Birchen Marans Thread

[lawatt]

thank you!

and a genetics question here: i have one all-black marans pullet, who is *gorgeous*, wonderful green sheen in her feathers -- if she was crossed with my birchen cockerel, would the offspring be some birchen and some all-black, or would they be an odd dilution of the two?

i ask because my birchens have a bit of a mossy/brownish tinge in some of their feathers, and so wondering if Miss All-Black could help with the feather color... but only if there's a possibility of mixing her feather color in but keeping the birchen pattern intact!

thanks, and apologies for being slow on the genetics front! here's a picture of Miss All-Black (~3 months old):

 

[DMRippy]

thank you!

and a genetics question here: i have one all-black marans pullet, who is *gorgeous*, wonderful green sheen in her feathers -- if she was crossed with my birchen cockerel, would the offspring be some birchen and some all-black, or would they be an odd dilution of the two?

i ask because my birchens have a bit of a mossy/brownish tinge in some of their feathers, and so wondering if Miss All-Black could help with the feather color... but only if there's a possibility of mixing her feather color in but keeping the birchen pattern intact!

thanks, and apologies for being slow on the genetics front! here's a picture of Miss All-Black (~3 months old):

What kind of Marans did MISS ALL BLACK come from?

 

[lawatt]

What kind of Marans did MISS ALL BLACK come from?

I don't know exactly -- she hatched from an egg from April Howington in TX, her website is http://www.texasmarans.com/ -- but i'm not sure what the lineage of her blacks is?

 

[DMRippy]

Quote:
Did you order from her Blue Marans or her Coppers? Coppers can be all black and not show any copper, but that does not make them black. If she came from copper breeding I would not use her in the Birchens.

 

[lawatt]

Did you order from her Blue Marans or her Coppers? Coppers can be all black and not show any copper, but that does not make them black. If she came from copper breeding I would not use her in the Birchens.

i didn't order either blues or coppers -- April tried sending me birchen eggs, realized they weren't very fertile yet, and offered to send me some additional eggs in the meantime -- the second batch included eggs from blue/black crosses, from black/black crosses, and some duckwings. i've had very bad luck with shipped eggs so far, and only managed to hatch one duckwing cockerel and this black pullet.

i can of course check with April, just didn't want to bug her too much! and am trying to understand the interactions of the different color genes better...

 

[DMRippy]

Quote:
IF she is solid black... no copper in her back ground you can cross her with your birchen roo. It might take a few crosses back to him to get the color right but worth a shot. I am going to do a similar cross in a few weeks.

 

[lawatt]

IF she is solid black... no copper in her back ground you can cross her with your birchen roo. It might take a few crosses back to him to get the color right but worth a shot. I am going to do a similar cross in a few weeks.

thanks! i had another mostly-black but with some traces of copper around her neck, so she's moved on to another home -- but this one shows no sign of it. and she's so lovely. i'll give it a try once she's laying!

 

[FoggyMountain]

We were sold this fella as a Birchen Marans. From what I'm reading here, the gold is not good. But it's so much prettier! lol

 

[BCMaraniac]

We were sold this fella as a Birchen Marans. From what I'm reading here, the gold is not good. But it's so much prettier! lol

I love his color too!!

 

[Raven1]

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?