Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[math ace]

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the large wrinkly area that looks like someone took play-doh and stuck thier thumb in it right after making a rooster comb?

On the first pick the stray feather is pointing at it?

Excellent Job describing it!

 

[Cadeau]

Thanks Debbi on the cheering section for my roo!
Nope, no side sprigs.
Just want to be sure I'm ADDING to the gene pool, not detracting!

FireTigris - Thanks!! That's a great description!

So - does that mean that a thumbprint doesn't necessarily mean that there will be a wave to the comb??
BUT it is still a negative trait in the show ring?


Don- I'm not sure what you mean regarding the comb pics, unless - REALLY reading between the lines, you mean that the comb doesn't matter b/c you don't like the roo b/c he's too narrow??

OR - does a pinched in comb somehow correlate to a narrow bird?? (I know - that sounds like a stretch...but trying to understand!!)

Berkley Springs
Hehe - the hens are Red Star!
Sorry - I see you breed wheaten marans!

....and they're....um...I guess red? I'm not really sure!
The hens are shades of orange and the roos are cream colored (sex linked)

Mr. Roo was very unhappy alone, crowing and pacing, and his BCM ladies are still too young @3mths old.
Sooo - gave him 3 Red Star ladies to live with!
Poor little things had their beaks trimmed before I got them....but they seem to do okay...

 

[berkeleysprings]

thanks for the info , i know zero about anything other than wheaten, are red star hens and roosters completly different looking like say wheaten hens and roo ?
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[Cadeau]

Yes they are very easy to tell gender!

As chicks, the hens are rusty colored and the roos are yellow or white

As grownups, the hens are shades of orange, as you can see in my pics.

The roos are white to creamy colored and some have some darker spots on wings.

I can get some pics tomorrow (if it's not still POURING) if you'd like - ?? -


The Red Star are my main layers and sooooooo sweet and easy going - both genders!

Only problem is that the 2nd generation is not sex-linked (can tell gender at hatch by color)

 

[pinkchick]

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Is this little blue the same age as the 6 week old cockerel? If so, I say it's a pullet.

 

[Cadeau]

yay!!

I'm another who is overrun by boys!

 

[gilavina]

Well, inbetween my projects in the garden today I've been taking chicks out of the incubator. Tomorrow morning I will bring out the last of the chicks and do a final tally of how many of what I have. I don't have any luck with leaving eggs in the incubator and having them hatch later on. This season it has been the chicks hatching in one big wave and then just a few stragglers that are no more than about 12 hours behind, but then whatever hasn't hatched with the stragglers, usually is dead when I go to check what's inside. So, I did check the eggs that hadn't hatched yet and found a couple of chicks that were just too big to ever have hatched on their own I think. I also found a few chicks that had stopped their development somewhere along the 2nd week or so in the shipped eggs. It was hard to tell when I candled them since they filled the shell pretty good and had well developed air sacs. I'm feeling good about this hatch. I've got a bunch of fatties!

 

[NoSkiveez]

I have a question and I thought someone here would be able to help me out. I have a beautiful feather legged Golden Cuckoo roo with two clean legged standard cuckoo hens. Will I be able to hatch more golds from this combo? If so, what's the likelihood they will be clean legged?

My gold cuckoo roo was hatched from gold cuckoo eggs not from standard blk/wht cuckoos. My only issues is, I got all roos.

 

[VillageChicken]

Quote:
"Fixed" is often used loosely here - sure you can put feathers on a clean shanked bird's offspring in one generation - but it will not fix your future offspring. You will continue to throw clean shanks for several generations until you figure out which of your birds is throwing the clean shanks. Clean shanks are recessive, so the genes can hide in feather shanked birds. There are also suspected recessive inhibitors that affect shank feathering as well.

If it were that easy, there'd be a lot more feather shanked Cuckoos running around out there.


Feathering is supposed to be dominant, but the heterozygous expresses in different ways. You might even have a bird with full leg/toe feathering that is heterozygous. Bottom line - if you don't want to keep seeing clean shanks in your flock for a long time, don't breed ANY clean shanked birds. If you don't care, and are just experimenting, then have fun, and let us know what your stats end up being. I suspect it's harder than expected to put consistent feathers on shanks when introducing clean shanks to your flock... like less than 50% will have them.

 

[VillageChicken]

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I didn't see an answer to this yet. I think that the white down/fuzz is only visible after the feather comes in fully, not just after shedding the fuzz. I think even Don waits for the juvie molt to cull for white. On roosters I would wait for the adult hackle feathers to come in, and then check the base color.