Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[Ivywoods]

I'm trying to decide what to do with my marans. I want to sell down to just the ones I want to keep for breeders, but I don't know which to keep. I think I have one hen that's 1 1/2 yrs old that lays a much darker egg than some of the others, but I don't know which one it is. If I can figure it out, I will keep her.

Out of my juveniles, I have several that have beautiful type and neck lacing, but their combs and faces appear rather dark, so I don't know if that is considered melanistic or what. I was hoping to go back to the rooster I didn't breed to this past year. He has excess color on his breast, but not quite as big as the roo I used last year. Maybe I can get some pics today. I'm off work today, but woke up with a BAD headache, so I'm getting a slow start.

They are cutting our corn today. The weather has been BEAUTIFUL the past couple days. I love this time of year. Now if I can just get over this headache so I can get out and enjoy it!

 

[Dearsrock]

You could use a nest trap to see who's laying what. I thought about that, but I don't have that many nests, so I set aside a rabbit hutch and once mine start laying, I will rotate them in the hutch to see who lays what. Mine should start laying any day, I'm very excited!

Renee
S CA

 

[scorpio2367]

I need some expert opinions on my birds. I have been trying now for 3 years to create some Black Copper Maran Bantams and so far this is what I have to show. So please critique my birds and let me know what you all think. I was thinking of starting to sell some hatching eggs but wasn't sure if anyone out there would buy them. Most of my birds are now a year old and my egg color is the lightest on the color scale and the egg average weight is at 42 grams. I haven't quite figured out how to weigh the birds yet but they are at least half the size of a normal Maran and maybe even more than that. Thanks in advance.....

 

[gilavina]

Quote:
Awww....I'm sorry you've got such a headache. I hope it goes away soon for you. It really is beautiful here too. I just got home from work and am going to go out and dig potatoes and sweet potatoes here in a bit because I just can't stand the thought of missing out on the nice weather. But....had to eat lunch and check BYC first of course

I bet if you post pics of the birds you are trying to decide on will make it easy for people to help you sort them out. How many are you looking to winter over all total?

 

[Ivywoods]

Quote:
Awww....I'm sorry you've got such a headache. I hope it goes away soon for you. It really is beautiful here too. I just got home from work and am going to go out and dig potatoes and sweet potatoes here in a bit because I just can't stand the thought of missing out on the nice weather. But....had to eat lunch and check BYC first of course

I bet if you post pics of the birds you are trying to decide on will make it easy for people to help you sort them out. How many are you looking to winter over all total?

I'm not sure exactly how many. I am thinking only 3-4, but if I have more or less that I feel are worthy, then that is what I will end up with.

 

[AyeUpChuck]

Quote:
I'm no expert but their tailset doesn't look to standard. Looks like japanese or old english game tail. I personally wouldn't sell them as bantam BCMs until you have them to SOP otherwise you could start a breeding nightmare. JMO though.

 

[scorpio2367]

Yea I thought so.....I may just sell them as a game type bird, breed from the marans line......

 

[flgardengirl]

Quote:
Your rooster does have a high tail set and his tail seems a little fanned. That doesn't necessarily mean they aren't a marans.
When you say thier egg color is the lightest on the color scale...so you mean a #4 (the lightest on the Marans egg scale)?
On the plus side, From what I can see of the photos, he does seem to have a nice comb (except the blade appears to sit a little low on the back of the head but it make be the camera angle?) and nice coloring, leg feathering etc. Even though his tail is high his back doesn't seem overly short.

Your hens could use some more coppering in their hackles, this is pretty common with the bcm females and something most of us need to work on. Looks like she is missing some feathering on her lower back so hard to evaluate her tail set etc.

If you have some hens with a low tail set, I've found that breeding these higher set roos to the hens with a longer back and lower tail set improves the chicks quite a bit. Egg color is something that you can work on as well by breeding the roos that came from the darkest eggs back to the hens who lay the darkest etc.

 

[Ivywoods]

Well, I got some pictures. Not very good ones, but it's a start.
Several of my hens have very nice type and pretty good neck lacing. The ones with the best lacing however, also have some very dark areas on their comb. I am wondering if this is the case, are they going to be worth breeding? I am going back with a rooster that has entirely too much coppering on his chest.

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This one doesn't have the dark comb, but also doesn't have as nice of coppering on the neck.

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This one has pretty nice lacing, but her comb is pretty dark colored. Sorry, she stuck her head behind the stick. Is black coloring on the comb a temporary thing? Will she "color up" red as she gets older? I believe these were May '11 hatch

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[ChicksterJo]

I'm so happy, because it seems like my pullet's egg keeps getting darker. I'm excited to see her next one...it's as if she only wants to lay every other day but I don't expect her to be like my Red Star.

When my pullet was younger her comb was very dark unlike her hatchmate's. But it got lighter and now it's big and red. I only have one bird so I can't comment any more than that.