Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[gilavina]

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Kim! That egg is shiny ruby loveliness X2!! Its so gorgeous!

 

[Moonlight Piano]

Here is my Birchen maran Rooster, my line needs much work before they are truly birchen. The color will be completely birchen within two generations.

Heres is my rooster Valkyrie.

 

[jeremy]

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How?

 

[Moonlight Piano]

Your question seems to be a bit undirected, but I assume that your asking how the colour can be improved. The birchen marans should be completely silver, rather than an orange or cream color as you see here. This can be corrected within 2 to 3 generations.

In any case, here is my Black copper rooster. Pure blooded Wade Gene c2 bird. i have got him with 3 other girls that are shut down for the season, and another girl that is on the verge of laying age.

 

[snowbird]

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Hi, would you mind saying how you made this golden Birchen. Mother and father. And how you plan on making his line silver in 2-3 generations.

 

[Debbi]

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What is that star shaped mark on the side of his comb?? I've never see anything like that before, was it a wound?

 

[jeremy]

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Hi, would you mind saying how you made this golden Birchen. Mother and father. And how you plan on making his line silver in 2-3 generations.

Yup, that's what I was wondering.

 

[Moonlight Piano]

OHHHHHHHHHHHH, ok. Heres what you can do. You will need either silver birchen hens, or a silver birchen rooster. You have to take those roosters or hens and breed them over a black copper. If you use the birchen hens, you have to use the black copper rooster, and visa versa. The chicks that you hatch from that cross will look something similar to my rooster, Valkyrie. Now that you have this cross, you must take the hens you get from that cross and breed them over the pure blooded birchen rooster; or you can do what I am doing taking a silver birchen cross roo and breed him over some pure birchen hens. If you do as I have done the first generation will be coloured mush the same as my rooster. The second generation of breeding this rooster over the pure hens I will get a rooster that still has colour on his wing bow and saddle feathers, but his hackle feathers will be pure silver. The third generation of crossing the second generation rooster over the pure hens you will get a rooster that has the pure silver colours on the hackle and wing bow feathers, however the saddle feathers will still have colour to them. The fourth generation of breeding the third generation over the pure hens you will get pure silver birchen roosters and hens. With this new stock you can begin the proccess all over again.

Note: I like to use a black copper rooster over the pure hens as it is easier to tell when you have secceeded in your breeding project.
Another note: This tip is only if you have either the birchen roosters or hens. In the long run you might come out better dropping the coin to get the hens with the rooster (much easier). But the GOOD birchens are very expensive, usually $300 for a quad, if your lucky.

I hope this helped and didn't confuse anyone too much, it is much harder to explain than it is to do.

 

[Moonlight Piano]

For this example the father is a pure wade jean line black copper maran, and the mother a pure silver birchen.
Or you could use a pure blooded birchen roo, with the wahde jean line hens.

I prefer the roosters as it is easier to tell when the cross has become pure.

 

[Moonlight Piano]

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What is that star shaped mark on the side of his comb?? I've never see anything like that before, was it a wound?

Not that I know of, he is a new roo That i got the other day. Just noticed that mark. Good eye!