Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[gilavina]

Quote:
The French Marans Club Australia site states that the Silver Salmon can be reproduced using gold Salmon crossed with Black Birchen (silver black). The silver salmon is aka as a silver duckwing coloration and a blue silver-Salmon as a Blue duckwing coloration. You will be able to make better sense of this that I can LOL! Scroll way down to Silver Salmon
http://frenchmaransclubaustralia.yolasite.com/notes-on-breeding.php

awesome! I'll have to look it up....from what I remember I liked the layout of the Australian site, but haven't really looked around on there much so far. Its started snowing and blowing like crazy in the last hour, so all outside work is done for the day....so this must certainly mean its time to read up on genetics, no?

 

[flgardengirl]

Quote:
The French Marans Club Australia site states that the Silver Salmon can be reproduced using gold Salmon crossed with Black Birchen (silver black). The silver salmon is aka as a silver duckwing coloration and a blue silver-Salmon as a Blue duckwing coloration. You will be able to make better sense of this that I can LOL! Scroll way down to Silver Salmon
http://frenchmaransclubaustralia.yolasite.com/notes-on-breeding.php

awesome! I'll have to look it up....from what I remember I liked the layout of the Australian site, but haven't really looked around on there much so far. Its started snowing and blowing like crazy in the last hour, so all outside work is done for the day....so this must certainly mean its time to read up on genetics, no?

Sounds perfect you need a nice cup of tea or coffee and slip on some cozy slippers.

Is it just me or do the birchen eggs seem lighter than most of the Marans breeds? DH just went and picked up the eggs from someone local who has Gabbard Farm birds. He said they are are a mix of blue black and splash birchen birds in the pen. DH saw the birds and thinks they looked nice. I'm so happy these are an early bday present from dh!!

 

[gilavina]

Quote:
awesome! I'll have to look it up....from what I remember I liked the layout of the Australian site, but haven't really looked around on there much so far. Its started snowing and blowing like crazy in the last hour, so all outside work is done for the day....so this must certainly mean its time to read up on genetics, no?

Sounds perfect you need a nice cup of tea or coffee and slip on some cozy slippers.

Is it just me or do the birchen eggs seem lighter than most of the Marans breeds? DH just went and picked up the eggs from someone local who has Gabbard Farm birds. He said they are are a mix of blue black and splash birchen birds in the pen. DH saw the birds and thinks they looked nice. I'm so happy these are an early bday present from dh!!

No, its not just you thinking the Birchen Marans egg color is lighter than most of the other color varieties. I've heard it a lot from others breeding this variety and found it to be true with my own. I'm working on getting my breeding pens set up and am probably going to start working more rigorously with linebreeding or spiral breeding to work at improving their egg color. I am working to get feathers on the legs of the chicks I produce as well, so I've got a few girls I'll test hatch with to see how it goes. I plan on working with a couple of good featherlegged solid blue and black girls to see if I can get it mixed in there.
I sure hope you have good luck with your hatch. I have a couple of birds from the Gabbard line (didn't have a very good hatch on shipped eggs) and they run smaller in size, so depending on how yours fill out, it might not hurt to keep in mind that you may need to cross onto some larger stock at some point to improve size if you are looking for larger Marans. I love my big birds...haha

 

[gilavina]

And I've got my cup of coffee, slippers, a nice warm throw blanket and a lap loving warm pup to keep me warm.

I just did a quick run down on the Australian site you linked....my only problem is that I don't have a gold salmon...so...i'm sorting in my brain a couple different routes I can go. I think I will have to test mate a couple of different colored girls I have to see how their chicks color up when matched with my black birchen boy....hmmm...decisions, decisions...

 

[flgardengirl]

Quote:
Lap warming pups are the best!! I have a pomeranian but he thinks he's an outdoor/ fishing and chicken herding dog! When we go fishing, he loves to go with and he thinks his job is to watch the stringer. If the fish start swimming out to far, he grabs the rope and pulls them back

He will warm laps though, with the right treats and lots of attention. He is just the wiggliest thing and can't sit still very long lol.
Good luck on your project!! It sounds both challenging and fun. Maybe I need to be on your egg purchase list once you get going lol. His birds also had non feathered shanks. I will post my hatch and chicks (crossing my fingers and toes) that I get some.
I am setting them tonight with some Olive Eggs from my f1 OE girl.

 

[marquisella]

Quote:
awesome! I'll have to look it up....from what I remember I liked the layout of the Australian site, but haven't really looked around on there much so far. Its started snowing and blowing like crazy in the last hour, so all outside work is done for the day....so this must certainly mean its time to read up on genetics, no?

Sounds perfect you need a nice cup of tea or coffee and slip on some cozy slippers.

Is it just me or do the birchen eggs seem lighter than most of the Marans breeds? DH just went and picked up the eggs from someone local who has Gabbard Farm birds. He said they are are a mix of blue black and splash birchen birds in the pen. DH saw the birds and thinks they looked nice. I'm so happy these are an early bday present from dh!!

If you want to darken the eggs, I understand, you can breed a birchen male to a black copper hen, and some of the resulting pullets will be birchen. Of course, you will have to cull the others, but if darker eggs are what you are after, it should be worth the effort.

Sue

 

[berkeleysprings]

i have a question and pardon the spelling but someone used the word "ear coverts" and i tried to look it up in the books i have and couldnt find it ... is that a word ?
or is that slang to describe feathers around the ears ?

 

[gilavina]

Quote:
you spelled it correctly...it is the right term too. They use it in parrots, pheasants, chickens, etc. What kind of info are you looking for? I don't know if I can help, but I can try

ETA: some people will make references to tail and wing coverts as well...those are the only other ones I can think of at the moment, but there may be more

 

[gilavina]

Quote:
Sounds perfect you need a nice cup of tea or coffee and slip on some cozy slippers.

Is it just me or do the birchen eggs seem lighter than most of the Marans breeds? DH just went and picked up the eggs from someone local who has Gabbard Farm birds. He said they are are a mix of blue black and splash birchen birds in the pen. DH saw the birds and thinks they looked nice. I'm so happy these are an early bday present from dh!!

If you want to darken the eggs, I understand, you can breed a birchen male to a black copper hen, and some of the resulting pullets will be birchen. Of course, you will have to cull the others, but if darker eggs are what you are after, it should be worth the effort.

Sue

I had read something about mixing them with the black coppers somehow, but I haven't tried it yet. I might have to do that at some point. there are so many things to decide on....its kinda overwhelming sometimes. Thanks for the tip!!

 

[berkeleysprings]

one of the nice people used the word in the whaeten marans thred asking the question..... i guess its feathers around the ears but the trouble with that is most wheaten hens have white ear tuff like a dot so i didnt know if that was a way to describe that the standard of perfection book , theres no talk of that ,,,, thanks for clarifying
Quote:
you spelled it correctly...it is the right term too. They use it in parrots, pheasants, chickens, etc. What kind of info are you looking for? I don't know if I can help, but I can try

ETA: some people will make references to tail and wing coverts as well...those are the only other ones I can think of at the moment, but there may be more