Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[math ace]

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The hens are Presley / Davis mix, the roo is pure Davis. My hens are all laying pretty close to the same darkness eggs, so I am chosing the one that meets the proposed standard the most. The roo - - - is the only roo I have.

It sounds like if I keep hatching out and keeping only the darkest egg birds, that I should see darker egg layers in a few generations - - do I understand this correctly ? ? ?

As the egg gets darker - - - will I see other issues develope that currently are not a problem ? ?

 

[Lotsapaints]

Who knows what faults will show up. I would go for dark eggs and type first then worry about the other things.

 

[Koolduck]

Hi guys! I posted on the old thread back in April trying to figure out what I had in the way of babies. That mystery has been solved with age!

Now the question is ...What do I have? in regards to showability and or breeding stock. Im new to this( gee, you couldn't tell that huh!). I started all this because of my love of eggs...morphed to different colored eggs curtesy of BYC....then after going to a couple of shows, and being competitive....would like to throw my hat in the ring. I did get my birds from a BYCer who got the eggs from another BYCer...but I dont remember if they are Wade or Davis lines. Lets start at the beginning with.....Do I have showable/breedable birds or do I have pretty chicken and dumplins!? All opinions are welcome...I have very thick skin!...and fully believe that opinions are like.....everyone has one! Fire away!

Bachelor #1- likeable joe

Bachelor #2- flighty

Bachelor #3- sweet wheaton

 

[geebs]

Mathace writes

It sounds like if I keep hatching out and keeping only the darkest egg birds, that I should see darker egg layers in a few generations - - do I understand this correctly ? ? ?

As the egg gets darker - - - will I see other issues develope that currently are not a problem ? ?

Okay... number one... That is correct... breeding back on the same line and keeping a "closed flock" has been proven method for breeding the egg color up.

The traits that will show up... IDK It is possible. Make very careful notes... that is the shortcut.. Not repeating the same errors and knowing who is bred to what is where you can see things show up... If one crossing consistantly brings up too much color in the female when using a particular female and male pair.. One might switch the males... But in order to know this you have to keep careful records and mate to just one male... It takes a long time... The more birds you have the harder this is to do and keep track of.​

 

[flgardengirl]

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I like your roo #1 the only thing I can't tell about is his eye color. Is it orangish colored? Looks blurry on my screen but it is probably just the pic or he blinked lol. You wheaten looks very sweet and nice coloring too but I am no expert on wheatens. I have 3 male wheatens that I will have to choose which one to keep. I am waiting for thier tail feathers to finish growing back because I had them in with a feather picking hen who picked all thier tail feathers out when they were younger grrr.

 

[pinkchick]

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Jan~
My madness has no method, probably off the wall and just plain wrong but I figure that when crossed over an all ready dark egg layer, how can one truly tell which bird caused egg color loss? It's not an exact science and just purely experimental and have I have found good results. I haven't suffered egg color loss (unless inflicted by molt or stress) in the Blue Copper/Black Copper breeding pen and know for sure that the roo or roos I use and I have test crossed are contributing to good egg color in offspring thus basically narrowing egg color culling to the females. I have since hatched out and raised offspring from the BR cross Marans and Buff cross Marans that I kept that were crossed back to the originally tested roos and they have started laying, they lay an even darker egg than their mothers do, but as always, it is all still a crap shoot. Just to be clear I do not use the BR or BO crossed birds in my breeding pen, they are experimental only.

The hens in the breeding pen have been carefully selected for egg color, how long she will lay a consistently dark egg, egg gloss, size and shape, overall type, feathered shanks, eye color, comb and temperament, no mossiness as chicks or adults and no white feathers and the quality of offspring they produce that are keepers and that offspring’s egg color and number of offspring that a certain hen throws that lays a light egg, though this does not guarantee that every bird produced from these birds and their crossings is going to lay a dark egg. I think that its the luck of the draw and which bird gets which gene/s, just because both parent birds may have the dark egg gene IMO is not a guarantee and to me doesn't necessarily mean that all offspring produced will get it, there are many other recessive factors that can affect that for all we don't know or do know, same as feather color, leg color, eye color.... etc, go back to human genetics with me for a moment....how can a child from to 2 parents that both have brown eyes end up with blue eyes???? Or what about dwarfism….how can 2 very large birds produce a bird that is dwarf???? Not every gene is always passed on is my point. The offending birds culled for a lighter egg color are selected for other traits and put in to the splash & blue project pen for backcrossing to a proven rooster to improve egg color. The reason I choose Splash and Blues is because they tend to naturally lay a lighter egg than some other color varieties of Marans and seeing the egg color and noting progression is a little easier than trying to make a judgment call on the darker eggs coming from the Black Coppers and the Blue Coppers (the blues that actually lay as dark as the BCM’s or close to it) sometimes trying to determine a shade difference in the darkest of eggs is very hard…..is it a 6??....is it a 7???....or could it possibly be high 7?????? . Noting egg color progression starting out from a lighter egg is more visibly noticeable for me over the generations and I can actually see a clear difference...I’m a visual person and need to see it.

So….now that you have had a very scary tour through my mind and its thinking process…….does it make sense or am I crazy?

 

[Lotsapaints]

Here's some baby pictures I don't know that you can tell much other than maybe their sex......I wanted to share I was happy to get this little roo I think he looks nice so far size wise a little too much feathering on his shanks but the hens I have need help so I don't think it's a bad thing and so far his comb looks okay and his shank color is good. Probably too much copper but on a splash can you really tell? He hatched from a nice dark egg shaped well and big.

I have one Golden Cuckoo pullet with feathered shanks she's huge but has one white wing tip feather so I hope it goes away she also came from a dark egg

Here's a Golden roo

I don't like that he has the sawtooth edge on one point of his comb but he's big and thick

Here's a pullet with a lot of gold

and for fun a pullet with a roo comb

 

[pinkchick]

Lotsa~ He is looking good!

Probably too much copper but on a splash can you really tell?

No joke! How could you tell? I think they are limited to how much copper actually comes through because of the 2 blue genes.​

 

[pinkchick]

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I like your first roo better than the second, the first one has good copper. I wish he was standing up a little more so we could see how he holds himself naturally, in that photo he looks have a very short and blunt chest, but I'm sure it is just how he is balancing. Looks like he could mature into a nice sized boy.
I really like your Wheaten guy.....he caught my eye first and I scrolled past the 1st 2 photos to look see him. He is a nice boy. Love his colors they are nice and vivid.

 

[berkeleysprings]

edit .... i should say i like the comb on #1 better...... the number 3 looks nice to me and i see the important cinnamon-coloured triangle
in the wing and looks like some white in the brest or i might be looking at the pic badly
,i have only been into wheatens 2 years so im no pro,ive never shown anything ,,,,,,

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