Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[Tracy the chick]

Hi,

Unfortunately, this isn't a Golden Salmon (e+/e+ s+/S- (s-). At best, looks like an e+/eWh cross. Really, it isn't any recognized color, just a barnyard mix of Marans genes, like you ordered.
Proper Golden Salmon are very rare because the entire color pallette is recessive genes. There are folks out there touting Red Duckwings (Golden Salmon with a Mh gene) as Golden Salmon, but they are incorrect. There are no hypostatic genes in Golden Salmon. Every other gene, modifier or diluter than e+ or s+ (s- in the females) corrupts Golden Salmon and it is then a completely different color. The head stripe on this chick isn't crisp and clean in outline. There look to be two Co gene dots on the top of its head. Neither are the back stripes crisp and clean. They are muddied by the effect of one or two additional genes. The head stripe also doesn't look like it extends complely down the nape of the neck to join the back stripe ( this is caused by a gene additional to e+ or s+.
------------------
Here are some explanatory URL's with much thanks to http://edelras.nl/chickengenetics/mutations1.html .

Gene names: Extended Black​

The E locus Chick/Down Colur Pattern
Below are the most common elocus genes.
Genes: E, ER, eWh, e+, eb, ebc, ey
Gene names: Extended Black, Birchen, Dominant Wheaten, Wild type, Partridge or Brown, Buttrcup, Recessive Wheaten.
Phenotypes: Dark Grey, Birchen Grey, Wheaten, Black breatsed Red (salmon-breasted hen), Partridge (brown-breasted hen), Buttercup, Clay Wheaten.
http://www.edelras.nl/belgians/pics/elocus.jpg
Above are the typical e locus down patterns, without
columbian-like restrictors (except maybe ebc chick).
Columbian (Co) will change the appearance of e+ & eb down,
but not E, ER & eWh. Both E & ER down are indistinguishable,
with variation from all black (eumelanin) to black with
white as shown above.
==========================
Black Breasted Red Jungle Fowl Old English Game Fowl (this is what
proper Golden Salmon should look like. The coloring on the chick down is definitive for GS. )
http://www.efowl.com/PhotoGallery.asp?ProductCode=2067

This chick looks like a visual combination of e+ and eWh.

Best Regards,
Karen in western PA

Hi there and thankyou for the lesson in gene anotamy it was very good to read.. I didnt discribe my post very well. When i said mixed marans i meant different breeds of marans not hybrids.. I spoke to the people i got them off who has a brilliant reputation for marans as he has one of the blood lines of a certain maran i do no which one from years ago. He said he put some BC, cuckoo, wheaton. He also put some otheres in RIR bu he couldnt remember what else. When the chick hatched i wasnt there so didnt know which egg it was from. He asked me to post a picture. What ever it is my kids will love it. Thank you again it was very interesting...Tracy..

 

[math ace]

mornin everyone

Off to work in a few, but just had to stop in and say hey. We're lookin at a balmy high of 17 for the day....I bet the birds are not gonna be too excited about that! So, I'll be stickin to places where its warm for the day! brrrrrr

If that mountain lion is hitting the same spot every time, try some electric / hot wire fencing on the roof.

 

[pinkchick]

Ruth,

He looks from these pics to have side sprigs towards the front of his comb? Also, I don't see any shank feathering, maybe my monitor, but definately not what it should be. Otherwise, he looks nice. Have you seen any Carnation combs pop up within your flock?

Monique~
He is a nice looking rooster! However, I too see the sprig or bump that Debbi is referring to. I would say that bump is indicitive of a sprig or sprigs. Though he is beautiful (and I LOVE HIS DARK LEGS) I would not use him because of the sprig, it will just pass on, but all of that said, if you do want to use him, you could test mate him for a while to several different hens and see what is produced by way of sprigs in the offspring...but that is a long road and may not eliminate the sprig problem entirely, so may be easier to avoid him all together and use a different roo.
Maybe one of those adorable splash babies is a roo you could grow out and use...do you have any more blue copper roos?

 

[pinkchick]

Monique~ I hope you don't mind, I borrowed your photo and placed an arrow indicating where the bump or sprig that is in question is located.

 

[Debbi]

Monique~
He is a nice looking rooster! However, I too see the sprig or bump that Debbi is referring to. I would say that bump is indicitive of a sprig or sprigs. Though he is beautiful (and I LOVE HIS DARK LEGS) I would not use him because of the sprig, it will just pass on, but all of that said, if you do want to use him, you could test mate him for a while to several different hens and see what is produced by way of sprigs in the offspring...but that is a long road and may not eliminate the sprig problem entirely, so may be easier to avoid him all together and use a different roo.
Maybe one of those adorable splash babies is a roo you could grow out and use...do you have any more blue copper roos?

Thanks Kim, I was starting to think I lost my mind there!

He is a lovely boy, but I don't know if I'd risk breeding him. Like you said, test mate and see what comes up maybe?

I know here, I have a couple of cull roos with sprigs, and on the one, it is very hard to see, but you can definately feel it with your finger.

 

[pinkchick]

Debbi~

Sorry to hear about JR and hope that Olivia is not sad for too long.

 

[Debbi]

Math! Who's got a Cougar on the roof???

I had a dream about a cougar last night! Maybe I should check my roof!?

 

[Debbi]

Debbi~

Sorry to hear about JR and hope that Olivia is not sad for too long.

Thanks Kim, he was such a sweet guy. Poor Olivia was waiting for him by the gate last night, then finally went in. I don't know what is up with these boys lately, they are all taking turns at staying out it seems. Going to set my trap today and see who pops up. I really think it's a fox.

 

[pinkchick]

Math! Who's got a Cougar on the roof???

I had a dream about a cougar last night! Maybe I should check my roof!?

I think that perhaps Math may have quoted the wrong post....she was probably reading back through the thread and ran across Anna's post about the animal coming into her coop via the roof....just a quess and with some of the quirks that the new BYC is having probably the wrong post was quoted. I know I've been whacky things go on lately as I have tried to quote and post.

 

[pinkchick]

Thanks Kim, he was such a sweet guy. Poor Olivia was waiting for him by the gate last night, then finally went in. I don't know what is up with these boys lately, they are all taking turns at staying out it seems. Going to set my trap today and see who pops up. I really think it's a fox.

Good luck with the trap. What do you do with the fox if you catch him? Do you release many miles away or what? Sorry but I just don't know the rules with fox.