Birchen Marans Thread

[Raven1]

Sorry I have been off line. I am sharing and sure I always want another set of eyes on my birds. I know that none of the Marans are perfect and it sometimes helps for others to look. Who know what you might see that I may have missed. Thanks

 

[Raven1]

Sorry I have been off line. I am sharing and sure I always want another set of eyes on my birds. I know that none of the Marans are perfect and it sometimes helps for others to look. Who know what you might see that I may have missed. Thanks

 

[Broad St Farm]

Sorry I have been off line. I am sharing and sure I always want another set of eyes on my birds. I know that none of the Marans are perfect and it sometimes helps for others to look. Who know what you might see that I may have missed. Thanks

Raven, the only thing I see wrong with your birds are the male is showing a pretty strong amount of gold leakage which you should avoid. Also a female in the last pic has brown feathers instead of black. This female I would imagine is mossy. Other that that your male has nice type. Granted I'm basing this off a picture.

 

[Broad St Farm]

So how are everyone's efforts with their birds? I separated my females and stuck them in with one of my BCM males. My 5 Birchen males are starting to get testy. I need to ax 2 of them but haven't got around to it. I have to say, the Birchens I have have been really flighty, and they don't go in the coop at night. I have to push them in at the end of every day. Bunch of dummies. All my others are easy going. I didn't raise them any different either. Weird.

 

[Raven1]

Thanks. The leakage on the male is more cream than gold but yes I am working with what I have. I have 2 girls with the brown "underpants" they will be going to the layer pen when the young girls get to laying well, I have only left them in he run with the roo to take the pressure off the younger ones and I have not been hatching from them. I do like the type on the roo and wish he had not come in with that cream/gold shading. Hopefully with the girls strong silver I can clean some of that up in the next generation. The egg color on the pullet eggs has been fantastic!

 

[Raven1]

Thanks. The leakage on the male is more cream than gold but yes I am working with what I have. I have 2 girls with the brown "underpants" they will be going to the layer pen when the young girls get to laying well, I have only left them in he run with the roo to take the pressure off the younger ones and I have not been hatching from them. I do like the type on the roo and wish he had not come in with that cream/gold shading. Hopefully with the girls strong silver I can clean some of that up in the next generation. The egg color on the pullet eggs has been fantastic!

 

[Dan the maran]

I have a question I hope you folks can help me with. I have a Cockerel Marin who when he was about three months started getting these beautiful white feathers on his beautiful blue neck. Later they turned a light yellow but definitely they are No longer silver. Is he a birchen or what ? He is so very tame but I want to breed him properly to get Birchen If that is what he is. Sorry wrong picture He is standing behind the white Leghorn.

All advice is appreciated.

 

[pinkchick]

I have a question I hope you folks can help me with. I have a Cockerel Marin who when he was about three months started getting these beautiful white feathers on his beautiful blue neck. Later they turned a light yellow but definitely they are No longer silver. Is he a birchen or what ? He is so very tame but I want to breed him properly to get Birchen If that is what he is. Sorry wrong picture He is standing behind the white Leghorn. All advice is appreciated.

Yes, this is Birchen Marans, however, gold is leaking and that is why it started out silver and has now turned creamy yellowish. He would need to be bred back to a Birchen hen that shows strong un-interrupted silver (silver that is showing no signs of leakage or gold), keep male offspring that show the best silver with no leakage or very little and breed back to the silver mother. The second generation should yield some offspring that show stronger silver with little to no leakage or gold. It is imparative to breed birds of the Birchen variety that have very little gold leakage in order to produce a better generation of offspring and to bring the silver back to pure silver.

 

[Dan the maran]

Thank you Pink , If this comes through twice my Com puter is acting up. I thought they did not have a mind of their own (mine seems too).

 

[gilavina]

Hey Everyone,

Here's a few quick snapshots of some of the birchen offspring from this year. There's a variety of ages and a few missing their tails (feather picking grrr), but am happy with how they are developing. They have a ton of filling out to do still. The first set are of the three youngest hatched out under a broody. They are coming up to 7 weeks old I believe.









Here's a couple from the oldest group. They are just starting to lay at about 5 months and are growing like mad. Should fill back in once they are coming out of this spurt.



Here's the middle group of chicks. These are the feather pickers and believe I finally found the two culprits and removed them, so hopefully will have full feathered birds soon.





There's plenty more to take photos of, but these are all I had time for this AM