Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[snowbird]

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Lisa, I agree that the tail is much less pinched and if she were a Marans would have about the right amount of Lower body soft feathering. The easiest way to improve the pinched tail is use a male with a more open and spread tail.

 

[WoofMeowCluck]

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Thanks, Debbi. I didn't even notice the light color on the tip of his beak! So many little details that I read about, endlessly, and I missed that on my own rooster LOL.
I'm looking for good quality BCM's and/or hatching eggs and will underline this one on my list of details to look at more carefully. I have an entire notebook filled with notes on what to look for.

Right now he's here for the reasons I stated, he's a good boy & watch dog for the Girl's, but, he'll never be used for breeding!!

Thanks for your opinion and for looking at him!

Annie

 

[Debbi]

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Your black girl is really nice. I agree she is a definite improvement. I like her big body. I can't see her legs and outer toe but assuming the feathering is correct, I think she will turn out really nice. Good job. How are her eggs?

Don't get mad at me for saying this but....Please cut those string off that hen's apron in the lower pic. I am just so paranoid about strings right now LOL.
Last week I opened up the coop in the morning and found my beautiful sweet blue Ameraucana hen dangling from the roost by a string that was wrapped around her foot. Her head was resting on the ground and her face was buried in the pine litter. I honestly thought she was dead. I think it was a string from a feed sack that got blown back into the yard during trash pickup day. I didn't notice it on her because they all put themselves to bed at night and I just go shut the door. Luckily she was just dizzy and dehydrated and after a day in the house in her carrier she was happy to go back out with her coop mates.

OMG! Glad you found her in time! Chcikens can get into all kinds of weird fixes, can't they?? I have a seperate pen in my coop that I use to integrate young birds, or to pen up a roo. Luckily, on this day I was outside, and heard some awful squwaking coming from the coop. I get in there, and there is one of my hens, sitting on top of the pen, with her head down through two of the welded wire 2x4" holes! Didn't know their necks were that long, but she managed to do it, and was quite stuck! She is of course, the most uncooperative hen on the place, but that day, she KNEW she was in trouble, and allowed me to fanagle her out of the mess....sheesh.

 

[Debbi]

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Thanks, Debbi. I didn't even notice the light color on the tip of his beak! So many little details that I read about, endlessly, and I missed that on my own rooster LOL.
I'm looking for good quality BCM's and/or hatching eggs and will underline this one on my list of details to look at more carefully. I have an entire notebook filled with notes on what to look for.

Right now he's here for the reasons I stated, he's a good boy & watch dog for the Girl's, but, he'll never be used for breeding!!

Thanks for your opinion and for looking at him!

Annie

Annie,

Don't take my word as Gospel, they are my opinions of what I see.

I'm sure others may have a different opinion, and may even see things totally differently than I do. I do know that the light tip of the beak is a Wheaten indicator, and combined with the white fluff by the tail, well, just makes me wonder. Other folks with more experience, chime in for her. He is still a lovely boy!

 

[Wynette]

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marquisella, I have that on a couple of mine too this year. When it was really hot here is when I noticed it...we recently had a break in the weather for about a week or so and I noticed it going away. Well...its gotten warm again a couple of days ago and I notice one of my boys starting to get that tinge of color back in his comb again. I was always told by an older guy in the poultry club I grew up in that when comb changes color like that when it isn't related to the cold, that it has to do with the amount of oxygen they are getting. There is a disease he used as an example...I can't think of it now that will exhibit itself in the comb like that...I'm confident that's not the problem...
I'm not 100% sure of the accuracy of his info...or maybe of my memory cause its been a while....but I have been noticing it off and on too in this heat.
Maybe someone will be able to tell both of us for sure what's going on

I haven't read all responses to this yet, but YES! I have seen this too. It seems to change (the amount of purple). Since combs are used as a cooling mechanism, I'd always assumed it had to do with the weather.

 

[snowbird]

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marquisella, I have that on a couple of mine too this year. When it was really hot here is when I noticed it...we recently had a break in the weather for about a week or so and I noticed it going away. Well...its gotten warm again a couple of days ago and I notice one of my boys starting to get that tinge of color back in his comb again. I was always told by an older guy in the poultry club I grew up in that when comb changes color like that when it isn't related to the cold, that it has to do with the amount of oxygen they are getting. There is a disease he used as an example...I can't think of it now that will exhibit itself in the comb like that...I'm confident that's not the problem...
I'm not 100% sure of the accuracy of his info...or maybe of my memory cause its been a while....but I have been noticing it off and on too in this heat.
Maybe someone will be able to tell both of us for sure what's going on

I haven't read all responses to this yet, but YES! I have seen this too. It seems to change (the amount of purple). Since combs are used as a cooling mechanism, I'd always assumed it had to do with the weather.

Yes, I agree that it is partially to do with the weather and I believe any other stressful condition like Molting. The four BC males I still have are starting to molt and their combs are getting darker on the back end.

 

[BarnGoddess01]

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I haven't read all responses to this yet, but YES! I have seen this too. It seems to change (the amount of purple). Since combs are used as a cooling mechanism, I'd always assumed it had to do with the weather.

Yes, I agree that it is partially to do with the weather and I believe any other stressful condition like Molting. The four BC males I still have are starting to molt and their combs are getting darker on the back end.

I notice my young Blue Copper cockerel getting quite blue in the comb when he's been overly busy with the girls on a hot day!!

Freaked me out the first time I noticed it but now that I see it coming and going, I'm relaxing a bit. (I've never seen it in any of my other roos. Just my Blue Copper Marans.)

 

[Wynette]

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Don, I'm glad to see you didn't part with them all.

 

[snowbird]

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Don, I'm glad to see you didn't part with them all.

Wynette, I only have the four males left from my BC line that I bred this year, they are on the dark side but they produced some of the best colored BC pullets I have seen. I still have about thirty Wheaten young. I plan on breeding some Blue Copper soon as I get some splash female out of Blue Copper.

 

[marquisella]

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marquisella, I have that on a couple of mine too this year. When it was really hot here is when I noticed it...we recently had a break in the weather for about a week or so and I noticed it going away. Well...its gotten warm again a couple of days ago and I notice one of my boys starting to get that tinge of color back in his comb again. I was always told by an older guy in the poultry club I grew up in that when comb changes color like that when it isn't related to the cold, that it has to do with the amount of oxygen they are getting. There is a disease he used as an example...I can't think of it now that will exhibit itself in the comb like that...I'm confident that's not the problem...
I'm not 100% sure of the accuracy of his info...or maybe of my memory cause its been a while....but I have been noticing it off and on too in this heat.
Maybe someone will be able to tell both of us for sure what's going on

They are cockerels that did not go through the winter cold. I have seen bluish color on combs of birds that were sick, but this is just a slight tinge of blue & they are not sick. I did notice, that when it cooled off a little, it went away, so since it was so hot all summer, I will assume it is lack of oxygen due to the heat....makes sense. If they were stressed by the heat.