Birchen Marans Thread

[DeannaA]

I would just email Greenfire and include images. Jenny there is very good at identifying chicks. For my Greenfire Birchens, I was able to sex them very early. I think it was on the second or third week.

I am 95% sure which are male and which are female. I just don't know which one is the Birchen.

 

[DMRippy]

Quote:
Do you have one that is almost all BLACK?

 

[DCchicken]

Do you have one that is almost all BLACK?

They change a lot over time. Here are pics of mine when they were younger: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/819853/auction-mix-birds-now-what-are-they .

I have purchased many more since then. Some are all black. Some have lots of white. It's really hard to judge them until they are older. Most rare breeds should not be judged until they are at least a year.

I would just email Greenfire with photos and they will get back to you.

 

[DeannaA]

They change a lot over time. Here are pics of mine when they were younger: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/819853/auction-mix-birds-now-what-are-they .

I have purchased many more since then. Some are all black. Some have lots of white. It's really hard to judge them until they are older. Most rare breeds should not be judged until they are at least a year.

I would just email Greenfire with photos and they will get back to you.

I love my Greenfire chicks. What did #20 turn out to be?

 

[DeannaA]

Do you have one that is almost all BLACK?

They all seem to be very black. I'll just have to be patient.

 

[DCchicken]

One of my Birchen Marans was all black. And then one day she started have silver feathers appear. I think that was around week 11.

 

[jan12]

In my experience, what they look like as chicks regarding whether they had white down or not didn't make a whole lot of difference in how they feathered out. My best blue birchen cockerel was solid blue when he hatched. The earliest I could really start to tell how well they would feather out in terms of the silver feathers was around 5 weeks in one batch that was a descendant of Greenfire, and with the other batch from elsewhere as late as 8-12 weeks.

 

[DCchicken]

I love my Greenfire chicks. What did #20 turn out to be?

#20 turned out to be a fibro-melanistic Birchen Marans. That is similar to an Ayam Cemani (al black skin, comb, feet, meat). Apparently FM can show up in a lot of different breeds. So he looks like a Birchen Marans with the silver hackle but with all black skin, feet, and comb. I am thinking of breeding him with a Cemani pullet to create a line of all-black meat birds. I named him Batman because he was tiny compared to the other Marans and he used to jump up on top of them to see what was going on.

 

[jan12]

#20 turned out to be a fibro-melanistic Birchen Marans.  That is similar to an Ayam Cemani (al black skin, comb, feet, meat).  Apparently FM can show up in a lot of different breeds.  So he looks like a Birchen Marans with the silver hackle but with all black skin, feet, and comb.  I am thinking of breeding him with a Cemani pullet to create a line of all-black meat birds.  I named him Batman because he was tiny compared to the other Marans and he used to jump up on top of them to see what was going on.

That sounds really interesting. Would you mind posting a photo of him? I'd love to see what he looks like.

 

[DCchicken]

That sounds really interesting. Would you mind posting a photo of him? I'd love to see what he looks like.

And below is Cemani pullet: