Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[3riverschick]

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Well, all blue may be nice, but I question the wisdom of promoting a 'nothing but solid blue' strain. I know a while back, breeders with solid blue Marans were worried about the fact that mostly only one sex seemed to survivie. It was a real problem for them. Then there's the MITF and SINE genes to worry about. They are pretty much the same across species and they are finding out in dogs that when blue is involved, the effect on MITF and SINE is related to health problems. Simply put, the latest research is showing that breeding the wrong color dogs together(esp. if a blue gene is involved), the health of the pups can be compromised. It's revolutionizing the ideas about color breeding in dogs. Some research along this line has been done in poultry, however not as much as in dogs. Probably because dogs live longer. Prof. Schumtz (website) who has done such groundbreaking research in color genetics in dogs, is also working with poultry. If you want to be sure and want info from the best. Check out her website and contact her. (If you have blue chickens and she happens to be using some in research, perhaps you could donate some of yours and get some free analysis done. It's a thought.) You've nothing to lose and can perhaps avoid a costly genetic mistake.
Best Regards,
Karen Tewart
Waterford Franch Marans
Bellwether Collies (retired).

 

[3riverschick]

I needed greens for my girls in the winter or when they need extra greens. I bought a 50 bag of Plotspike Forage Oats. They are all natural, developed at LSU by selective linebreeding, not GMO. I have that from the University. Buy them at Tractor Supply, PFO are for establishing forage plots for deer. Can be fed three ways.
1. as sprouted oats. 1-3 days old, feed as "grain" in part of the regular feed ration.
2. as sprouted oats- feed 4 days and older as "green feed" supplement to regular feed ration.
3. as steamed oats. float appropriate amount of oats in water and simmer on the stove for 12 hours to kill any mold or bacteria.
Use lots of water so it doesn't simmer dry. Do not re-use cooking or rinse water for anything, dump it down the drain. Then rinse and drain. Serve.
4. in all 3 methods above, feed one cubic inch per bird per day.
One 50 lb. bag of Plotspike Forage Oats costs 20.-25.00. The bag makes about 330 lbs. of sprouted oats.
Sprouted oats are great for bringing hens into lay...and bring vigor to the cock which he passes on in his robust sperm to conception for chicks.
Best Regards,
Karen Tewart
Waterford french Marans, Penn., USA.
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How to sprout oats:
1 teaspoon oats per bird (should make 1 cubic inch of sprouts); one glass jar, rubber bands; plain undyed burlap(2.00 a yd. at fabric store).
a. Measure oats into jar. if using a regular spagetti jar, do not fill more a 1/3 of the way to allow for expanding srouts.
b. Fill with warm water.
c. Cut burlap to fit and afix to jar with rubber band.
d. Dump out all the water.
e. 2x a day, run warm water ( not hot or cold) thru the burlap until the jar is full. shake gently to make sure the
water reachs all the seeds/sprouts Let stand one minute , and pour all the water out.
Try not to let the sprouts go more than 12 hours between rinsings to avoid spoiling.. I keep my jars in the kitchen and rinse them
at breakfast and dinner. Sprouts are spoiled if they stink and/or are slimy to the touch. I just rinse mine regularly and have never
had a problem with spoilage.
f. Rinse a final time before taking from the jar and serving. Serve in a container, not on the ground or litter to avoid comtamination of sprouts.
g. Wash jars and burlap with soap and water before starting new crop of sprouts

 

[syble]

I raise blue orps and blue araucanas and have never had issues with longevity or vigor with them? Well nothing other then araucana issues lol. Eye color on all the birds i looked at yesterday is a bright pumpkin orangey red. most if not all started out as some form of green... the one hen is in transition still... I'll try and take some photos today.

So now i'm not sure what to do.. I dont want to perpetuate the false blues, but at the same time i've spent alot on them and time and effort... none of the 3 hens show orange/copper yet, but neither did the males till the sex feathers came in. there are 1-2 roos that haven't come up with copper yet, so i guess i'll just hang onto those 2 and hope 1 makes it to no copper in adulthood.

Thanks
Sib

 

[babyrnlc]

I have a question for you Marans guys. My mother and I are adding to our flock. We share a property. We do not have a rooster and do not want one, so we will not be breeding. We have a variety of chicken colors and egg colors. We are wanting a few dark egg layers. My first thought were Marans, but when I was talking with someone they said they are not very hardy and they had to fan them all summer and heat them all winter. I want a very hardy chicken, would a Welsummer be a better choice, or are the Marans hardy?

