Birchen Marans Thread

[Lilwanis]

Hi all! I hatched some birchen marans from a swap three weeks ago. I believe there was a possibility of blue birchen, but I don't know how to tell if there is. I have two questions: first, one chick hatched all black. Is it likely to stay that way? Is that common? Is it a cull or is there a purpose for an all black chick in a birchen breeding program? I am new to the breed and color both...
Second: one chick hatched with a slightly crooked toe. It is worse now. She will be sold for a layer flock, but for now, is there something I should do for the toe? Should I splint it? Is it too late? It is very crooked, but she moves around just fine. It is just the one toe, not the whole foot or leg.

 

[Overoberyl]

Hi all! I hatched some birchen marans from a swap three weeks ago. I believe there was a possibility of blue birchen, but I don't know how to tell if there is. I have two questions: first, one chick hatched all black. Is it likely to stay that way? Is that common? Is it a cull or is there a purpose for an all black chick in a birchen breeding program? I am new to the breed and color both...
Second: one chick hatched with a slightly crooked toe. It is worse now. She will be sold for a layer flock, but for now, is there something I should do for the toe? Should I splint it? Is it too late? It is very crooked, but she moves around just fine. It is just the one toe, not the whole foot or leg.

Black birchen chicks hatch out black but they usually have some white fluff underneath. Is that what you mean, or is it solid black? The birchen doesn't come in until they are much older, and esp if they are pullets it can take a couple of months for the birchen to show. The cockerels will show birchen much earlier.

You can splint the crooked toe either using pipe cleaners and medical tape, or you can make chicken shoes by taping the top and bottom of the toes and making sure they are taped straight. As long as the toe is in the right position early enough it should correct. You can still try though it may be too late, I don't know. If you do nothing it will definitely stay crooked. Sometimes it can affect their gait as adults esp if it is the middle toe.

 

[Lilwanis]

This is the chick in question at two days old.

The others all look like this (also at two days old):

 

[GaryDean26]

There are a lot of things that you can learn from chicks down.

1) I have noticed that the chicks with more white on the face tend to be cockerels, the ones with less white on their face tend to be pullets.
2) I have been told that with the right modifers that the Birch Marans can be have correct plumage build on both the extended black and the Birchen color patterns. The birchen vs extended black also play into the down type. The Birchen have less white on them and the extended black have more white. Mixes seem to cancel each other out. Mixed extended black/birchen would thorfore be more black than eith a pure Birchen or a pure extended black (note the pure extended black).
3) Additionally the birds with other recessibe e-loci such as wheaton, e+, eb, etc tend to be really dark.
4) This chick looks exactly like the four chicks that I hatched from a 6+ set of Black Copper Marans Hatching eggs I got from a rare rare line last year. Different lines have different backgrounds and may have been selected of time for different things to where they look different.

I wouldn't be too concerned about this one. I have seen many Marans that look like it as chicks. You could band it to see how it's colored compared to the rest over time. It may indicate it has some type or recessive gene that the others don't. It probablly won't be vissabe in the adult plumage though.

P.S. I grew up Boutiful, Utah where I was the only person I knew in town who had back yard chickens.

 

[OHmamma]

Hi,

Nice for someone to start this.

I made LF Birchen but gave all but one away to work on bantam ones.

This was my F1 Black LF he was about 5 months old here.





I made this guy and now I am hatching chicks from him. The little one is from him and my black x s. cuckoo. I hatched out 5 more last week and 3 today.




He still carries gold/cream but I am hoping to get it out by breeding back to Silver Cuckoo. Until I get a birchen female. I also have a blue hen in with him now so I can get some Silver Blues too.

Nicol

 

[mikeypalone]

My blue birchen cockerels would show some sign of birchen at 6-8 weeks. I had to look very close but it was there. The pullets sometimes took over 6 months to show some of the markings. After the first adult molt things settled in as they should be. The first chick,dark one, looks like a very very dark blue. I have had only a few do this but if I got them in good light after a few weeks I could see the blue. I have also had a black chick one time. After waiting months for it to turn some shade of blue I realized a black birchen hen had flown over the top of the pen fence and spent the day on the wrong side. I had collected the eggs not knowing. It was a few months when I saw her do it again and finally put it all together. Nice color chick.

 

[Lilwanis]

Thank you for your responses! I won't count the black chick out yet, then. I am going to try to bandage the crooked toe...I hope it's not too late. It was so minor to start, but it's gotten worse :/

 

[GaryDean26]

When people say they are seeing "Birchen" are they refering to the Birchen e-loci color pattern that produces both the Black Copper Marans and Silver Birchen Marans (i.e. black brested cockerels with crow wings and secondary color on the hackle, saddle, and sholders) or is the silver color refered to as Birchen in the Marans breed? I am not sure if they are refereing to seeing a crow wing as opposed to a duckwing, of if they are just saying that they are seeing silver plumage as opposed to yellowish plumage.

 

[Lilwanis]

My very limited understanding is that with Marans, "birchen" is referring to silver birchen since the red birchen is the "black copper". I have been day dreaming about birchen marans for a while now and had been under the impression that birchen was silver based. I read an article about chicken genetics a few weeks ago (I know, major newbie here), and was surprised to find out that "birchen" is not necessarily silver based.

From the Marans of America Club:

The Birchen Marans can be described as conforming in every respect to the Brown-Red except that the copper/red plumage is replaced by silver-white that contrasts with the black plumage background. The color pattern (black and silver) is identical to that of the Brown-Red. The eyes are orange-red, the shanks are gray but never black. The wing is totally black.

http://maransofamericaclub.com/birchenmarans.php

 

[Overoberyl]

Yeah I think when we're talking about Marans, 'birchen' always means silver birchen...