Marans - SOP discussion thread

[Cadeau]

Not sure if this fits here or would be better on the Marans thread:

What lines are best for adding width/size??


Is it the roo or the hen (or a combination thereof) who controls width/size??

 

[snowbird]

The cuttings for defect section is supposed to be there to cover anything not covered by the individual breed clubs. I had thought about bringing this up Debbi, glad you beat me to the punch. Please do not think just because something is not in the standard for Marans , that it is not covered by the SOP. It is much easier if the everything is put in the standard for clarity. If it is in the standard it take all the quess work out of the SOP.

One thing not in the Marans standard or SOP is the undercolor of the BC Marans. The way I read the first page we are not supposed to discuss stuff like this, but it needs to be talked about .

 

[snowbird]

Quote:
I have to say no line has a monopoly on size or anything. They all have major problems if we really look. The best way to increase width and size is to cull all the little narrow back and chest fowl that are very under weight.

 

[snowbird]

I read on one of the Marans threads somewhere that someone showed a brown colored Black Copper chick and wondered what was up with that.

I do not know about all lines but do no that the JEANE line produces some of these occassionally their first baby feathers will be brown and then change to Black and will eventually have over amount of copper in chest, the pullets will be mostly Mossy and will stay that way. The kicker on this is that all these brown tinted marked chicks will have the dreaded brown rear body feathers and undercolor. I am not prepared to debate this with anyone because there in no purpose and we sure do not know where the brown color came from. We have been fed a lot of bull dodo over the years on mating up these Black Coppers

 

[Cadeau]

Don - so then do you cull early for size and get rid of all the little ones?? Before you can tell gender or after?

If they're little, do they tend to end up too narrow?

 

[snowbird]

Quote:
I tend to mostly wait until after the Juve molt at 4-5 months. After that when they are eating if you look down on them you will start seeing some that are much narrower than the others. I do the first cull at or around 4 weeks and after that I just cull as I see something I do not like. With usually if you see a big broad back bird with wide chest you will be able to tell if the weight is there without weighing.

I do not keep any short leg Marans as the standard says they should be Med. station, I only keep med. or High station.

All of this is just what I do and other may not be inclined to cull the way I do.

 

[ChicksterJo]

How long, in inches, is a "medium station"? I just want to know if my pullet has "short" legs defined by how big medium legs are.

 

[Debbi]

Quote:
I don't know if there is any kind of "measurement" that would dictate, long, medium, or short. If there is, I've never seen it. What I do is just look at the total bird. Is it balanced? If you have a taller bird with really short legs, it will stand out. If you look at the bird and all you see is legs, then they are probably too long. I tend to like the medium to shorter legs. That's just me.

We all like different things in all of our birds, personal preferences if you will. Just look for type and balance, and adjust from there.

 

[Debbi]

Quote:
Thanks Don. I had always wondered this, as I'm sure others have as well. I'm sure it is no easy task to write up a standard, and I can appreciate that. If we listed all of the defects in the individual standards for each breed and variety, it would look more like a novel!

Just wish there could be a link to the APA's General DQs and Cutting Defects, that way everyone without a book could just go look it up. Sigh...time to toss some bucks at an SOP book I guess.

 

[Hens and Roos]

Quote:
Thanks Don. I had always wondered this, as I'm sure others have as well. I'm sure it is no easy task to write up a standard, and I can appreciate that. If we listed all of the defects in the individual standards for each breed and variety, it would look more like a novel!

Just wish there could be a link to the APA's General DQs and Cutting Defects, that way everyone without a book could just go look it up. Sigh...time to toss some bucks at an SOP book I guess.

Could you check with the library, they might be able to get one in from another library if they don't have it. We purchased one so that we had it handy but it is the 2001 SOP. I have other books I would like too but they are low on the list