Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[Raven1]

My birds are doing much better than I am in the heat! They all have good shade and water and behind the main coops we have a drop off to the creek so a good breeze comes up from there. I on the other hand am at work and keep going out on the plant floor where it is 110* actual plus humidity

. I do not know how our employees do it all day!

 

[Raven1]

My two Pinkchick girls are close to lay. Starting to pink up their combs and both ae almost the size of my grown birds wo talk about junk in the trunk! My GFFXGnarles is still very dark but I don't care she is a beauty and the Bill girl is very Blue but with dark hackles but no copper yet still don't care

 

[Debbi]

Sound like my two. Olivia is bigger/wider than my hens are now! And, she has nice shank feathering!

 

[Raven1]

Both my girls have great shank feathering! The chicks I am hatching this year have very nice shanks too I am very pleased I hope egg color is there also! My White chicks are coming right along looks like 2 roos and 3 pullets one roo and one pullet have slate legs so I wont be using them but boy are they pretty!

 

[desertmarcy]

Hi I'm a new Marans owner, I have been raising chicks from Ebay hatching eggs. I ended up with 10 black copper marans roos and need help evaluating them to decide which to keep. They are close to 5 months old now. I've read over the standard, but there's nothing like an experienced eye. Anybody close to Tucson, Arizona willing to look at birds? Lacking that, since there is no perfect bird...what traits should weight more heavily in keeping vs culling? Presence of white feathers--out? Eye color? Lack of feet feathers? There must be some traits that are more important than others. Help please!

 

[marquisella]

The really one thing that makes a Marans a Marans, is whether it lays at least a #4 dark egg.

That said, the standard is what makes up the physical characteristics, and there are a lot of things to consider.

A guidline is if the bird has more than 2 faults, then cull it. A breeder will work on 1 or 2 problems if otherwise, the bird is correct. Every breeder has their own ideas on how to breed a bird to the standard.

Quote:

 

[Wynette]

Quote:

Yup.

Absence of shank feathering and white lobes are both DQ's.

This thread will prove extremely helpful to you - there are tons of pics here, I would definitely give this thread a read - maybe start at the beginning & just scroll until you see pics, and see what folks' feedback is. It's a quick way to find things that matter!! BEst of luck!

 

[desertmarcy]

Quote:

Yup.

Absence of shank feathering and white lobes are both DQ's.

This thread will prove extremely helpful to you - there are tons of pics here, I would definitely give this thread a read - maybe start at the beginning & just scroll until you see pics, and see what folks' feedback is. It's a quick way to find things that matter!! BEst of luck!

Thanks, I'll do that. I find looking at pictures of good birds to be extremely helpful. 5 months isn't too young to evaluate them, is it?

 

[marquisella]

Quote:
Yup.

Absence of shank feathering and white lobes are both DQ's.

This thread will prove extremely helpful to you - there are tons of pics here, I would definitely give this thread a read - maybe start at the beginning & just scroll until you see pics, and see what folks' feedback is. It's a quick way to find things that matter!! BEst of luck!

Thanks, I'll do that. I find looking at pictures of good birds to be extremely helpful. 5 months isn't too young to evaluate them, is it?

A pullet stays pretty much the same I think, maybe gets more copper hackle color, & heavier, but boys do change a lot.....I have some now that were so ugly, but are starting to fill out and looking much better. I learned early to wait on the boys until at least a year old.

 

[Wynette]

Quote:
DITTO THIS, except I didn't learn it early.