Marans Thread for Posting Pics of Your Eggs, Chicks and Chickens

[drom]

I thought I would start a new thread for people to post pictures because I personally love looking at pictures of other people's eggs, chicks and chickens.

And there are a few people who are close to getting their first Marans eggs pretty soon, which is very exciting! So please post away!!!

 

[Debbi]

Ok, I have a question about all of this. Mind you, this is all new to me, and I've never been to a chicken show in my life! My question then is, why is there this seemingly urgent need to have the breed become APA approved at all, or at least, right now? Is it a monetary thing? A status thing? What? I showed dogs for many years, and to me, showing amongst your peers, as in a Specialty Show, where only that particular breed was represented; that a significant win there meant far more to me than at an All Breed Show where the judge may or may not really know the SOP. Everyone is going to have their particular areas of likes and dislikes. All breeders are going to have faults. All birds, no matter how good they may be, are going to have faults. Would it not be better to hold more specialty shows until a consistent, sizeable gathering of good birds be shown all at once? And I'm not just talking by the "big" breeders, I mean this to trickle down to the little guy, who because he could go to specialty shows, and see the good stuff, and maybe purchase some of the good stuff, and talk to the breeders big & small, he will get an idea of what to aim for in his breeding practices. I read some show results on one of the club's site, and the wins were repeatedly by the handful of bigger breeders, seemingly darting from one show to the next. I would think, the APA would like to see the wins spread out to a bunch of different folks with a wider range of consistency, instead of the handful winning and showing only their lines in representing the SOP. I'm sorry if my point isn't coming across, I am not as eloquent a writer as most of you here. Maybe, if the approach of the APA approval was put off some more, given more time, that maybe some of the folks who are hoping to jump on the "rare breed gravy train", will grow tired of waiting for approval, and the chances for lesser quality birds will dwindle. Heck, the hatcheries are starting to sell them now! You all know what that will mean; poorer conformation, poorer feathering, poorer egg color, more poorer birds out there contributing to the masses and showing up at the shows! Maybe if all breeders stepped back, took a breath, did their best to get their line toward the SOP in quiet without all of the politics of showing, then the breed may come further faster?? Breeders are always going to see the good and bad qualities of their fellow breeders. Some will prosper, some will drop by the wayside. Natural selection, with hopefully, the better birds and their qualities rising to the top. Only then, should the time be right to get the APA approval. I'm sure at this point, they (APA), feel like they are being pecked to death by a duck, and a sub-standard one at that! JMHO. Go ahead, jump on me now, I can handle it!

 

[gvntofly05]

Debbie~ I completely understand what you are saying.

Spending many years breeding and showing rabbits, I can tell you it's the same thing. You can take the best of the best and breed them and still end up with crap for offspring.

My goal is to do the best I can do with my own flock. When I cull they go right into my freezer. I don't sell them. If they are not good enough for me to use for breeding then why would I sell them to someone else that wants to use them to breed? I do feel that those who are using the BCMs to make a quick buck are hurting the breed badly by breeding willy nilly to sell as many eggs as possible without regard to how the birds look.

Am I happy to sell hatching eggs? Yes, it helps to offset feed costs and I am able to continue hatching because of it. When I do sell, just like Wynette, I disclose how my birds look and what I am working on with them. I don't try to sugarcoat them to make more money. That's not why I am raising them. I am doing this because I have a true love for the breed. So much so that by this time next year they will be the only breed I own. I will have 3 separate coops devoted solely to BCMs.

Also with all animals you have to be careful with straight line breeding year, after year, after year without adding new blood. Doing so can cause rare and recessive defects to show up. At the same time you need to be very picky when adding new blood. The bottom line is to research as much as possible and if one is not serious about perfecting the breed to the best of their ability then they should not be breeding and selling. I look at it no differently than puppy mills!

 

[tfpets]

Hey Drom, you asked for it! You know alot of Marans people love to show their stuff! At least I hope more of them do! I am a wanna be purist (hope to eventually have more "pure" lines with a pedigree - mine are from various breeders right now) But I love my birds and have mediocre colored eggs right now.
Right now I have:

*One adult pair of Cuckoo Marans - hens lays the "mediocre" eggs, about a 4 on the color scale - Originally from Valentine Hatchery lines

* Two seven month old Cuckoo Marans hens - waiting for eggs

! Kelly Cratty and Iona McCormick lines

* Five Cuckoo Marans Teens - may be boys in there - 10+ weeks old? Records at work? unknown genetics

* Seven Black Copper Marans - plus 1 disabled - total 8 chicks - 4 weeks old - Parents are hens from Valentine Hatchery and Red Dirt Ranch, Rooster from Wade Jeane (sp?)

I love colorful eggs! Cant wait for more! (Just wish I could stand how they taste?)

 

[onthespot]

I am excited too. One of my hens is getting a reddish comb and I saw one of the roos trying to breed her yesterday and she wasn't squatting perfectly, but she wasn't running away either. Her vent looked bigger and more pinkish than the others. I have been starting to look around casually for an egg every time I go feed, but so far, nothing. I heard someone making little contented clucking noises and scratching around in there, thought it might be my little Brownie, but when I looked, it was a ROO! Ligtning was checking things out and giving it his stamp of approval. He is such a girlie boy, I swear! It was like he was measuring for curtains and picking out paint, just rearranging the shavings, muttering to himself, clucking away. I had to turn away so he wouldn't see me laughing at him!

 

[drom]

Quote:

Those terra cotta colored eggs look perfectly delicious to me. And they look nice and large too!

I'd be happy to eat them for you-
I wonder if Marans eggs by the dozen will ever make it in to the markets? I am sure they must be in France.

 

[drom]

Quote:
I am just really looking forward to seeing your first eggs

 

[tfpets]

Quote:
Oh, they're on the market now arent they? I paid $45 a dozen for my Black Copper Marans eggs

Oh, you mean IN the market! Yeah, then we'd have supermarket marans hatching egg stories!

 

[ginasmarans]

 

[drom]

This is Presley. For some reason she loves to perch on your knee:

They're 3 weeks now so I let them in the coop in the day but at night they come back inside to sleep: