Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[geebs]

http://marans.eu/genetiqa.htm#genetiqa is the page on the marans website that explains quite a few difficulties in dealing with the breeding of this bird. This is the imported french version which they bred and have a long documented history with. It explains the link between the white feather and the lighter shank as Don has mentioned. This is coupled with the additional difficulties we have with the US homespun version that were "made" here... That adds a whole nuther pot of genes to the marans soup pot. I think the standard as written in the US was taking this into account. Maybe when the Black Birds are accepted by the APA they will rule out white of any kind as they should.. as for the BC and all the subcolors that fall under it... We are all in the soup pot together. Happy hatching... I will feed anything that lays a darkie. That is my story and I am stickin to it...

I would breed separately for showstock as the French have done....two separate pens... egg showstock and bird showstock.

Just one girls take...

Don't ya just love the soothing music of the website though!!!

 

[desertmarcy]

I did it! This morning, I butchered 7 cockerels including the 3 Blue Copper Marans I posted pics of a week or so ago. Now I will not be tempted to use them, each one of them had problems, and the problems were all different. Wish me luck that my best of 2 remaining Black Copper Marans cockerels does NOT develop white feathers and does a good job producing some chicks that are NOT all culls!!!!!

I also thinned out my Black Copper pullets down to 6 and sold the rest as layers. It feels good to be finally getting the birds down to where I want so I can concentrate on pairing and hatching.

Now I've got to go gut and bag those birds that are sitting in ice water.
Think I'll try brining a couple. That worked so well with the turkeys for Thanksgiving and I have brine left over.

 

[Sylverfly]

Heres a few pics of my youngsters.

 

[gilavina]

good job Marcy!

 

[Debbi]

Way to go Marcy!

 

[Debbi]

Good looking group of youngsters there, Sylverfly!

 

[gilavina]

Getting ready to head off to work for a bit, but hope to come home and have plenty of good conversation to read!
I'm hoping for another round of culling on Saturday as well, should make a big difference in the feed and space. Can't wait to see what the breeding pens look like after!

 

[Hens and Roos]

Thanks Don. I just went over to the French site and read there for a bit. This page pretty much sums it up, although they like the copper speckled breasts which you don't see to much of here. Interesting read for anyone who has never visited this site.

http://marans.eu/ncuiang.htm#NCUI

thanks, bookmarked it and will slowly read

 

[pinkchick]

Don, I have never been able to have any of the mauve hatch, either.  I think their coating is EXTRA thick, and that could be why.  I only had one female in the past lay them - when I would run them under water, they would show the true dark under color - I took a pic once of one as it was drying.  I'll see if I can find it (just for fun).

I used to have a female that laid these chaulky mauvy eggs all the time...........tried and tried and tried to hatch the eggs and have only ever been able to hatch one. That chick, now a fully mature 2 year old hen that lives at my best friends house, she has on occasion given my friend an egg like the one she hatched from but for the most part lays a nice regular Marans egg. I tried hatching these types of eggs as I thought it would be neat to see if it is a trait that will pass on...but apparently it isn't.
I had 2 more of these chaulky eggs from a different hen set for hatch on Monday....upon the eggtopsy performed this morning, both eggs developed fully but look as though they quit possibly right after lockdown. Bummer!

 

[pinkchick]

For Vicki......

the best shot of the Birchen cockerel I could get........he is a wild little stinker. He has 1 partial white primary feather on the left wing, it is starting to cover with normal base color and quite fast I will add. He hatched July 2nd and will be 5 mos. old next week. Is it safe to assume that this should molt out or grow out just like it does in the BC?

The other Birchen cockerel that I got from this hatch was JUNK! He was culled this morning.





Oh and MARCY....good on you girl!!!!! It is hard to cull, but often a very necessary evil to keep us from temptation.