I am in Oklahoma and it usually does not get super cold for a long time or super hot for a long time (except this year, two freek blizzards and a ridiculous heat wave)

 

[Hens and Roos]

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Good luck, sorry to hear about the issues you ended up having. We have 1 blue copper Marans pullet that is around 4 months and has only a touch of copper but there is a possiblity that the copper gene is hiding underneath and would come out in future generations. I have to take a picture and post her on the black copper thread to show Pink.

babyrnlc- we have both Marans and Welsummer chickens and they are doing just fine even with all the heat we have had this summer and did fine over winter too. We have an insulated coop and did provide a little heat on the coldest days with no issues. Good Luck

 

[berkeleysprings]

my wheaten marans are very hardy and do well in 100 heat or zero temps in winter but like most chickens they would rather b cold than hot . but mine do great and iv only lost one in 4 years , i am not sure what she died from and there was no signs of ilness

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[Ivywoods]

I've had some difficulty hatching marans as compared to other breeds, but once they are hatched, mine have been very hardy. They were in an uninsulated coop with no heat this past winter. No problems. We had temps as low as minus 18.

This summer, in all this record heat I have not lost any, and I have had 3 of them go broody at the same time in a community nest. There is little ventilation in there and the temps get extremely hot. I was afraid I would go out and look in there and I would have 3 cooked hens. They have continued to be broody, all 3 in one nest in temps over 100. I think they are very hardy.

 

[pinkchick]

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Good luck, sorry to hear about the issues you ended up having. We have 1 blue copper Marans pullet that is around 4 months and has only a touch of copper but there is a possiblity that the copper gene is hiding underneath and would come out in future generations. I have to take a picture and post her on the black copper thread to show Pink.

babyrnlc- we have both Marans and Welsummer chickens and they are doing just fine even with all the heat we have had this summer and did fine over winter too. We have an insulated coop and did provide a little heat on the coldest days with no issues. Good Luck

I agree with Lotsapaints....the solid blues and blacks are very rare and very hard to get ahold of. In fact....alot of the said "solid" birds out there are really copper birds that are very heavily melanized which covers the copper or allows for some leakage, giving the illusion that they may be solid.

Hens~ Your little Blue Copper gal from me is definitely a Blue Copper, she may or may not end up showing more copper than what she is showing now.....not to worry though, if she is a decent bird in all other aspects then you can still breed her. Try breeding her to a roo that has more color and see what is produced.

At current I have only one Blue Copper hen that shows a decent amount of copper, the rest are only showing several copper feathers to one to none, but I know they are coppers and if they have other nice qualities that I am looking for in a bird,, I will breed them and hope for the best. This year I am going to try my darker blue copper roo Lil' Bill over them to see if I can get more color, but honestly.....copper hackles in the females has been a chore.......seems I can get good coppered males, but the females remain a bit trickier and that isn't just in the blues....it is also very hard with the Black Coppers. Seems for every one good colored female I get, I get 5 dark females showing little to none. Then insult to injury.....every nice colored male seems to have a fault that I just can't over look......I swear, it's one thing or another.

babyrnlc~ I have both Welsummers and Marans, both are winter hardy and summer hardy. I have not had any issues with either one of these breeds needing any special housing requirements, infact, I do not heat any of my coops and none are insulated. Now we do not get hot hot summers like the rest of the county, but we have been known to get a little heat wave lasting a couple three weeks during the summers and they do just fine. When the heat waves hit, I do sprinkle the birds a bit and the Marans run like the sky is falling...but the Wellies welcome the sprinkler. Silly scaredy chooks.

 

[Christie Rhae]

I hatched a solid blue chick last week. It is missing a toenail or something on both feet. One of the toes is just shorter than the others. Also one of it's eyes is smaller than the other. Could this be due to inbreeding too much to get the solid blue or is it one of those things that just happens?

 

[pinkchick]

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All blue birds appear solid at hatch and until they start to get their adult feathers, when they start feathering out is when color can start to appear and some birds can take even longer to show.
Unless birds are from pure "solid" blue and splash Marans, then there really is no way to tell if they are truly solid, unless they are test mated, but then again, even if they test mate out good and don't throw offspring that show any copper or leakage upon maturity......those sneaky hiding genes can take years to show their true colors in offspring.

Not saying your birds are not solid birds, just saying that many are said to be solid and then a person decides to mate their solid birds and hatch out some babies and those babies mature showing leakage or copper and this is the proof in the pudding and prompts the questions of "why is my solid bird showing copper when it is suppose to be a solid bird."
Alot are sold as solid birds, but it is not the fault of most of the sellers as they honestly do not know about the over melanized copper birds out there floating around. I know as fact that some lines of "solid" blue, black and splash were created with the use of a Copper bird and are being sold and advertised as solid. Just sayin' is all.

Not to mention the whole blue gene and its leaky factors anyway.....a story for another time perhaps.