Bantam Marans adventure

[flgardengirl]

I am glad someone found this thread again. I was thinking of it the other day when I took some pics of my small blue marans hen who is around a yr old now. She is about the same size as some 4 mos old chicks I have. Some of the males are even bigger than her. She is clean legged but has a few feather stubs. Her mom was small too but not as small as her. Her mom had feathered shanks so the genes are probably there. I need a small roo for her lol all mine are big! She has been laying nice dark eggs lately but they are on the smaller side just like her

She is bald due to a over zealous roo who holds on to the hens heads to balance himself when they are out freeranging. She needs a bonnet
That is her on the left next to the 4 mos olds.

Here she is next to a golden cuckoo roo that is the same age as her. Her body is so much smaller than his. The ground slopes up where she is standing but she is probably half his size hieght wise as well. I can't get her to hold still to get decent pics. She is a spritely little thing always on the go.

 

[HenThymes]

Quote:
I have a couple of cuckoo bantam marans cockerels available if you are interested.

 

[windtryst]

I would love some hatching eggs if you to ever get together!

 

[flgardengirl]

If it was any cooler I might take you up on that. I could make blue cuckoo bantams lol. Right now its been so hot here I wouldn't want to have anything shipped!
I have already lost one bird to the heat and smoke so far. It isn't usually this hot this time of year it is a crazy year for weather this year. If you have anything in the fall let me know.

 

[stoneunhenged]

I took this picture in England a few weeks ago. Thought you might find it interesting.

 

[edgarmongold]

Quote:
That is the English version, clean leg, and here in the US we are going with the French version which has feathered legs.

 

[flgardengirl]

I think I will have another bantam blue female. I have a chick from the above girl who was mated to my good blue roo before a hawk took him and one egg from that hatch had a very tiny baby -smaller than she was at that age. She has a darker head than the above blue girl so will probably be prettier. She is way smaller than her hatchmates so I have my fingers crossed.

 

[edgarmongold]

Quote:
Bantam Marans were never imported to US. Are you sure you are not a victim of some scam?

I was scammed once by croocked ebay seller selling "Bantam Maran" eggs, they turned out to be standart eggs, and they were also so old they were rotten and stinking.

You might want to check your source of information that Marans bantams were never imported to the US.

They were from England and are clean legged.

We are working on putting the feathers on the feet and shanks to comply with the APA accepted standard for Marans.

Size is a problem on the bantam Marans as most are intermediate in size between a large fowl and bantam.

 

[edgarmongold]

Quote:
The French Standard calls for bantams to be half the size of large fowl but here in the US the bantam weights should be:

Cocks 32 oz, Hens 28 oz, Cockerels 28 oz and Pullets 24 oz.

The other thing is most bantam Marans are clean legged and the MCCUSA's proposed standard that was accepted by the APA for large fowl call for feather legged birds.

 

[gamebirdsonly]

I belive I got my first Bantam marans egg today.

I have some bantam welsummers in pen also but the egg is darker then what they lay. I will have to take a pic tomorrow.