Birchen Marans Thread

[gilavina]

My Birchens are laying incredibly dark, but I still see a bit of cream(very light copper) on some of them. Any suggestions as to how to breed this out?

cull strictly for silver is the only real way to work on eliminating it. Any females that are not a pure bright silver, do not breed to a male with this cream leakage, it will hold up your progress. The female determines the color in birchens since they only have one copy of the gene.

 

[Raven1]

Thank you that is just what I needed to know

 

[cowman1970]

My Blue Birchen Roo......for sale.....I'm in Pennsylvania.

 

[lovingmyhens]

I am looking into getting Birchen's from a breeder in Texas and I can't have roos in my neighborhood. I am trying to find out if there is an easy way to auto sex this breed.

 

[DMRippy]

I am looking into getting Birchen's from a breeder in Texas and I can't have roos in my neighborhood. I am trying to find out if there is an easy way to auto sex this breed.

No they are not sexable at hatch. I had a pen set up to make sex links with my birchen roo. I have a few birchen pullets growing out from that pen.

 

[DCchicken]

I am looking into getting Birchen's from a breeder in Texas and I can't have roos in my neighborhood. I am trying to find out if there is an easy way to auto sex this breed.

My line of Birchen Marans develop a large comb very quickly. I can usually sex by week three. I have even heard them crowing by then.

Wheaten Marans are sexable very early on using feather color. Birchen is just one of those colors that you might have to wait until they crow.

 

[BCMaraniac]

@DCchicken , how much silver in a pullet is considered to be adequate. Are Birchen pullets sometimes solid, like the coppers?

 

[DCchicken]

@DCchicken , how much silver in a pullet is considered to be adequate. Are Birchen pullets sometimes solid, like the coppers?

Birchen Marans have no formal standard. However, they should be breed like Copper Marans (Brown-Red) in that you don't want any white on the body. Below is picture of one of my younger Birchen pullets. She is not the best example I have, but the only one I have a picture to show. She only has silver around the neck but not on the body. The spot on her body is dirt.



And just to show white on the bodies, here is an example of one of my roos. Although white or silver is allowed on the boys, but not any copper or gold. That would be a serious defect. This also shows the big comb I seem to have in my line.

 

[BCMaraniac]

@DCchicken , I have two blues that have silver on their hackles, and black that is solid. I also have a splash pullet. All of these are from the same breeding pair. I saw the hen and she was blue without any silver that I could see...but that was from a bit of a distance. One of my blues has a good bit of silver on her hackles and the other a bit less, and of course the solid black. And of course, with the splash....who knows!

I like your Rooster. His comb reminds me of my Bresse roosters.....before they dubbed themselves during the "polar vortex" this past winter. They are very easy to sex early as well.

 

[DCchicken]

@DCchicken , I have two blues that have silver on their hackles, and black that is solid. I also have a splash pullet. All of these are from the same breeding pair. I saw the hen and she was blue without any silver that I could see...but that was from a bit of a distance. One of my blues has a good bit of silver on her hackles and the other a bit less, and of course the solid black. And of course, with the splash....who knows!

I like your Rooster. His comb reminds me of my Bresse roosters.....before they dubbed themselves during the "polar vortex" this past winter. They are very easy to sex early as well.

There is a Blue Birchen. But they are pretty rare because it is difficult to get the blue and the silver together. Usually it ends up all blue. It should look like an Isbar but with no gold in the hackle (and of course all the other Marans features). I applaud you if you are pursuing the Blue Birchen as it is very challenging.

In my opinion, a Birchen needs to have silver in the hackles. No silver and it is Black Marans. Apparently this is a common problem that even Bev Davis had when crossing with another color. Many of the Birchen Marans reverted to having no silver. The fact that you are seeing a splash makes me think that somewhere down the line, someone crossed them with a Blue or a Splash. I don't think the Splash would qualify as a Birchen either because it seems the Splash genetics would wash out the silver.

Neither my Bresse nor my Marans had any frostbite this year. The only frostbite victims were the Cream Legbars.