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The sheen is nice - I was actually going to comment on that before. Many of the darker layers lay an egg with a matte finish on the outside, which is not preferred. I have one hen that lays a really dark egg, almsot a (TRUE) 8, but it's matte finish. I've bred her to 4 different males at this point, and all of her offspring lay matte finish eggs, even if the males were hatched from an egg with good sheen. IT's frustrating, so enjoy them knowing they are the preferred finish for Marans eggs!We were shocked at the sheen of the egg, it outshines all of our other eggs. Discoveries like this, make me love this breed even more. I still have one pullet maturing, so eventually I will get two of these a day!
Quote:
The problem with the wheaten showing up in BC Marans according to the French site was caused by the Wheaten males being used in the BC breeding pens as the farmers did not know the difference. The wheaten blood is also why we see the BC with the white Shanks and feet, the white wing and tail feathers and also the white undercolor in the BC. The BC males that have the halo going on with the Hackle feathers is a sign there is wheaten blood going on.
The white undercolor and the white wing and tail feathers can be bred out by rigid culling. All of these wheaten influence problems go hand to hand. I proved two year ago that it can be bred out of the BC though.
Thank You Snowbird
I have a theory on the breeding of the Marans in France that i've seen proven in other locations on other breeds . I won't go into it but it appears that when the French site was confronted with this question "why is the wheaton patterns/colors showing up out of BC ?" they simply did not know the answer sooo (what's the natural thing for humans to do) blame it on the peasant .
Still not knowing the truth ,
Trouble lies with the thinking that a breed or variety we know now is or was pure as the the white driven snow .
Shannon
I have been a long time not reading these posts, but want to comment here.
I have it on good authority, that the problem with wheaten being bred to black coppers in France was certainly not intentional but happened when several breeders, whether they were peasants or not I don't know, accidently bred Wheaten roos to their black copper hens. Shortly after that, well, probably a few years, the French began to notice that the roosters were developinng copper spots in their breasts.It was at this time, they revised the French standard for black copper roos, from an all black breast to a breast allowing 10% copper spots. This was confessed by a past president of the French club to a friend of mine when they visited France.
So, that is what happened to Wade Jeane when he imported eggs.
As I understand it, Unbeknowst to him, the eggs he received were the product of a bc and wheaten breeding at some point.. After a couple of generations, wheatens started popping up in chicks that were directly bought from him.
So, here in the US, we have lines that were imported from England, that were pure black copper, and some from France that had Wheaten in the mix. If one has Jeane related Marans, you can be sure they had Wheaten in their line.
What I know about Davis line, is she started with English Marans imported into the US, and I can attest that since 2007 when I bought eggs from Bev, I have never had a wheaten chick come from any of my hens,. I'm posting this so people can be aware of where their Marans came from, and deal with it as need be.
Having said that, I have had on occasion, roos with white "fluff" at the base of the tail, but since I culled very hard to get rid of that, so far I haven't seen it again in a couple of years.
This year I'm running on 5 cockerels. One of them has a huge comb...I look at it & wonder where in the hell did that come from? I'm in the NE, so I can't blame it on the warm weather...
I also ran on a beautiful and I mean, beautiful cockerel, probably the best one I've bred so far, and he had a wry tail.....where that came from I have no idea. I guess I'm posting this because even if you have great birds, you are going to breed some losers and have to cull. Its not an easy process, and can take years.
Sue
There is a good article floating around that has a complete history lesson on where all the Marans originated from here in the US. No disrespect to you or your friend, but I wouldnt even begin to believe or try to comprehend a story that produced about speculated breeding history in France. As whenever and however Wheaten got mixed into Black Copper, It happened a long time ago. So Im sure truth has been lost through the generations and probably happened by accident. Not to mention the fact that science and genetics were hodge podge back then too, so they probable didnt know what they were doing. From what I here there maybe penedesencas and Langshan in their lineage. So maybe what happend was someone breeding Wheaten to Langshans and that is why we have what we have now. There may have not been BCM and by doing the breeding of Wheaten/Langshans the offspring had the feathered legs and the Wheaten brought the copper hackles to the new breed. This is all speculation. Until some bigtime rocket scientists with their genetic wand figures it out we will never know. All we can do is concentrate on the now and work with what we have.I have been a long time not reading these posts, but want to comment here.
I have it on good authority, that the problem with wheaten being bred to black coppers in France was certainly not intentional but happened when several breeders, whether they were peasants or not I don't know, accidently bred Wheaten roos to their black copper hens. Shortly after that, well, probably a few years, the French began to notice that the roosters were developinng copper spots in their breasts.It was at this time, they revised the French standard for black copper roos, from an all black breast to a breast allowing 10% copper spots. This was confessed by a past president of the French club to a friend of mine when they visited France.
So, that is what happened to Wade Jeane when he imported eggs.
As I understand it, Unbeknowst to him, the eggs he received were the product of a bc and wheaten breeding at some point.. After a couple of generations, wheatens started popping up in chicks that were directly bought from him.
So, here in the US, we have lines that were imported from England, that were pure black copper, and some from France that had Wheaten in the mix. If one has Jeane related Marans, you can be sure they had Wheaten in their line.
What I know about Davis line, is she started with English Marans imported into the US, and I can attest that since 2007 when I bought eggs from Bev, I have never had a wheaten chick come from any of my hens,. I'm posting this so people can be aware of where their Marans came from, and deal with it as need be.
Having said that, I have had on occasion, roos with white "fluff" at the base of the tail, but since I culled very hard to get rid of that, so far I haven't seen it again in a couple of years.
This year I'm running on 5 cockerels. One of them has a huge comb...I look at it & wonder where in the hell did that come from? I'm in the NE, so I can't blame it on the warm weather...
I also ran on a beautiful and I mean, beautiful cockerel, probably the best one I've bred so far, and he had a wry tail.....where that came from I have no idea. I guess I'm posting this because even if you have great birds, you are going to breed some losers and have to cull. Its not an easy process, and can take years.
Sue