@wrathsfarm you must be doing something right, I like the look of a lot of these boys. Am I seeing quite restricted colouring in the shoulders?
I need to sleep so I’ll let other people comment for now. I quite like the second one you posted, and the one behind the first one in the fourth picture...
Marans have thick shells. The pigment then traps moisture further. The main thing is the bloom though. They usually have a thick bloom to give glossy shells, trapping more moisture. That’s why they lose moisture slower, at least from what I know.
Egg photo dump. I’m not sure if this is still three or maybe now four pullets. The indoor lighting is cool and unflattering to the paler eggs.
That first one in outside light was on the floor, making me wonder if it’s a new one.
On my screen I can’t tell if there’s something stuck to his feathers instead. You’ll know better seeing it in person. Welsummer have patterns like this on them by breeding, maybe something similar is going on genetically.a couple of SDWs for reference what I mean (they have mottled breasts too).
It’s funny because at first glance I thought she was a production Red, then you take a second look and see that fantastic practical marans type.
What gene is Pti1 again? Feathered shanks, right?
Yeah I assume they’ve been bred with excess melanisers to avoid silver hackles, but have actually been over-corrected. Might benefit from having silver cuckoos bred into them to dilute the legs. Funny that the pullets with paler legs have darker hackles, and better hackles have darker legs.
Throwback to Captain Jack, my silver duckwing Welsummer cock I had in 2022-2024. May favourite welsummer I ever had. Love how crisp his silver is, no hint of red. It’s a shame I had to cull him without an heir, not that that would have mattered because I had to get rid of my male welsummers anyway.
The last two darks to post. The two smaller ones. Toad, the one that escaped when I got her and I had to get help chasing her out of hedges. Tail tidy but a bit high. Breast not quite as full but she could fatten up. Very dark pattern. Crisp barring with good undercolour, but a lack of barring...
This is a BCM I bought. Same breeder as the darks. She hasn’t got a name yet but I’m quite happy with her. Not quite as long or big as Claudie but very tidy and refined type. Her hatching egg was an 8 I believe, can’t wait for her to start laying.
I don’t have a dark cuckoo cock. Early this year l I had to get rid of most of the cocks due to noise complaints from new build houses near the allotments. There’s been crowing on this land since the 70s, so it annoys me that the less than 10 year old houses get their way. I’m using no crow...
Am I right in saying that the French standard likes silver cuckoos with a much softer, more smokey barring than the English silver cuckoos, which are supposed to have lighter barring than the other cuckoo varieties?
Yep, the Marans club of GB is very slow at replying. Most of them stick to letters and cheques, meaning they take a while to get round to internet messages. I’ve texted the president of the club directly and got a reply before, but I’m still waiting back on an email for my membership, even...
I’ve not posted on this thread a while but I thought I’d show a genetic thing that largely applies to English marans breeders.dark cuckoo: E/Esilver cuckoo: E^R/E^R
Their other genes are the same: bl/bl, B/B, S/S, etc. see how the silvers have the pale hackles from the birchen allele, and are...