Marans Chicks: What Colors are These Chicks?

[PupsNHens]

She's absolutely gorgeous! Cackle Hatchery carries (or at least, did) French Golden Salmon Marans, so they could've supplied your feed store. I'm jealous!

~Alex

I think you're right about Cackle. I saw a page about Golden Salmon Marans on their site, but it states they are completely sold out for the year. I think I just got lucky with her

Just for grins, here is her glamor shot! She tends to stay still long enough for me to get some decent photos more than most.

 

[3riverschick]

What I like about this bird is the color of her breast. so many so called golden salmon are carrying autosomal red which deepens the color of the salmon. the color of this salmon breast I believe to be correct ,not darkened by autosomal red ,which makes this even more surprising .
She's not perfect. there's a lot of shafting in her feathers. see how you can see the white line of the shaft in the feather? that should not be . but that's something that can be worked with . it's not a disqualification.
Best ,
Karen

 

[Alexandra33]

I think you're right about Cackle. I saw a page about Golden Salmon Marans on their site, but it states they are completely sold out for the year. I think I just got lucky with her

Just for grins, here is her glamor shot! She tends to stay still long enough for me to get some decent photos more than most.
View attachment 1419869

You're blessed, alright!

What a stunning little lady.

~Alex

 

[PupsNHens]

Just wanted to post an updated photo. She's not quite as dark as she appears in the pic. It was taken late in the day, which caused the colors to come out darker. But I like this photo because it shows off the variation in her color and pattern. I don't know if it's correct for this variety, but I think it's pretty

 

[3riverschick]

Hi,
This is a uncommon e+ ( wildtype ) based crele Marans. Crele is Golden Salmon with the barring gene. I am saying this because it looks like you have the barring gene in the hackle. Wow. Never seen such a lovely one. So many Creles are based on Wheaten. I believe the proper allele base for Crele should be e+. You got a real treasure there.
where did you get this lovely bird and do you have one of the opposite sex?
Deeply Impressed,
Karen
( former Director of Archives, Marans of America Club)

 

[3riverschick]

If you could get a Golden Salmon bird of the opposite sex from MX Farms ( website) you could breed both Crele and Golden Salmon. They have been working on Golden Salmon ( e+ based same as Black Breasted Red) for years). Whatever you do make sure you get another bird that is e+ based and doesn't have autosomal red. Autosomal red makes the breast a deeper salmon. The superb thing about this bird is it DOESN'T have autosomal red gene. This is a very precious thing. e+ based chicks have chipmunk stripes. Wheaten based birds have corrupted stripes or are plain yellow. Ask the breeder you are talking to for pics of his/her chicks in down,.Yes, I am yelling because I am so excited for you!! ( banging my hands on the table in excitement! Yes! Yes! Yes!)
There are so few e+ Golden salmon and Crele out there, I am honestly not sure which you have here. But either way you have a very valuable bird.
Karen

 

[3riverschick]

Hi,
Here ya go:
Crele
http://www.bevsmarans.com/crele.html
Genetic code = e+/e+ s+/s+ B/B Id/Id W/W Pti/Pti
Golden Salmon:
Genetic code = e+/e+ s+/s+ Id/Id W/W Pti1/Pti1
three URLs for MX Farms with contact info:
https://web.archive.org/web/20061104191033/http://www.mxfarms.com:80/
https://web.archive.org/web/20071018112203/http://mxfarms.com:80/
https://web.archive.org/web/20051126144042/http://www.mxfarms.com:80/
now here is something the French are also calling Golden Salmon. I don't get the dark color. I don't agree with it. It looks like there is recessive black genes or something in there. Too dark for me to be correct:
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/224194887675561998/
-------------------------------
https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/poultryinyouryards/golden-salmon-marans-t2758.html
this is the Rice strain of supposed Golden Salmon but there are other genes at
work here. Golden Salmon do not have these bright Gold breasts.
-------------------------------------

Best,
Karen

 

[PupsNHens]

But either way you have a very valuable bird.

Now I'm going to be paranoid when I let her out to free range! LOL! I really like her; she's not one of my friendliest birds, but she's not flighty either. She acts pretty confident (for a chicken) - "you can come as close to me as you like, but if you try to touch me, I'll just casually saunter out of reach." I'd already planned to look for more, just because I like her, though there isn't much info out there on them. Even Bev's site doesn't have full body shots of either variety. I bought her because she was unique - the only chipmunk patterned chick in the Marans brooder. Thanks for all the info! I can't say I understand all the genetics at work here, but I've been "in dogs" for years (mostly performance, but some conformation), so I can follow along. I also know how much work it is to breed with a standard or ideal in mind.

 

[3riverschick]

Hi,
Wildtype Marans are very rare. This is because wildtype is the absence of all other color and modifier genes. One does not create wildtype. One winnows out all other color and modifier genes and what is left is wildtype. Any hypostatic genes corrupt wildtype and it disappears. This is why you need to go to MX Farms. I tired for 5 years to get any Golden Salmon I could create a strain with. I never succeeded because all the pure gene pools were closed by their owners and I could never winnow a wildtype from the other gene pools available to me. I have been watching MX Farms for year and impressed by their work. Note they do not offer Golden Salmon for sale. But you may convince them if you explain you have stumbled on a wildtype pullet. Honoring their work with their gene pool would be very important to them. Breeding birds is much more difficult than dogs because of the wide base of the gene pool and all the sex linked genes.
I don't believe Marie Cantrell in MT has Golden Salmon anymore. But you might try tracking her down. The other gene pool I know of is in Grayling Mich. owned by Arla Meiniger . She was not interested in selling then and I don't know if she still has them.
These two , plus Bev Davis, are the only gene pools I know of that were actually a strain...and I would consider MX Farms here just because of the years they have spent in the variety.
Best,
Karen
Bellwether Collies , retired, (1995-2009)

 

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