Birchen Marans Thread

[pinkchick]

My Birchen Boy. 6.5 months old.

 

[TheCosmos]

My Birchen Boy. 6.5 months old.

Lovely!

In other news.. I think green is a cockerel. It developed a comb overnight and is now fighting everyone. LOL I need to post more pictures. I kicked them out of my house last night and put them in the basement. They never stayed under the brooder and were kicking up too much dust (and smelled).

 

[TheCosmos]

Yes, I absolutely promise to post pictures again in a couple of weeks. Might even post new ones next week if I have time. LOL.

Anyone else want to guess?

Here is Pinkchicks vs (Mine)
Yellow - cockerel (pullet)
Brown- cockerel ......... not 100% sure on this (pullet)
Green- pullet (cockerel)
Blue - pullet (cockerel)
Orange- pullet DEFINITELY (pullet)
Purple- cockerel (pullet)
Red - ?? (cockerel)

I find it absolutely hilarious that we guessed opposites on everything except Orange! This is a good indication that I have NO IDEA what I'm looking at. LOL

Yeah, Red Boy (I am almost 100% sure he is a boy but watch me be wrong), is huge. So noted that Red & Blue may be off color.

If/when you ever decide to part with any of your birchen eggs, PLEASE let me know!!!

I'll give guessing their genders a go but you've got to promise me that you will repost at 3 weeks of age so I can see if I was right.

Yellow - cockerel
Brown- cockerel ......... not 100% sure on this
Green- pullet
Blue - pullet
Orange- pullet DEFINITELY
Purple- cockerel

I breed my Coppers for the faster feathering females and slower feathering males, it's a very nice way to accurately sex them at approx. 3 days old. I have been breeding them this way for almost 5 years and have great luck with it.


I do sell hatching eggs when I have them and have filled my waiting lists. Recently, over the last year due to the price of feed, I downsized my flocks of over 150 large fowl to 4 males and 6 females and that includes both varieties of Marans, Birchen and Copper. If and when the Birchens ever start laying I will only be working on borrowing blue from my coppers to make the Blue Birchen. I will only have some eggs from my coppers available this year and that will be way later this year.
The Birchens are new little project for me so I think that I will be holding on to their eggs for a while or until I reach a point in my project that I feel confident in letting them go.

The results are in..

Yellow - cockerel
Green - cockerel
Blue - cockerel
Brown - cockerel
Orange - pullet
Red - pullet
Purple - pullet

We were both all over the place. LOL

 

[chickenlisa]

Where can I buy some Silver Birchen Maran eggs- other than Ebay? I don't see any in the BST section now...They are gorgeous roosters! I'd love to hatch some out and add to my Maran pen .

 

[GaryDean26]

My pair was from Green Fire Farms. We got two Silver Birchen Marans Eggs from a 12+ Rare Breed Assortment of Hatching eggs that we won in a Silent Auction at a Poultry Show.

Both eggs hatch and we got a male and female. The hen laid huge eggs that were respectable in color, but we rehomed them because we didn't feel a closely related pair was a good starting point for a sustainable flock and needed the coop space for other projects.

I would search on the Breeder's list on the yahoo group of the Marans Chicken Club. You can search that list by variety available (i.e. Cuckoo, Black Copper, Wheaten, Birchen, etc.)

 

[flgardengirl]

My Birchen Boy. 6.5 months old.

He's gorgeous. Did you end up keeping this boy?

 

[TheCosmos]

My birchen boy at around 11mths old now..



With one of his girls - who is very nosey and wouldn't let me take pictures.


I have an order pending with Greenfire Farms. Supposedly this Monday they are going to invoice me so I can get a few of their good eggs. They are soooo expensive though.

 

[TheCosmos]

Where can I buy some Silver Birchen Maran eggs- other than Ebay? I don't see any in the BST section now...They are gorgeous roosters! I'd love to hatch some out and add to my Maran pen .

Here: http://greenfirefarms.com/store/category/chickens/marans/
Expensive, but top of the line.

 

[Overoberyl]

Here: http://greenfirefarms.com/store/category/chickens/marans/
Expensive, but top of the line.

Why do you feel they are top of the line?

 

[GaryDean26]

Here: http://greenfirefarms.com/store/category/chickens/marans/
Expensive, but top of the line.

Well, it all depends on what you are looking for I guess. The GFF birds were big, and laid nice eggs, but the body type and color was all wrong. If I were to start again I would look for a breeder that specializes in Marans to get my start from.