Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[3riverschick]

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Buy Marans from a climate as severe or more severe than your own. I live in wetsern PA and we get severe wind chill out here in the middle of winter. It gets down to -5 but the wind chill can get to -17 degrees. All my Marans, until these last batch, were bought from climates equal to or more severe than mine. Marans are hardy in wet and cold. They will do well in muddy weather . Mine were fine out in the snow and merrily trooping thru the mud, unless the wind was blowing, when i kept them cooped to avoid chill. i have a 4x6 coop and in the depth of winter keep a 65 watt light on 24/7 which is enough to keep them warm. A little vaseline will keep combs from freezing. Even without vaseline, never had more than tips of combs frostbite and never lost part of an unprotected comb.
With the bulb on 24/7, last winter my girls laid daily, even during the blizzards. i would dig out the coop and there were the eggs waiting. They were frozen of course but still there. I would let them defrost in the shell and feed them to my collies.
Not a problem in summer either. It's been quite the heat wave here in western PA. had a long stretch of 92-97 degree weather. lately hot and then rain every day. humidity runs about 75% every day. No problem for the Marans. No misting needed, no wading pools. I do have a covered run(which i think is key to moderating weather conditions of any kind) which is nestled under the overhang of some 90 ft. pine tress. Plus an youg oak planted by one side of the run all provide natural air conditioning. In winter, I staple vinyl strips of carpet path protector(smooth on both sides) on the side of the run against which the prevailing wind blows to cut the wind chill a bit in the run. in summer it comes down.
Another breed which is hardy in wet and dry, hot and cold weather is the Buckeye. A real nice dual-purpose breed, however the males have a dinosaur roar-like crow which might unsettle close enighbors. Chantecler are very cold hardy but need misters in a hot summer.
Best,
Karen Tewart
in western PA

 

[Christie Rhae]

The eggs came from someone who has bred solid blue marans specifically. But my question is about the deformities. What would cause them?

 

[pinkchick]

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Is it the outer toe that is missing the toenail and is shorter than the other toes? Are their shanks and outer toes heavily feathered?

 

[3riverschick]

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I suspect the smaller eye is due to the MITF and SINE genes being messed with by concentrated blue to blue breeding. The blue gene in dogs is directly linked to microthalmia. A condition in which eyes are uncommonly small or missing entirely. This is brand new research. I have been following it for several years now. Even before it was recently publically published. This is why I was suggesting that perhaps history will show in the future, that to avoid health issues in Blue Marans, parsimonious copper feathering might have to be permitted. The copper gene riding in there might be enough to keep concentrated blue-to-blue breeding generated health problems from manifesting.
Best Regards,
Karen Tewart

 

[Christie Rhae]

It is the outer toe that is very short. I am not familiar enough to say what heavy feathering but it does have some feathers down its little leg. I will attach a picture.
I was planning to get started on solid blue marans but before I even read the posts on this subject today I was re thinking my plans. When the little chick hatched and we saw the deformities I thought maybe it was because of too much breeding for blue. Now after reading posts by 3riverschick I am more convinced. So now I am thinking I will change my plans to black copper marans... partly because I only hatched one blue chick...lol And also because I want to breed strong birds without genetic weakness. Poor things...

p.s. I have been lurking on this thread for ages. I love marans!

 

[Debbi]

Weeeeeeeeee!

We have had 3 days of rain here, glorius rain!!! It has stayed cloudy for the first half of the day, then the sun comes out around 3pm. Then, talk about HUMID!!!

The temps have cooled off for those days, and today isn't as hot either. Seems I am in a little pocket that is getting all this rain. I'll take it, and the chickens are thankful too!

As for Marans not being weather hardy?? Last winter the temps got down to -10 for a week solid, with lots of wind and snow. The rest of the winter was colder than usual too, averaging around 15*. My coop is not insulated, nor do I use a heat source. Everyone made it just fine. This summer, we are having horrendously hot and humid weather. It's been in the mid 90s-105 since the middle of JUNE! Very dry, till lately here, but heavy humidity. Birds are panting, but doing well. Two new layers, and the older girls are still laying occaisionally, even though they are molting and have been laying since last November! Now, if only this heat will break so I can get my Silkies out of my house!

 

[Debbi]

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Hi Christie!

The shorter outside toes can also happen in Black Coppers, usually with the heavier shank feathering. Don't discount the fact that they may have some long time inbreeding going on in their line, and also faults in incubation, like heat spikes, can attribute to deformities. So what's wrong with Blue Coppers?? Personally, I find them to be the color I would prefer to see around here the most! That's just me....and Pink!

 

[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

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.

Here is a couple of pictures we took of the blue copper pullet, we will see how she developes as she gets older, the other 2 hatchmates were both boys(posted their pictures on the balck copper thread)but both had twisted comb problems so they won't be used.

 

[pinkchick]

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My bad.....Welcome to the Marans thread!

This outer toe thing happens sometimes in Marans, can't remember exactly, but as I understand it, it has to do with the feathered shank gene/s....brad?dactyl?? = short outer toes and very heavy shank feathering. (Where's Blackdotte and VillageChicken when they are needed

.....Blackdotte has posted several times about this particular issue. You can do a search and probably bring it up.
It can and does breed forward, it's not "line" specific..meaning it can happen in any line of Marans, but in my experience, does show up more often in one of the more prevelant lines of Marans. Wish I could be of more assistance but I know those that can recall this information immediately will post more about it for you.

 

[Hens and Roos]

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also the short toe could be due to some of the genes that are needed to produce the leg feathering and when the genes for the toe and feathering combine a shorter toe is the outcome. Our pullet that I just posted pictures of has a shorter outside toes.