Australian and English standards are the same or similar.
I look at it more as sorting than convincing. I sort out the ones who are unable for some reason to hear and offer what I know to those that truly want to learn...as I have been so freely given the information I have learned from...
For clarity: APA standard for Marans is feathered shanks and outer toe. Variety is irrelevant. ALL Marans mush have feathered shanks and outer toe to meet APA Standard of Perfection, color variety notwithstanding. That being said, many cuckoo Marans do not have the required shank/toe...
Welcome! It sounds like your cockerel may be a blue copper Marans as well as the two pullets. The all black may be a black copper Marans that is not expressing the coppering in her neck, as pure black Marans are not at all common. The black with white in her neck may be a Birchen Marans. APA...
That's an individual choice. It's a huge (and often expensive) learning curve with this breed. The person I got my original hens from did not know she had recessive white in her flock, and discovered it after I started having white chicks show up here. She did the same, taking the time and...
This would be recessive white then. I had this pop up when I started with BCM and it is NOT something you want in your black coppers. I spent a year weeding it out of my flock. Of course I knew the cockbird carried the recessive white gene, but figuring out which hens carried it was a...
It's not that simple. Check out the Olive Egger page here or on facebook for a great chart by Steve Neumann...NOT the simplified cartoon egg ones though.
Our F1 Marans based olive eggers are most often without feathered shanks. I think it depends on many factors. We use Isbar as the cross and have used CCL as well.
Yes, we will be at Chickenstock in August in Brownsville and Corvallis in October. After the HPAI outbreak earlier this year we have closed the farm to any visits. Due to biosecurity concerns, we are only bringing presold birds as we would not bring any home after being at a swap all day...
We have a cabinet incubator. We don't have a setup that allows broody hens raising chicks...no way to guarantee the chicks will stay safe or the hen will continue to care for them...some broodies will sacrifice their own health to hatch/raise chicks...and Marans aren't the most productive breed...
Good suggestions on this thread so far. We have not experienced any bullying with our Marans flocks at all. Even when in with the general layer flock (Marans cock in there too) they are fine with birds as small as light Polish. I don't tolerate broody hens though, they always go in a broody...
...drops off, which is not what I'm seeing on this bird, especially on the first photo. She may just take a while to grow in a tail. A photo directly from the side standing in a normal position would be helpful...the third photo is at an angle that makes it look *almost* rumpless, but hard to say.
I'm going to repeat the question posted before the derailment: What color(s) other than blue copper are possible with a splash copper Marans over BCM hens? To my knowledge, there is only one option and I'm always glad to learn.