Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[gilavina]

Quote:
That's too bad...she is a beauty...I love her head...nice and rounded and nice body carriage from what I can see.

 

[Debbi]

Ha, so far so good, but it is still flickering on and off. Always something. I took it out to the shop last night and blew it out really good with the air compressor. If that didn't kill it, nothing will.

Engass,

Look at the back of her comb, does it have sprigs on both sides and the back? A carnation will look like a little crown of sprigs. Let me just say, if you breed her, you will get more of them!

 

[Debbi]

I looked at my little freak pullets last night, and it makes me want to cry. They are otherwise, very nice girls, and two of them have lovely coppering, the best I have. The little cockerel is even worse. He must've got a double whammy of the carnation genes, I've never seen one so big, and he's still little yet. It looks like it hasn't finished "popping" all the way out too.

 

[gilavina]

Quote:
Aww..that's too bad! Its gotta be hard to see that...will you be culling back before winter then and trying again in the spring for some BCMs from somewhere?

 

[pinkchick]

Morning Friends!
Yes, she has a stupid comb...she is from the same parentage as your birds Debbi. Hopefully I have removed the offenders. CROSS YOUR FINGERS for me on that!

After reading the conversation you and Don were having the other day about 1 copy of the gene vs, 2 copies....I can't help but think that it is only coming from the birds that I purchased from GFF. Prior to these birds I didn't have these issues, not once. A person would think that if it was Gnarles then it would have come up in the 3 years or so before I added these pullets from GFF. I have only been using the hens from GFF for the last 6 months (and suddenly I get these comb issues).....and the offspring that were produced during the same time from my original Davis birds didn't produce carnations. I believe that everyone that got a bird with the stupid comb has stated that it was from eggs marked Gnarles x BCM....the only BCM's that I have are from GFF. Man o Man am I dumb...I should have never rehomed my 2 original Davis BCM's.

It shall come out in the wash with these test matings that I am doing now.....I hope.

 

[gilavina]

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how heartbreaking! I will definitely be keeping my fingers crossed for you! Do you plan to do some test hatches to see this fall or will you be waiting til spring?

 

[pinkchick]

Quote:
how heartbreaking! I will definitely be keeping my fingers crossed for you! Do you plan to do some test hatches to see this fall or will you be waiting til spring?

Testing now and will continue through Sept. if the girls are willing and will give me some more eggs. Very hard to hatch eggs that they won't give up.

 

[gilavina]

Quote:
how heartbreaking! I will definitely be keeping my fingers crossed for you! Do you plan to do some test hatches to see this fall or will you be waiting til spring?

Testing now and will continue through Sept. if the girls are willing and will give me some more eggs. Very hard to hatch eggs that they won't give up.

good deal...I was just thinking I would not have the patience to wait til spring to test hatch those. Do your girls get testy about giving up eggs? I've not had a problem so far....most of them will just stand up when I start reaching in to check the eggs. Which reminds me...I've got three broodies I should check on...I found them over the course of the last week but haven't candled the eggs...I'll have to see if any of them are good and maybe try to figure out how far along they are

 

[Debbi]

Pink ~ That's pretty much what I thought all along. Are any of those BCM girls showing any signs of sprigs or other stupid things going on? They may be very small or overlooked if the combs have flopped. If not, they may only carry the one gene for it and the other gene would have to come from Gnarles. I believe it was Village Chicken (Roger) who spoke of the two genes?? I may be wrong on that. I've seen some pics of their other stuff, and there are indeed some issues with the combs. The last one I saw were the Birchens. Caveot Emptor...

 

[pinkchick]

They are only testy about giving up eggs if they are broody...but what I meant is that right now I am hardly getting any eggs at all from all of my birds combined. A few eggs a day out of over 150 fowl is pretty depressing and hard on the pocket book. I have had to cancel my last 2 deliveries of eating eggs to my customers. 2 weeks ago when I should have had 25 dozen for deliveries....I had 4.5.

Tis the season and molting is also a factor right now..... feathers everywhere. Yesterday, I collected 1 egg, a new pullet egg from one of the Marans coops...good thing it was pretty or I would have cried at the thought of only getting one.