can ship ... I am on the waiting list. Will keep you all advised!
Good luck : )
i know what you mean, i am waiting fo rmore hens too...
let us know what you come up with on their house!
My Welsummer just laid her first egg! It is large and dark brown, although not as dark as the Marans.
WOW! wish pecky would lay one. but i do have an order in for welsummers... just have to wait six? months?
my god tamara how many order do you have 60
I can't wait ; )
i ordered 12 pullets for Pecky. but then they said straight run, so i increased it to 24... along with those 25 delware pullets, for sex link hatching eggs next year. 50 brown leghorns for egg this winter. and, hold your breath, they got some eggs for 25 buckeyes!!! OK, BREATHE... luckily DH has until august 6th to finish that new shed... obviously these are from a breeder, not from ideal... i am not nuts, i am getting prepared... and if i have no egg customers, or goat milk customers, don't you think people would line up to get fresh egg nog? i just need a case of rum, a case of brandy.... j/k...
In the words of Jack Sparrow, "Why's all the rum gone"? I loooooove rum!
it is soooo good in coffee!
Uhhuh!!!
wat your burning the rum lol i dont lik rum nocks me around to much
scotch now thats good drinkin
and tamara u realy are prepared arent you
this is getting egg-citing.... DH got the ridge pole up on the new shed today, expects to be putting on the roof Sunday!
the east end will be the henhouse for the delawares and welsummers.
middle section has one side for brooders, and one for the goat milking parlor.
and he gets the west third to store his tools. OUR tools...
August 6th is the hatch date....