Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[math ace]

I am going into lockdown today.
It is going to be the second hatch from beginning to end in the new incubator.

Send me good hatching vibes

I wasn't happy with my first set of staggered hatching in the new incubator

So, I have done some tweaking on the temps and will be hatching in egg cartons instead of on the eggs side.

I don't need a ton of chicks.... BUT I do need to know that I have the new incubator under control

I have another broody. It is so funny .... everyone was complaingin about broodies in the Spring.
Mine are waiting until fall to get started. The pullet that is just starting to go broody is from
my Jan 21 hatch. She is just 6 months old and is doing the broody thing.

So, I am going to let a F1 hatch out the F2 generation for me! To funny!

 

[pinkchick]

Quote:
I don't remember what Gnarles' comb looked like, was it carnation? If it was, I must've been blinded by his body beauty!

How old is Lil Bill now? The three Amigos from your chicks here sure are "in the mood", and running the pullets! In fact, all of my hens and pullets opted to stay in the run with Clyde today rather than to venture out with the marauding mob of roos! Smart girls!

Gnarles comb is not carnation.....but Don thinks that the splits on the blade are indicitive of the Penne influence.
Here is the best pic of his comb I have.....

Lil' Bill is now 6 mos old.....he is doing his thing, but currently I am test mating (again

the eggs that I am going to put under the broodies) the Black Coppers hens from Greenfire Farms with Bill to rule out the Penne influence being from them......I can't help but think there is something there.......prior to using these hens I never had a carnation comb pop up....and I was using Gnarles. Lil Bill is doing his thing and very happily at that but until I rule out the other with the Black Copper hens I will not be putting him in with them. He has his own little flock of a couple of my original Davis hens....lucky boy.

Curious if anyone else who has BCM's from GFF from the last year are test mating yet and what they have produced.

 

[gilavina]

Quote:
there are several breeds of bantam ducks out there....I know on here someone talked about midget white turkeys....maybe that's what you're thinking of....? there are black east indies, mini silver appleyards, call ducks (tons of colors), mallards, australian spotteds, and I'm sure I'm missing a couple. I've heard there are blue east indies floating around out there somewhere, but never seen any in person. I bet the ducks would be great for slug control. If you ever think about it more seriously, I'd hunt around on the internet and see which ones people have the best success with in the slug control and etc.
My runners fit into the lightweight class....at a whole 4 pounds....they are tall but light as a feather compared to my Marans haha

You are right, I was confused and thinking Midget White turkeys.....I don't want turkeys.....my bad, but I have read about the Silver Appleyards and I liked what I read, I just didn't know they were small. That's a plus. Blue East Indies sound cool too...of course because they are blue...will have to look them up. Thanks Vicki...your swell!

haha well you're pretty swell yourself there Kim! They do have both standard Silver Appleyards and bantam silver appleyards. While you are at it, you should look at the blue runners...and there are some lavenders floating around out there too!

 

[pinkchick]

Quote:
HI FRIEND!!!!!!!!! Missin' ya 'round here Missy!

Many many great hatching vibes coming your way! I hope you have a great hatch.

Sooooooooooo......you mentioned that you think that you may have another chick from me that hatched besides Cracker.........where's the pictures lady????

 

[Debbi]

Quote:
I don't remember what Gnarles' comb looked like, was it carnation? If it was, I must've been blinded by his body beauty!

How old is Lil Bill now? The three Amigos from your chicks here sure are "in the mood", and running the pullets! In fact, all of my hens and pullets opted to stay in the run with Clyde today rather than to venture out with the marauding mob of roos! Smart girls!

Gnarles comb is not carnation.....but Don thinks that the splits on the blade are indicitive of the Penne influence.
Here is the best pic of his comb I have.....
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/11170_imgp7867.jpg

Lil' Bill is now 6 mos old.....he is doing his thing, but currently I am test mating (again

the eggs that I am going to put under the broodies) the Black Coppers hens from Greenfire Farms with Bill to rule out the Penne influence being from them......I can't help but think there is something there.......prior to using these hens I never had a carnation comb pop up....and I was using Gnarles. Lil Bill is doing his thing and very happily at that but until I rule out the other with the Black Copper hens I will not be putting him in with them. He has his own little flock of a couple of my original Davis hens....lucky boy.

Curious if anyone else who has BCM's from GFF from the last year are test mating yet and what they have produced.

Could it be that Gnarles only carries one gene for the carnation, and the GFF hens also carry one gene?? If that's the case, breeding those hens to Bill wouldn't produce anything Penne looking, but the gene would still be there? I'm just guessing here mind you, but I would think for the carnation comb to be expressed, there would have to be two copies of the genes?

What do the hen's combs look like?

 

[Debbi]

Quote:
Yeah!!! Good luck on the hatch!

 

[flgardengirl]

Quote:
Good luck on your hatch. COngrats on your broody...is this a good thing? lol\\

My keywest rescue hens are still going broody. I removed one that snuck and had 3 chicks. SO what does another hen do that wasn't even broody? She goes and finds the other hen's remaining eggs and sits on them and 2 days later hatches another chick!!!
Now the other two hens went broody once they saw that chick. I'm kinda wishing I didn't get these KW hens they are crafty broodies. They will hatch babies no matter what. I swear I've never seen the likes of this. They go broody in pairs or if one leaves the nest, a hen who wasn't broody just goes and takes over! One of thier little pullets (not laying yet) has been sitting on the nest with momma and its like she is learning from the mom. The mom acts like she will attack me if I go near the nest and so the pullet will copy her and do the same thing. The mom gets off the nest and the pullet will scoot over and cover the eggs till she gets back. I know this is Learned Behavior!!! No wonder they took over Key West.

 

[gilavina]

Good luck on your hatch Math Ace! Hope all those tweaks and adjustments on your incubator work out just right for ya!

 

[pinkchick]

Ok, I got some better pictures of my boy and I'm being serious folks...please critique my bird, I would like some hard core honest opinions about him. I believe the only thing that you can't see is his nicely feathered shanks.

6 mos. old Blue Copper

Couldn't get a full on back shot of him or full on front shot of him but I think these will do....

Big bad molting papa is in the background

I've posted this photo before but will post it again as it is for eye color so I don't leave anything out..

and just because I love in motion photos

 

[DMRippy]

Pinkchick I love your bird! He is quite the hunk! I have a question about Blue Coppers...how much copper color should they have? Do the Black Coppers have more color? I just got one of your babies from Raven and he looks a lot like this guy but not a lot of copper. My FBCM babies are just 11 weeks old (one just started crowing) and a couple have way too much color. The guy I bought them from was breeding for egg color but he knew his Marans too. They were very big birds and the girls didn't have much color if any, but these babies seem to be different than the birds I saw. Even the girls are showing more color. My question, finally, if I breed one of the Black Copper's with too much color to a Blue Copper would it add more copper color to the blue???

One more, I have a Splash Copper too, also from Raven, from what I have seen they don't show much color at all...Do you just have to wait and see how much shows in the babies?

I have been lurking here and the BCM thread too. I don't plan on showing, but I don't want to breed negative traits either. I will work with what I have and try to improve as best I can...Maybe I will have to get some more Roos from Raven again!!!