Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[berkeleysprings]

so your selling all your birds ?

 

[math ace]

Quote:
Susan,

The lady told you correct. Some folks experience a lighter egg color as the season progresses.
I would worry about ANY eye issues. Birds show sickness through their eyes. Sometimes the diseases will return and return and return.
To me it is not worth the risk and I would keep walking pass any birds that are exhibiting and recently exhibit signs of sickness via an eye infection.

The breeding back and keeping the darkest eggs is the correct way to darken the egg color as long as she is breeding mothers to sons OR Fathers to daughters..... not sisters to brothers.

Lisa

 

[math ace]

Quote:
Ouch Snowbird,

Let's see the oldest one you have seen before and said he would be a nice boy with a long back female.
He has made some rather nice looking females for me.

I would expect to see his younger son to keep the really nice rich copper and he does have a longer back unlike his daddy.

The Mr. Dark.... Well, he is fresh blood and I am justing waiting to see if he will have that white feather issue I am trying to step away from.

I guess it is your turn.... Why wouldn't I want to use them as breeder males?

I think my post got lost in the flurry of activity after I posted.... so I am reposting it.

 

[susanbird]

Quote:
Susan,

The lady told you correct. Some folks experience a lighter egg color as the season progresses.
I would worry about ANY eye issues. Birds show sickness through their eyes. Sometimes the diseases will return and return and return.
To me it is not worth the risk and I would keep walking pass any birds that are exhibiting and recently exhibit signs of sickness via an eye infection.

The breeding back and keeping the darkest eggs is the correct way to darken the egg color as long as she is breeding mothers to sons OR Fathers to daughters..... not sisters to brothers.

Lisa

Hi again,

No, I don't believe that she is breeding sisters to brothers. This comes from her making a remark that she keeps separate flocks and then puts together her best from those. She did say that she knows that many of her birds are not show quality. She is breeding for dark eggs so show takes a backseat. This was funny because she then told me about various qualities, like in one case, the angle of the rooster's tail. When I mentioned "sprig" to her she asked what that was. I told her and she said she has never had it in any of her birds.

I have to say that I learned the hard way about eye problems. When I first got chickens, about 2 years ago, almost the whole group got eye problems and were lethargic. This happened when they were about 2 months old and still on medicated feed. I took a few of them to the vet. $300.00 later the vet didn't know what the problem was and RX Baytril in their water and an eye ointment. I had put those, with symptoms, in a shed with heat and gave them their meds. They all progressed very well. Then the d... dogs tore a hole in the side of the wooden shed and killed all but 2. Those 2 survived and never had the problem again. That was a very expensive lesson to learn. The ones that didn't show symptoms also got the baytril in the water and they never had problems. They, my Delawares are still running around raising havoc.

I'm wondering though about the dark eggs. I'm not quite sure how to put this so it makes sense. The hen supplies the coating for the eggs so some eggs are darker because of this. If a hen ususally gave dark eggs and then suddenly was not doing so (not talking about end of season) would that indicate that something was wrong with her? I guess, I am asking if health of the hen would have a bearing on the color of the egg also?

Thank you for your input. Susan

 

[loprettaerin]

Quote:
Is it just me or did anyone else see where these were mixed breeds.

Both F2 cockerels are sired by one of Kens cocks to the F1 females from an Orp/Marans mating

Plus they have yellow legs which I know is a big no no!​

they are a Work in progress to introduce the Chocolate gene to Marans...

do you have any idea how hard that is to pull off?...

Im sure it is but not sure why you would want too make another color espically chocolate when it seems to me marans have lots of colors that really need allot of work already. If we keep through more and more colors around and dont work on the issues with the colors that are already out there then we are working backwards. just my opinion though

Some may disagree. no biggy to me

 

[EM Squared Farms]

Hey Bravo, thanks for the apology.

The chicken judge who gave us this pair of Marans said they were show quality and being a chicken judge, we tend to take his word for it. Originally my husband wanted Cuckoo Marans, but somehow we got convinced to take this pair and in exchange to give him one of the copper black hens.

It's hard to try and blend in with the "chicken people" when I'm not really a chicken person. I'm sure my son would do a much better job. He just loves everything chicken. If only he could learn to be more polite, I'd let him on in an instant. I'm giving him some time and then he can "talk chicken" and learn as much as he can on here.

Thanks again,

 

[EM Squared Farms]

Hi Susanbird, thanks for the info on the blue Marans. We just saved our 3 because we prefer the color of them better than the black copper ones. It's so hot here in FL, it seems like a black chicken would suffer more in the heat than a lighter colored one. Believe me, I know, I have dark hair.

So, if we breed or blue or blue splash, we won't end up with all blue ? Maybe I'll have my son research this or if anyone knows about Blue or Blue Splash genetics, please enlighten us.

We are going to talk to our chicken judge friend who gave us the pair, he would probably know.

But thanks so much for bringing that to our attention. We weren't really thinking about it too much (breeding the blues next year) since they are still so cute and little.

I think the blue is such a nice color. Some even have those beautiful greenish eyes too.

 

[loprettaerin]

Quote:
black x black = 100% black.
black x blue = 50% black 50% blue.
blue x blue = 50% blue 25% black & 25% splash.
splash x blue= 50% blue 50% splash.
splash x black = 100% blue .
splash x splash = 100% splash.

Hope this helps!

 

[rsquared]

Quote:
The biggest sting HAS to be proudly posting those "Americana" pictures only to be informed that you have Easter Eggers and its "AMERAUCANA" !!!

I can live with less than perfect, even ugly Marans!!!!

Sorry, just gotta laugh.....went to the largest county fair in Indiana, comparable to the state fair, and the county in which I grew up, and in the very large chicken house in two different aisles, EEs' were called Araucanas and Americanas none of which were identifiably purebreds.....the 4-H Sups should defintely know better (keep in mind they are volunteers and aren't we blessed to have them) but couldn't help feeling disgusted for the kids sake...they just don't know any better. There were a couple of ok BCs' there, not trying to hijack thread here but commenting on the "sting" factor as I was in your shoes several years ago and couldn't tell a Australorpe from a Black Copper. Four years later still learning, lovin and laughin w/ all the good folks on several key BYC threads! Breeding much better Marans and Amers now w/ lots of help from wonderful BYCers, hang in there.

 

[ChicksterJo]

I am not into breeding but I do research before purchasing any bird from a breeder. I am lucky to have found a Blue copper that does not look completely out of the ordinary (Well - her coppering could use some work but I actually like her look now and the small coppering that she has looks good. I like the pure blue I guess).
Speaking of which, she chipped a small part of her upper beak (the tip). When should I expect it to fully grow back?