Birchen Marans Thread

[hargreavesheber]

Thanks for replying. I was pretty limited to what I could get hold of due to the rarity of Birchens in the UK. She only had this Cockerel to offer me.. so no birchen pullets to go with him. 4 out of my 5 blue pullets have little to none copper on them,so was kind of hoping these will be ok... will my 3 blue splash pullets carry the copper gene?
The top and bottom of it is I have very limited options to work with.. so any suggestions welcome.
Best regards
Heber

 

[bigshawn]

So if you use a Birchen roo over black you would get a mix with silver. If you use a birchen hen you will get sex lined Birchens (not hat hatch) the roos will carry the silver.

A birchen male over a cuckoo would make sex links too. The roos would be a birchen/Cuckoo (not a proper look for cuckoos) and birchen pullets.

So if you use a Birchen roo over a Black Marans you will get 50% black and 50% Birchen Marans??

 

[DMRippy]

Quote:
As a matter of fact yes..... someone with some genetic knowledge and a graphic program made one the other day on FB.

 

[DMRippy]

Thanks for replying. I was pretty limited to what I could get hold of due to the rarity of Birchens in the UK. She only had this Cockerel to offer me.. so no birchen pullets to go with him. 4 out of my 5 blue pullets have little to none copper on them,so was kind of hoping these will be ok... will my 3 blue splash pullets carry the copper gene?
The top and bottom of it is I have very limited options to work with.. so any suggestions welcome.
Best regards
Heber

If they have copper in their breeding they are copper marans and should not be used in the Birchens. If you cross them you will have a long way to go to get back to birchen. Gold is VERY hard to get rid of.

 

[DMRippy]

Quote: Well..... I can't tell you the %'s It will depend on the make up of your Birchen and blacks. You could get all Birchens.... but they will need to be worked on after the cross. But name me a bird that doesn't need work LOL. It may take a few crosses back to birchen to make them look correct.

 

[DMRippy]

I was tagging my chicks today and I have 2 birchen pullets! YEAH!

Vicki can you comment on the coloring..... This chick has more white on the face the other is darker. Do the birchens follow the same pattern as the Coppers on the coloring? Would you then guess that this pullet would have silver on her breast? and the other would have little silver showing??????





I will go nudge her on FB LOL

 

[gilavina]

I was tagging my chicks today and I have 2 birchen pullets! YEAH!

Vicki can you comment on the coloring..... This chick has more white on the face the other is darker. Do the birchens follow the same pattern as the Coppers on the coloring? Would you then guess that this pullet would have silver on her breast? and the other would have little silver showing??????





I will go nudge her on FB LOL

The chicks here with my stock I find for birchens tend to be more solid in color. I haven't watched super close or marked for the ones that have face color, mostly because I don't get many. I would recommend marking them and watching them for this next few weeks. I would say at about 8 weeks you should have a very solid idea what you have.

 

[DMRippy]

Quote:
Dang.... not what I expected but I will tag the one with the most white with another leg band of Yellow.

 

[DeannaA]

Greenfire sent me 1 Birchen and 3 Black Marans. I'm fairly certain 2 are male and 2 are female. They are all black and I can't tell which one is Birchen. Any way for me to tell them apart? What age will they start to look different?

 

[DCchicken]

Greenfire sent me 1 Birchen and 3 Black Marans. I'm fairly certain 2 are male and 2 are female. They are all black and I can't tell which one is Birchen. Any way for me to tell them apart? What age will they start to look different?

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.