Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[pinkchick]

I've observed in my birds that those with the white primary wing tip feather that ends up normal colored after 1st molt have usually been the ones who color out the best or most correct. Has anyone else noticed or observed that?

 

[pinkchick]

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Isn't that just crazy how that happens Jan? I am just as amazed by that, and it happens fairly quick too.

 

[Germaine_11.20]

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Geebs, when do you notice the change? I am looking all of mine over. The worst white offenders are history but I have to wrestle the rest and look.

At least I can't see the white hanging out from the hackles like the other two.

 

[geebs]

I happens over time just like when it travels and covers mossy. That is why I wait to cull. Sometimes there is white white feather left and it molts out but mostly with my flock the color travels down the shaft until the feather is unrecognizably black like the others. Has no one grown out a brown bird only to find it indistinguishable from the others as an adult?... Just like that only with white feathers.

yes pinkchick I have noticed that also about the most correctness. I read somewhere early on about the White primary being a "sign" of a quality bird. This was before everyone had them and a website as well. Do you remember such a reference and where that came from? I saw it in a couple places, so when I finally got the good selection of quality birds and they had the white primaries initially I was glad and they all molted out or colored out as the case may be. My Bev Davis birds had the least amount of an issue with just one to two primaries that were white. I figure it is because Bev worked so hard on her line and that is it's credit, that the faults like this to a great degree have been bred out by careful and heavy culling.

The wade line birds I have seem to have more and a greater degree but usually with the same result. I have had a couple that had retained some white feathering even after molt but that was the exception not the rule.

I will go out in the morning and check my young offspring for white feathers. I have just 10 hens left that I am selecting from for breeding next year and so far only 4 have made the list for the next years pens. I am down to 5 cockerels to select from... I have culled very heavily on other points leaving the white feathers as one of the last culling features.... I will decide that in the spring when the molt has happened for them. I will post some pictures. I am happy with them so far and can't recall a large amount of white. I must admit I do not pick them up daily but usually look at them weekly waiting for changes in maturity that helps me sort them out. It is amazing how many birds you hatch to find just a couple that are worthy of next year's breeding pen.

 

[Organics North]

OK gang I need your help.

I am in the process of culling cockerels. My project is blue Marans. I am down to two cockerels.

Cockerel #1 is very large, early maturing, good coloring except he has some copper feathers on his neck.

Cockerel #2 is smaller, slower maturing, not as good of a tail, but does not have any copper feathers on his neck.


(Which one do I keep?)

ON

 

[snowbird]

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I have not started to cull those with white mixed in foot feathers as somewhere I read that a little was acceptable. I believe I will eventually cull these also. I wait until after the first molt to cull the wing and tail white. Yes, I have noticed a correlation between the amount of white on the chick and being white marked later. I will not get into the white as some do not believe it is a major fault. I will go on with this single mating study and share it with the people that are open minded.

 

[snowbird]

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If I saw this I would make an appointment with a Doctor very quickly.

 

[snowbird]

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The Jeanne, Presley, and Davis line of Black Copper Marans all have a problem with white wing and tail feathers. The biggest problem with the white is accepting it as normal and ignoring entirely.

 

[pinkchick]

yes pinkchick I have noticed that also about the most correctness. I read somewhere early on about the White primary being a "sign" of a quality bird. This was before everyone had them and a website as well. Do you remember such a reference and where that came from? I saw it in a couple places, so when I finally got the good selection of quality birds and they had the white primaries initially I was glad and they all molted out or colored out as the case may be. My Bev Davis birds had the least amount of an issue with just one to two primaries that were white. I figure it is because Bev worked so hard on her line and that is it's credit, that the faults like this to a great degree have been bred out by careful and heavy culling.

The wade line birds I have seem to have more and a greater degree but usually with the same result. I have had a couple that had retained some white feathering even after molt but that was the exception not the rule.

Jan~ I could have read that somewhere, I don't recall, but as you know my feeble mind has limited capacity.....a rule set in place by our fabulous local fire dept and public safety committee. It's not pretty when it hits maximum capacity....people start screaming, running...

Ok...ok....in all seriousness though, I have read so much about this breed of bird, it's almost impossible to remember where I read it.

I guess I must be missing the white feather train or its just a surprise waiting to happen and hasn't yet. I can only speak for the birds that I have hatched and raised and that have remained here in my breeding pens that I have not had a bird that has a white feather upon maturity and after molt unless it is a Splash bird...now you wanna talk mossy????

I've produced some mossies.
I can't speak for others that have my birds as I do not see them grow out and people don't always keep in touch. I would love it if they did, it would give me some sort of something to go on, so my stats are derived only from the birds in my personal pens. Few stay in touch and I appreciate it greatly. I do thank ChaseHope (Shelley) for catching me up with the blue coppers that she got from me........they are looking great and coppering up nicely for 4 mos of age.

Yes the Davis birds seem to only have a couple like 2 white wing tip feathers and not all of them will have it. I keep everyone of the babies that shows them upon feathering out unless the bird is too sparsely feather legged or clean shanked, which is a whole 'nutha chapter in Marans...."How can a chick have clean shanks that came from 2 nicely feather shanked parents?"

 

[Debbi]

I would like to see someone do a test breeding of four different pairs. I'd do it myself, but mine are too few and too young!

Pair one: BOTH roo & hen that had white feathering as juveniles

Pair two: Roo having white juvie feathers, hen with NO white juvies

Pair three: Roo having NO white juvies, hen having white juvies

Pair four: Roo & hen, BOTH with NO white juvies

My idea is trying to find what pairs will throw the white juvies in their young. This test would probably have to go on for at least three generations of the same breedings to see any accurate results, maybe more. Somewhere in my thinking process, I can see a corralation between the white juvies in both the roo & hen building up in the gene pool, when they are constantly bred together, eventually showing up as white permanent feathering/fluff in the adults. Does this make any sense to anyone, or am I on the wrong track here??